Sandra Hale Schulman
ICT
The latest: Top designers north and south, ‘Borders’ rez drama, mammals and raptors immortalized
FASHION: Exhibits, markets and a gala fashion show
Native style is on full display this month.
The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts is presenting SWAIA Native Fashion Week Friday and Saturday, May 8-9, at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
And up in Toronto, Canada a new exhibit, “Always in Fashion,” curated by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, opened May 1 and runs through Jan. 3, 2027, at the Textile Museum of Canada.
SWAIA is taking a different approach this year with its fashion week, with a two-day market Friday and Saturday with 20 vendors at the El Dorado Hotel, a dinner by “Chopped” Chef Ray Naranjo and a show on Saturday night.
The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts’ Fashion Gala on May 9, 2026, in Santa Fe, will feature pieces like these from Indigenous designer Jamie Okuma.
Credit: Courtesy of Jamie Okuma
“This year’s format allows us to focus on depth over scale,” said SWAIA Executive Director Jamie Schulze. “By bringing the program into a single venue, we are creating higher-impact moments, stronger connections between designers and audiences, and new opportunities to integrate hospitality, culinary storytelling, and fashion into one cohesive experience.”
Fashion Show producer Peshawn Bread told ICT the vendors will offer a broad selection of designs.
“We are wanting to create a little more intimacy with designs that are not fast fashion,” Bread said. “It’s really going back into craft and that slow process. We’ll have some wonderful vendors — accessory designers, jewelry, clothing and more.”
A Native Creatives Market will operate from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 8-9, in the Anasazi Ballroom. It is free and open to the public. On Saturday, May 9, the “Taste of Native Fashion Gala” will kick off at 6 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom. Tickets are required.
Featured designers are Patricia Michaels, Taos Pueblo; Himikalas Pamela Baker, Squamish/Kwakiutl/Tlingit; Lauren Good Day, Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara Nation; Jamie Okuma, Luiseño/Wailaki/Okinawan/Shoshone-Bannock; and Jontay Kahm, Plains Cree.
In Canada, the Textile Museum describes “Always in Fashion” as “an immersive exhibit of Indigenous design and their transformative impact” on fashions in Canada and the United States.
This fur dress by designer Randi Nelson is included in an exhibition, “Always in Fashion,” at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. The exhibition opened May 1, 2026, and runs through Jan. 3, 2027. Credit: Courtesy of Textile Museum of Canada
“This exhibition emerges from the urgent need to recognize and celebrate Indigenous designers who are reshaping the industry by reclaiming cultural narratives, innovating with ancestral techniques, and challenging colonial frameworks within fashion,” according to the museum’s website.
The exhibition includes Randi Nelson, Jeremy Arviso (Original Landlords), Jason Baerg (Ayimach Horizons), Himikalas Pamela Baker (T.O.C. Legends), Catherine Boivin, Maggie Catface-Bear Robe Korina Emmerich (EMME Studios), Lesley Hampton, Shoshoni Hostler, Brian Jungen, Jontay Kahm, and many more.
Mind-blowing designer Kahm will be in both shows with a new collection.
“I call this collection ‘River Lily Park’ vol 1,” he said on Instagram. “This year I want to reimagine the ‘Kahm’ aesthetic. The upcoming series marks a homecoming for my creative journey in fashion.”
He continued, “The inspirations of ‘River Lily Park’ revisit the dreams and fantasies that first started to bloom from my childhood. 16 years later my work has grown so much and stands taller more than ever. This time, I will be sharing nostalgic themes from my youth that echo from haunting fragrant gardens.”
FILM: ‘Borders’ a harrowing tale
“Borders,” a new Indigenous-led drama from Kenneth Shirley — founder of Indigenous Enterprise — centers on a young Native musician dealing with grief and survival in a border community.
The ambitious project debuted with a pilot premiere in Phoenix on April 24. The first episode is set to air on a new upcoming streaming service called Channel 5, which also produced the pilot. Channel 5’s YouTube will air the pilot early this summer, with the full series set to be released this fall.
“Borders” follows a generation spanning the U.S.-Mexico border in the Sonoran Desert with family tensions, economic pressure, and shifting dynamics.
At the center is Damion Thomas, a young, Native musician who gets entangled with cartel activity moving through a fictional tribal land known as the Anya Reservation. Some familiar faces include actors Gene BraveRock, Doc Native, and Lionel Thundercloud.
Shirley told ICT that the show is finally being released after revisions.
“We had a previous version that we reshot,” Shirley said. “Now we wanted to finally bring it out to the world. It is recut, and there are added scenes of who the fictional Anya Nation is, what the dilemma is, letting people know what goes on inside a border reservation.”
Shirley said plans call for three seasons, each with eight, 40-minute episodes.
“We have the whole story planned out,” he said.
Also in the film is PJ Vegas, who was recently in the Emmy-nominated film, “Courage.”
“Originally, the whole goal and the whole outlook on this project was to retain ownership and go the independent route, especially since we have Andrew Callahan and Channel 5 who have cracked the code on what it means to be an independent distributor for film with independent funding, everything in-house,” Vegas told ICT.
“We’ve had an amazing reaction from Indian Country,” Vegas said, “but a lot of the industry doesn’t understand the metrics of Indian Country, and how important it is to tell the story through Natives by Natives.”
ART: Stamp-ede! Bison and eagle stamps released
Honoring the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is releasing two new Forever stamps that feature the American bison and the bald eagle.
The U.S. Postal Service is releasing a new stamp on May 25, 2026, of an American bison in Yellowstone National Park. Designed by Greg Breeding, the stamp features a 2005 photo by Tom Murphy and artwork from a 1923 U.S. stamp. Credit: Photo via U.S. Postal Service
“The new design celebrates this steadfast animal, brought back from the brink of extinction thanks to the incredible efforts of Native Americans and conservationists,” according to the postal service’s description of the new bison design.
The stamp was designed by Greg Breeding, and features a 2005 photo by Tom Murphy of a bison in Yellowstone National Park and artwork from a 1923 U.S. stamp issued ”when the species was rebounding from near-extinction,” the postal service said.
The bison design will be released on May 25.
A new 5-stamp design by illustrator David Allen Sibley features life stages of the bald eagle from hatchling to adult. It is being released by the U.S. Postal Service on May 14, 2026. Credit: Photo via U.S. Postal Service
The eagle stamps feature artwork by renowned ornithologist and illustrator David Allen Sibley. Five different designs depict the eagles in different life stages, from hatchlings to adults.
“Two of the earliest stamps with an illustration of a bald eagle were released in 1869,” according to the postal service website. “Since then, bald eagles have appeared multiple times on stamps at many different rates as well as on stamped envelopes and stamped cards with designs as varied as an art deco illustration and a photograph of a carving from a wall plaque.”
Sibley said the stamp will provide important information about the bald eagle.
“While the bald eagle is known to virtually all Americans as our national bird, few people know much about them,” Sibley said in a statement.
“Showing the series of life stages in these stamps is a simple and visual way to emphasize that the familiar adult eagle has already lived for at least four years — through a series of transitional plumages, finding food, migrating, and surviving all of life’s challenges. I hope these stamps spark curiosity and a greater appreciation for the lives of eagles.”
The eagle designs will become available on May 14.
The post INDIGENOUS A&E: Native style, a ‘Borders’ series, and a buffalo stamp-ede appeared first on ICT.
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