Dreaming Back Knowledge with Autumn Cavender
On this episode of the Art of the Rural podcast, we are joined by Autumn Cavender, Wahpetunwan Dakota midwife, artist, and community leader.
On this episode of the Art of the Rural podcast, meet Autumn Cavender. She is a Wahpetunwan Dakota midwife, artist, and community leader focusing on the intersections of art, birth, and storytelling.
Raised amidst community historians, Autumn initially focused on Dakota language and cultural revitalization. This background brought a unique perspective to her birth work, first as a doula, and then as a student midwife. After establishing a private midwifery practice, she joined forces with Indigenous midwives nationally, culminating in the creation of the National Indigenous Midwifery Alliance, geared towards addressing reproductive care barriers and perinatal health disparities in Indian country.
“When we talk about cultural revitalization and cultural revitalizing work, what we’re really talking about is this very deep metaphysical process of dreaming back knowledge and being in active conversation with knowledge & cultural ideas as persons, as people, and inviting them back, creating space for them within these contexts.”
Autumn’s artistic journey began as a porcupine quillwork apprentice under Elder Master artists rooted in her oral history training. She focused on Dakota artistic methodology, resulting in globally recognized digital art. Her work has graced prestigious exhibitions like Miami Art Basel and earned her the National Indigenous Media Arts Experimental Moving Image Award.
She is a 2024 Bush Foundation Fellow and also currently an Art of the Rural Spillway Fellow. We are honored to present her exhibition Hinapapi — Emerging this fall at the Winona County History Center, and we are grateful for the support of the Jerome Foundation in this work.
Autumn lives near her home reservation of Upper Sioux with her partner, two kids, a German Shepherd, and the occasional chicken.
During this podcast, Autumn shares her personal journey and artistic practice as one animated by a commitment towards care and cultural revitalization. In this wide-ranging conversation, she discusses how blockchain, decolonization, storytelling, and childbirth are connected points in her practice and the futures it brings into being.
We move in this space from talking about NFTs to Native sovereignty to the legacy of Oscar Howe in a way that feels both truly unique, but also deeply grounded in cultural tradition and contemporary experience. Our conversation concludes with Autumn’s thoughts on how the phases of childbirth might offer us teachings on how to navigate and to be with the overwhelming complexity of this current moment in the world.
“How do we take the power of this moment and transition into something beautiful? Because we can sit here in despair and confusion and refuse to move for as long as we want to, really. But we’re not going to come out to the other side until we choose to push.”
Resources
Autumn Cavender: Hinapapi — Emerging exhibition
Juleana Enright, “Glitching the Glass Wall: A Conversation with Autumn Cavender-Wilson” (Mn Artists)
“The Howe Legacy Across Four Generations Exhibition” (University of South Dakota University Art Galleries)
We are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation and Good Chaos Foundation for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.