Beyond the Art

Decolonizing Wealth with Edgar Villanueva

Edgar Villanueva’s story begins within the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, but his path was uniquely shaped by his experience as an "urban native" growing up in Raleigh. Being the only Native student in his school for most of his life, Edgar navigated a dual identity, spending summers in his tribal community while living a suburban life during the school year. It wasn't until college that he fully leaned into his heritage, joining Native student organizations and eventually leading his family through the process of formal tribal enrollment. His professional entry into the world of philanthropy was almost accidental. After starting his career in public health, he was recruited by a foundation to manage health grants. Initially, he viewed philanthropy through a "savior" lens, excited by the prospect of having millions of dollars to "save the world." However, as he moved deeper into the ivory towers of the industry, he began to see the disconnect between the wealthy institutions and the actual needs of the communities they intended to serve. The realization that philanthropy was often an extension of colonial dynamics led Edgar to write his groundbreaking book, Decolonizing Wealth. He recounts the internal struggle of being a Native man in a field built on stolen land and labor, and how that tension eventually fueled his mission to transform the industry. Today, his journey from a young man seeking his own cultural roots to a global leader in social finance serves as a powerful testament to the importance of indigenous perspectives in modern economics.

Native Now

Native art isn’t a relic. It’s a dispatch from the present — and the Rockwell Museum’s new exhibition, Native Now, makes that impossible to ignore. In this episode, host Joe Williams sits down with Amanda Lett, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Rockwell, and Randee Spruce, Seneca Nation artist and independent curator, to unpack one of the most significant contemporary Native American art exhibitions in the museum’s 50-year history. Native Now brings together works spanning Indigenous landscapes, Native futurism, and the concept of “always becoming” — a phrase the curators chose specifically because it resists the idea that Native peoples and their stories are finished. The show features artists including Jeffrey Gibson, Virgil Ortiz, Wendy Red Star, and Theresa Baker, many of whose works appear publicly for the first time. Amanda and Randee speak candidly about what it meant to build a real curatorial partnership — one where the exhibition labels were written entirely from artists’ own words, where themes were reshaped until they felt true rather than academic, and where the Seneca Nation’s voice had a genuine seat at the table. This is a conversation about art, land, resilience, and what it looks like when a museum actually listens.

Loyal to the Soil: Native Storytellers and Social Justice: Inside Rena Flying Coyote Collective

On this episode of Beyond the Art, we sit down with filmmakers Ben West, alike mteuzi, and Yancey Burns from Rena Flying Coyote Collective, a Native-led nonprofit using film as a tool for social change. They share how their personal paths—from rural Appalachia and small Oklahoma communities to art school and public interest law—eventually converged through the acclaimed documentary Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascotting. Together, they unpack why mascots are not a matter of opinion but of public health, drawing on decades of research that links these images to depression, low self-esteem, and suicidal ideation among Native youth. The conversation then traces the birth of Rena Flying Coyote Collective and its four pillars: filmmaking, coalition building, education, and hands-on community workshops. Ben and Yancey describe touring Imagining the Indian across Turtle Island, building partnerships, and realizing the film needed to live on as classroom curriculum, not just as a one-time screening. They talk about their commitment to making sure Native communities are not just subjects in front of the camera but leaders behind it, and why the collective was founded specifically to help other Indigenous storytellers access tools, funding, and mentorship. From there, the group turns to the projects currently on their plates, including a powerful new documentary being filmed in Picher, Oklahoma, where Quapaw Nation is leading the cleanup of a massive Superfund site created by historic lead and zinc mining. They explore how environmental justice, land sovereignty, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People intersect on this landscape, and share a preview of Loyal to the Soil, their film on Native military service and the disconnect between Native veterans and the systems meant to serve them. If you care about representation that moves beyond symbols into real-world impact, this episode offers both hard truths and active pathways to change.

Walking with Intention: Indigenous Modern Life with Jamie Gentry

In this episode of Beyond the Arts, Joe sits down with Jamie Gentry, a Danakhtak and Mamaleila Kla artist from the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation, whose moccasins are as much about relationship and story as they are about footwear. Jamie shares how being raised deeply rooted in culture, potlatches, and family travel shaped her sense of belonging and her path toward making moccasins as a way of life. Jamie reflects on the moment she first learned to make moccasins and how the practice quickly became a magnetic pull she could not ignore. She describes her intentional process of never cutting into hide until she knows who a pair is for, treating each piece as a living co-creation that carries both her energy and the wearer's, and how color, conversation, and intuition guide her designs. The conversation stretches into sustainability, slow making, and the healing power of connection—to our hands, our communities, and the land. Jamie talks about food sovereignty, her studies in holistic nutrition and herbal medicine, and her dream of creating a retreat space where Indigenous people can come to rest, be held by the land, and refill their spirits for the work they carry back home.

Beyond the Stage: Cary Morin on Songwriting, Storytelling, and Indigenous Identity

In this heartfelt episode of Beyond the Arts, we sit down with Cary Morin, a master of American Roots music and Crow tribal member, to explore his four-decade journey from playing piano as a child in Great Falls, Montana, to becoming an internationally recognized guitarist and songwriter. Cary shares how picking up his brother's guitar in sixth grade sparked a lifelong passion, and how his sound evolved from bar band productions in Colorado to the sophisticated finger-style acoustic work that defines his music today. His journey includes navigating industry changes—from the drinking age shift that emptied clubs to the internet revolution that transformed how artists connect with audiences. Cary discusses the transformative moment when a friend gave him a guitar tuned to an open tuning, urging him to stick with it despite the initial confusion. That single gift unlocked a completely new approach to finger-style playing and chord voicings that has defined his sound for the past 20 years. He opens up about stage anxiety—surprisingly more intense in intimate venues with silent crowds than in large halls—and how mastering his material became the cure. The conversation includes memorable moments from the road, including the surreal experience of Jackson Browne handing him a guitar during an encore, and playing NPR's eTown after listening to the show for decades. The episode explores Cary's perspective on indigenous identity and artistry, addressing the question his management posed: "Are you a native person who is a songwriter, or a songwriter who happens to be native?" Cary chose to be known first as a songwriter, believing that the quality of the songs and the stories they tell should take precedence while still honoring his Crow heritage through gospel tunes for his Christian family, historical narratives about his people, and the story his great-grandmother told at his naming ceremony. He discusses the pride he feels seeing indigenous artists excel across all art forms, the ambitious Turtle Island play that brought 50 performers together (including his mother and all his children), and his latest album Innocent Allies—13 songs inspired by Charles Russell paintings that he describes as a "Western album" rather than country or rock.