Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with O’Odham artists and cultural performances at Cultural Coalition’s 6th Annual Portal to the Past Festival on Saturday, November 23 at S’edav Va’aki Museum. Presented by Desert Diamond Casino and Central Arizona Project, this free day of art, music, dance, storytelling, and heritage will feature artists and culture bearers from the Gila River, Salt River, Tohono O’odham Tribal Communities.

NEW THIS YEAR, Cultural Coalition and S’edav Va’Aki Museum are honored to collaborate with Hekiu Indigenous Artist Continuum to curate this year’s artists and entertainment. Composed of a dozen artists who specialize in a variety of artistic mediums, members of Hekiu will be demonstrating painting, carving, traditional farming, and debuting a new short film. The film is about the work they have been doing around Oidbad, a breathtaking 218-foot historical indigenous mural created by lead artists Thomas Breeze Marcus and Dwayne Manuel with help from Jordan Manuel, Eagle Sky Jefferson II, RJ Lopez, Suk Fulwilder & Yessenia, Allen Lewis, Aaron Rivers, and Douglas Miles.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
10:00AM to 12:00PM - Toka Match - A traditional “field hockey” type game played by girls and women of the Four Southern Tribes, where the players make their own sticks and pucks out of desert materials and play on the dirt.
12:00PM to 12:30PM - Southern Scratch Waila Band
12:35PM to 1:05PM - Chi’Chino Spirit O’Odham Dance Group
1:10PM to 1:15PM - Portal Gate Talk with Zarco Guerrero
1:20PM to 1:45PM - Hekiu Short Film & Artist Talk
1:50PM to 2:00PM - Poetry by Suk Chuvak Fulwilder
2:00PM to 2:30PM - Park of Four Waters Tour
2:00PM to 2:25PM - Keli Akimel Traditional Basket Dancers & Singers
2:30PM to 3:00PM - Southern Scratch Wail Band

12:00PM to 3:00PM - O'Odham Artist Demonstrations: August Wood - Baskets, Nicole Carlos - Pottery, Gregory Hill - Spinning Tops, Thomas Breeze Marcus - Painting Demo, Dwayne Manuel - Carving
- San Xavier Co-op Farm - Traditional Farming demonstrations
- S'edav Va'aki Kids Crafts
- Emerson’s Frybread Food Truck

EVENT DETAILS:
What: 6th Annual Portal to the Past Festival
When: November 23, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: S’edav Va’aki Museum - 4619 E Washington St, Phoenix, AZ 85034
Cost: FREE

For more information on the Festival visit the event page culturalcoalition.com/portalfest. The Portal to the Past Festival is made possible by support from Arizona Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, Desert Diamond Casino, Central Arizona Project, Raza Development Fund, SRP, S’edav Va’aki Foundation, and individual donations.

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ABOUT THE PORTAL TO THE PAST FESTIVAL
The 2019 inaugural Portal Festival unveiled the “Portal to the Past” art installation, a winner of the New Arizona Prize Water Public Art Challenge. The piece, designed by local Arizona artist Zarco Guerrero, is a sculptural gate that incorporates images acknowledging the importance of the complex canal system created by the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People that we still use today. The “Portal” is located along the Grand Canalscape offering access to the grounds of Pueblo Grande Museum and an interpretive trail highlighting the accomplishments of the first inhabitants of the Valley of the Sun.

ABOUT CULTURAL COALITION
Cultural Coalition, Inc. is a local non-profit who has committed to supporting indigenous artists and encouraging youth arts education for over 25 years. We are dedicated to the education, promotion, and development of indigenous artists throughout Arizona. We provide our community with much needed artistic programs that highlight and amplify the cultural diversity of the Valley of the Sun.

ABOUT HEKIU: AN INDIGENOUS ARTIST CONTINUUM
HEKIU (meaning past in the O’odham language) references all of the ancient past. This includes all the histories of the land beginning with O’odham presence, Piipaash groups later settling in the area, Yoeme populations migrating up from the south, and non-indigenous settlers coming into the area. The purpose of HEKIU is to create accessibility for O’odham, Piipaash, Yoeme, and indigenous creatives to gather and connect through creative and artistic opportunities. The groups intends to: (1) support, advocate, and develop a resource group for creatives in this territory; (2) advise, consult, and provide resources for projects of various scales; and (3) connect and create partnerships with tribal entities.

ABOUT S’EDAV VA’AKI MUSEUM
S’edav Va’aki Museum is located on a 1,500 year old archaeological site once inhabited by the Ancestral Sonoran Desert people, archaeologically referred to as the Hohokam culture, located just minutes from downtown Phoenix next to Sky Harbor International Airport. This National Historic Landmark and Phoenix Point of Pride has been a part of the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department since 1929, and is the largest preserved archaeological site within Phoenix. Easily accessible by the Sky Train and the Light Rail, the museum is open 7 days a week October through April, and closed Sundays and Mondays, May through September.