National Museum of the American Indian’s “Maya Creativity and Cultural Milieu!” Program Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month
Maya artisans and knowledge keepers from Guatemalan and diasporic communities will join with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to celebrate Maya culture and history at events in Washington, D.C., and New York City. “Maya Creativity and Cultural Milieu!,” the Smithsonian’s featured event for Hispanic Heritage Month, offers a wide variety of cultural demonstrations, presentations and film screenings.
New York’s festivities take place Saturday, Sept. 10, and Sunday, Sept. 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the museum’s George Gustav Heye Center; in Washington, events take place Friday, Sept. 16, through Sunday, Sept. 18. Friday and Saturday festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday’s hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
New York
The festival in New York will feature Unlocking Silent Histories, a program that began in Guatemala and creates spaces for indigenous youth to capture, represent and revitalize their cultures and languages through film. Their short films document preservation of Maya culture and improving social conditions for Maya communities internationally. Screenings include discussions after the films with the directors, which will take place each day at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The films screen in indigenous languages and Spanish, with subtitles in English and Spanish.
The museum will also host weavers from Maya Traditions Foundation, an organization that connects indigenous women artisans in Guatemala with companies committed to Fair Trade Principles. In the first-floor Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures, the weavers will demonstrate weaving traditions distinct to each of their family’s lineages, as well as collective community designs and contemporary influences on their traditional methods. Translators will be on-hand to facilitate discussion and Q&A.
Washington, D.C.
In Washington, Unlocking Silent Histories and the Maya Traditions Foundation will be joined by Maya weavers from Weaving for the Future, a Washington, D.C.-based cooperative. The film screenings and filmmakers’ talks will take place Friday and Saturday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Rasmuson Theater. All weaving demonstrations will take place in the Potomac Atrium, accompanied by live marimba music by local musicians.
Indigenous Design Collective, a Washington-based Maya graphic arts initiative dedicated to educating people about Maya symbolism, will provide hands-on activities for all ages. These activities include:
- A community mural
- Cardboard model skateboards with glue-on Maya calendar symbols
- Animal-symbol pendants
Media stations featuring interactive websites by the museum and the Smithsonian Latino Center will offer opportunities for visitors to learn more about migration and Bak’tun 13, an important date in the Maya calendar.
Gallery tours will take place on Friday and Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Visitors will be guided through the “Our Universes” gallery, where they will learn more about the Q’eq’chi Maya indigenous group in current-day Guatemala.
For more details about the festival, visit AmericanIndian.si.edu. Follow the museum via social media on Facebook, its Twitter accounts for Washington and New York and Instagram.
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