In this episode, meet Annie Humphrey and Shanai Matteson of Fire in the Village, a collective of artists and cultural organizers that build and sustain spiritual fires of connection where they live in Anishinaabe territory, or rural northern Minnesota, and with arts and music communities around the region.

As we learn, Fire in the Village isn't what we might conventionally call an organization or a program. As Shanai shares in this conversation, Fire in the Village is better understood as a work of art in itself — one that is always evolving, always changing, and deeply tethered to the places and people from which it springs.

One of the most resonant images in this conversation is the one that gives this collective its name. Annie describes the circles that Fire in the Village builds as little fires — distinct, local, and belonging to their particular lands and community, but capable of connecting to other fires across the region and beyond, growing and growing until what once seemed isolated becomes a network of warmth and light.

Recorded in November 2025, this conversation raises many complex and multilayered questions with depth and honesty: What does it mean to stay? What does it cost, practically and personally, to choose to remain in and work from the communities where you were shaped, rather than accept the art world's logic of moving away? What futures are possible in terms of intercultural exchange and community resilience when artists and culture bearers are genuinely of a place and not just visitors to it?

This episode is presented in a format that we call the Long Conversation, an unmoderated space that allows for individuals to cultivate a depth of conversation that shares the textures of creativity and intercultural exchange that are often hard to express in conventional interviews.

Episode Resources

• Episode transcript
• Fire in the Village website & Instagram
• Shanai Matteson's website
• Annie Humphrey's website
• John Trudell archive

More Long Conversations

• Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange & Kentucky Performing Arts, The Golden Thread (2025)
• Dyani White Hawk & Jovan C. Speller, High Visibility: On Location in Rural America & Indian Country (2021)

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.

This episode was produced in partnership with 5 Plain Questions and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams, 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers.

Dr. Kate Beane is a public historian, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Vice Chair of Vision Maker Media. In 2020, she was appointed by Governor Walz to serve on the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, which oversees Capitol complex preservation and development. Previously, Kate served on the leadership team at the Minnesota Historical Society, where she was the Director of Native American Initiatives, engaging in both Native American communities and tribes, and advocating for the implementation of indigenous interpretation & involvement at historical sites throughout the state. She holds a PhD in American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota.

In this episode, Kate shares her journey into the public art realm, including her work with Dakota name restoration at Bde Maka Ska. She reflects on the importance of public art as "more than just text on a plaque" - it plays a key role in sharing & shaping narratives, knowledge, and solidarity with Native communities.

Episode Resources

• Episode webpage
• Episode transcript
• Vision Maker Media
  • Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian film
• Minnesota Museum of American Art
  • Queering Indigeneity exhibition
• Penny Kagigebi
• DJ Justis Brokenrope
• Buddy Red Bow
• University of Minnesota Dakota Language Program

Subscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Art of the Rural is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org

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.

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.

Episode Resources

• Autumn Cavender’s website & Instagram
• 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)