2026 Keynote Speakers

This year’s theme—Health, Wellness, and Well Being—will be brought to life by keynote speakers Danielle SeeWalker and Eiko Otake. Both are renowned activist artists who use their mediums to uncover untold histories and create spaces of healing.

Danielle SeeWalker (Pronouns: she/her/wíŋyáŋ) is a Hunkpapa Lakota citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and currently resides in Denver, CO. She is a multidisciplinary artist, muralist, writer, businesswoman, former Chair Commissioner of the Denver American Indian Commission and most importantly, a mother. In her artistic practices, Danielle works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American stereotypes, microaggressions, and colonialist systems, both historically and in contemporary society. Drawing on au courant color palettes, expressionistic art strategies, and her Lakota traditions, SeeWalker spins her work into a contemporary vision to elevate historical perspectives as told from the side not often heard. Her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America is centric to her both her artwork and community involvement.

Danielle is also a freelance writer and published her first book titled “Still Here” in 2020. She is also co-founder of “The Red Road Project” which is a photo/film-documentary project that documents what it means to be Native American in the 21st century by capturing inspiring and positive stories of people and communities within Indian Country. In 2022, Danielle was the recipient of the Mayor’s Excellence in Arts & Culture Innovation Award and most recently received an Emmy Award for her work on a documentary piece with Rocky Mountain PBS called “A New Chapter”. Instagram: @seewalker_ART

Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. From 1972–2013, she worked exclusively as Eiko & Koma performing their own choreography, earning awards from MacArthur, United States Artists, American Dance Festival, Dance Magazine, and the first Doris Duke Artist Award.

Since 2014, Eiko has been directing her own projects. A series of site-specific solo work, A Body in Places, became the subject of her 2016 Danspace Platform that brought her a Special Bessies Citation, an Art Matters and the Anonymous Was a Woman award. A Body in Fukushima brought Eiko and historian/photographer William Johnston repeatedly to Japan’s irradiated landscape, producing presentations, exhibitions, films, and a book. In the Duet Project (2017-), Eiko collaborates with Ishmael Houston-Jones, Joan Jonas, DonChristian Jones, Iris McCloughan, Beverly McIver, and Mérian Soto. I Invited Myself (2022-) presents exhibitions and screenings of her media works. Wen Hui and Eiko co-created a film No Rule is Our Rule and a performance work What Is War, which premiered at Walker Art Center and toured to BAM’s Next Wave Festival. www.eikootake.org