Nativescape welcomes Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation) and Navajo Fashion Designer Orlando Dugi who are discussing the 2021 Santa Fe Indian Market Gala Fashion Show. Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation), the producer of SWAIA’s 9th Indian Market Haute Couture Fashion Show. Since 1922, the Santa Fe Indian Market has been drawing visitors to New Mexico’s cultural hub every August to see and buy work, including sculpture and paintings, jewelry, and beadwork from Indigenous artists representing more than 200-plus federally recognized tribes. SWAIA’s Indian Market Haute Couture Fashion Show is one of the premier showcases for North American indigenous fashion designers in the world. Progressive in the way it presents fashion, it also reflects the style and thoughts of contemporary Indigenous people and is one of the most important cultural moments of the year.
Wheelwright Museum Board Member Amber-Dawn Bear Robe is an Assistant Faculty of Art History in the Museum Studies department at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). Her curatorial practice which focuses on Fashion, includes a recent exhibition entitled, Art of Indigenous Fashion which was at the IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, two exhibitions in process at the Autry Museum of the American West, CA and the Vancouver Art Gallery, B.C. Canada. She was awarded regional Emmys in 2020 and 2021, as the producer for two documentary short films on Indigenous fashion. She is an acting trustee for the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) board.
Orlando Dugi is Dine, and he draws inspiration from his childhood memories of stargazing in northern Arizona, while spending summer vacations on his grandparents’ sheep ranch. The stars hold deep meaning to the Diné people. Songs and prayers passed down through generations of astronomical knowledge. This coupled with the phrase, “Walk in Beauty,” a way of being in harmony with all that’s around you, a state of grace, is the foundation of the ORLANDO DUGI Brand. Beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty below me, beauty above me, beauty all around me; I walk in beauty. Garments made by hand, woven of wool or sewn of cotton or silk using traditional techniques in dyeing, weaving, and ornamented with an assortment of accessories, to adorn the body, have always been a part of Navajo culture. And a commitment to continuing those traditions and sharing them with women is evident in the extravagant fashion created at ORLANDO DUGI.