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Exploring Indigenous Media: InDigital V

InDigital, a biennial academic conference exploring developments in Indigenous media across the Americas, begins today. A collaborative effort between the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (CLACX) of Vanderbilt University, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), and other institutions, InDigital is the only conference of its kind in the United States. InDigital V: Indigenous Media across Abya Yala will take place February 19-20, 2025, in Washington, D.C., bringing together Indigenous media makers, media trainers, and specialists in film/media studies, media/visual anthropology, and Indigenous studies. Through intellectual exchange and the publication of presentations, the conference advances scholarly knowledge in the field.

InDigital V coincides with the Smithsonian’s tenth annual Mother Tongue Film Festival (February 20–23, 2025), offering conference participants the opportunity to view new Indigenous films at various D.C. venues. The festival is free and open to the public.

InDigital V is sponsored by CLACX, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, MTSU, the University of Maryland’s Center for Research and Collaboration in the Indigenous Americas, the Mexican Cultural Institute, and the University of Cincinnati.

A Look Back: InDigital’s History

In 2023, CLACX collaborated with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and MTSU to host InDigital IV: The Americas, Indigenous Peoples’ Engagement with Electronic Media. Held at New York University’s Washington, D.C., campus (February 23-24, 2023), the conference was organized by Richard Pace (MTSU) and Amalia Córdova (Smithsonian). InDigital IV showcased research documenting and analyzing Indigenous engagement with digital and electronic media, including digital cameras, cell phones, Facebook, and YouTube. The conference explored a range of technologies and platforms, including the production, distribution, and engagement of Indigenous and collaborative video/film, radio, and television; the use of cell phones, the internet, social media, and VR/AR; and the utilization of these technologies in struggles over land, natural resources, intellectual property, political self-determination, cultural and linguistic autonomy, representations of indigeneity, and cultural exchange and survival. Holding InDigital in Washington, D.C., for the first time broadened its exposure and facilitated attendance by students, faculty, and community members from local universities and organizations across the mid-Atlantic region. The conference dates overlapped with the first two days of the Smithsonian’s “Mother Tongue Film Festival.”

Prior to InDigital IV, CLACX hosted a group of filmmakers from the Mêbêngôkre-Kayapó community in Middle Tennessee. They met with MTSU Film Studies students and visited Vanderbilt, where Chief Kaket Bepuneiti presented artwork to CLACX. The group also participated in a Vanderbilt panel discussion, “In Defense of Biocultural Conservation in Amazônia: Poetics and Politics of Collaborative Media-Making in the Mêbêngôkre-Kayapó community of A’Ukre,” discussing collaborative filmmaking, the importance of water to their community, and the sources of their body paint pigments.

The InDigital conference series, conceived by Richard Pace (MTSU), has evolved significantly. The inaugural InDigital Latin America conference took place at Vanderbilt in 2015, organized by Pace and Vanderbilt’s Center for Latin American Studies. It was attended by Terrence Turner and Faye Ginsburg, considered pioneers in Indigenous media studies. A second conference was held at Vanderbilt in 2017. Papers from these two conferences were published in From Filmmaker Warriors to Flash Drive Shamans: Indigenous Media Production and Engagement in Latin America, edited by Richard Pace. InDigital III: Americas, also held at Vanderbilt, expanded its scope to include the entire Americas, fostering South-North exchange for scholars and practitioners. It also featured a film festival at the Tennessee State Museum. InDigital remains the only U.S. scholarly conference with a sustained focus on Indigenous media, facilitating crucial interactions in the field.

InDigital V: Conference Schedule (February 19-20, 2025)

Location: National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.

Day 1 (February 19)

• Welcome and Opening Remarks: Cacique Kakêt Bepuneiti Kayapó
• Keynote Speaker: Genner Llanes-Ortiz (Bishop’s University)
• Panels: Digital Indigeneities: Practices and Tools for the next 7 Generations; Archives and Accountability; Indigenizing the Digital World (Round Table)
• Mêbêngôkre-Kayapó Film Spotlight: George Washington University

Day 2 (February 20)

• Opening Remarks
• Panels: Decolonizing Data; Revitalization Pathways; Storying Self-Representation; Visual Resistance, Politics, & Histories of Erasure; Form, Medium, Aesthetics and Media; Sovereign Stories, Sovereign Futures
• Closing Discussion: Toast to Frames of Resistance: The Cinemas of Abya Yala book release

(A detailed schedule with presentation titles and speakers is available in the original document.)

InDigital’s Significance and Future

Since 2015, InDigital has become a crucial platform for exploring Indigenous media. It provides a unique space for Indigenous media makers, scholars, and practitioners to discuss, analyze, and advance the field. InDigital has documented and analyzed Indigenous engagement with modern media technologies, highlighting how Indigenous communities use digital platforms for self-representation, activism, and cultural preservation. As the only conference of its kind in the U.S., InDigital fosters collaborations between Indigenous creators and academic institutions. InDigital V is expected to further this mission by exploring emerging media trends, Indigenous storytelling, and the impact of digital innovations on Indigenous identities and sovereignty.

InDigital’s success is due to the support of numerous institutions. These partnerships ensure that InDigital continues to be a vital space for dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and the advancement of Indigenous media scholarship. From its beginnings to InDigital V, the conference has become a landmark event, fostering meaningful discussions on the role of media in shaping Indigenous identities and cultural expression. InDigital V promises to be another milestone in the evolving field of Indigenous media, reinforcing the importance of digital storytelling in contemporary Indigenous life.