Shayna Hobbs has something to say. The Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican musician, mother and activist grew up in Nashville. Her Grammy-winning musician father, Bill Miller, moved the family from their Wisconsin reservation in the early 1980s so he could pursue his career, and her childhood was peppered with interactions with country music stars.
She remembers times when musicians like Vince Gill and Waylon Jennings would call the family home, and being excited to meet Tori Amos when her dad opened for her throughout the Under the Pink tour. IndigeNash Nov. 22-24 at The Forge, 217 Willow St.
But throughout all her father’s successes, Hobbs was aware of a difference. She recalls an incident at Christ Presbyterian Church, where she also went to school, when a church elder called her dad a disgrace, ridiculing him for his long hair and Native jewelry. In recent years, however, Hobbs says she’s begun to notice a shift.
She performed the land acknowledgement onstage at the boygenius concert in Centennial Park in June of last year , and was shocked by how attentively people listened as she spoke of the Indian Removal Act, and the Native artists who are still here despite all that. Hobbs developed IndigeNash as a way to harness that energy and direct it back toward the Native community. IndigeNash is a Native-led three-day art and music festival that celebrates multi-tribal Native cultures, and will take place at The Forge Nov.
22 through 24. It is rooted in a traditional pow wow, but .
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