Indigenous Voices of the Americas at the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

September 19, 2024

In June, ASHP researcher Emily Uruchima (Kichwa) participated in Indigenous Voices of the Americas: Celebrating the National Museum of the American Indian at the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. This year the annual festival highlighted the work of artists, cultural workers, healers and storytellers, offering the space to share contemporary and traditional teachings from their respective communities across the globe. 

At the Festival, Emily moderated and hosted a few panels: one session, “Motherhood on Native Lands,” brought together women from across Abya Yala to discuss the role of motherhood in Indigenous communities, the relationship between the land and womanhood, and the networks they’ve built to exchange teachings, knowledge, and medicine. One of the people in conversation with Emily was Catalina Alvarado-Cañuta (Mapuche), a current Fulbright scholar at the University of Connecticut, who reflected on her work with Mapuche midwives at an Intercultural Hospital in Wallmapu (Chile) where she observed the constant tensions between Mapuche cultural practices and the state’s medical system. Emily also discussed her academic research on Indigenous migrant women’s domestic labor, particularly in childcare work across New York City. 

The Festival gave way to fruitful conversations, ceremonies, and cultural exchanges across generations, as elders and youth gathered to discuss language revitalization, cultural preservation, and land/environmental protection. Emily also enjoyed the opportunity to play a game of Lacrosse alongside Haudenosaunee athletes and coaches! More information on the 2024 Indigenous Voices program and/or annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival can be found here.