SANTA FE, NM.- This fall, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) presents bold new exhibitions from Indigenous artists across the globe. On view are new works by Douglas Miles (White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, and Akimel O’odham) A-i-R ’25, textile-based works exploring healing and identity by Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe), and multimedia installations and paintings focusing on self-representation and resilience in Breaking Ground: Art & Activism in Indigenous Taiwan, which also features a performance by the Bulareyaung Dance Company.

Douglas Miles: Always & Forever
On view until February 8, 2026
North Gallery

Douglas Miles (White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, and Akimel O’odham) A-i-R ’25 is a painter, printmaker, and photographer from Arizona, who founded Apache Skateboards and Apache Skate Team. Miles draws connections between skateboarding and the Apache warrior tradition, as both involved increased concentration, stamina, and the ability to withstand pain. His work combines traditional and contemporary practices, blending fine art, pop culture, and sport.

Always & Forever features Miles’ installation You’re Skating on Native Land (2022). Miles uses skateboards as moving canvases to reassert the sovereignty of motion and Native American cultures as dynamic and contemporary. “Skateboarding is intimately connected to and in conversation with the land,” explains Miles. Skaters not only use paved skateparks they also construct their own environments, activating and transforming unused and abandoned areas around town. Like lowriding, it is more than an activity—it’s a way of life. Nonconformity, self-made community, and a do-it-yourself attitude are some values associated with the sport.

The exhibition also includes a new installation which addresses the forced removal of Apache Tribal members from their land as part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Apache Wars, and the Allotment Act of 1887.

Maggie Thompson: Interactions
On view until January 4, 2026
South Gallery

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) proudly presents Maggie Thompson: Interactions, a solo exhibition of recent works by Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe). Thompson’s groundbreaking practice expands the possibilities of textile-based media through personal, social, and political inquiry.

Drawing on Ojibwe traditions and contemporary lived experiences, she weaves together complex narratives of personal and collective resistance, resilience, and healing.

As her first institutional solo, Interactions brings together four new works addressing topics from structural violence and addiction to solidarity and community care. Thompson addresses themes ranging from psychological abuse and addiction to recovery. While The Hospital Gown Project (2025) and I Can’t Breathe (2024–2025) transform familiar garments to participatory works, F**k This (2025) earrings and Tug-of-War (2025) sculptures confront oppressive political and social hierarchies.

Interactions debuts the first sculpture from The Hospital Gown Project: a patchwork garment with swatches beaded by individuals impacted by addiction within their families and communities, transformed into a powerful object of collective reflection and solidarity.

Another key work is I Can’t Breathe. In 2020, Thompson extended her COVID-19 ribbon mask by screenprinting George Floyd’s final words onto face masks, distributed during protests. She later repurposed the remaining fabric into fancy shawls, preserving the memory of Floyd and expressing Native solidarity with broader racial justice movements.

In Tug-of-War, Thompson covers ropes with red and white beads depicting remarks directed at her, confronting lateral violence and the impact of blood quantum policies, inviting dialogue around inclusion and identity.

A pair of peyote-stitch beaded earrings reimagines the U.S. flag as text wrapped around tampons. Referencing the flag’s legacy in Native art, Thompson describes the piece as “an act of resistance and a way to maintain cultural practices during times of conflict with the government.”

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Thompson’s work is included in major museum collections nationwide. The exhibition is curated by Erin Robideaux Gleeson and supported by Bockley Gallery and the Chicago Woodman Foundation.

Breaking Ground: Art & Activism in Indigenous Taiwan
On view until January 4, 2026
Anne and Loren Kieve Gallery

Breaking Ground: Art & Activism in Indigenous Taiwan brings together contemporary Indigenous artists from Taiwan whose works speak to the environmental and cultural consequences of colonization. Through themes of identity, self-representation, and resistance, the artists confront the impact of assimilationist policies, including the loss of Indigenous rights, homelands, language, and cultural knowledge—concerns echoed by Native communities in the United States. The exhibition is co-curated by independent Indigenous Curator Nakaw Putun (Pangcah), National Taiwan Museum of Fina Arts Curator Jay Chun-Chieh LAI, and MoCNA Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man in conversation with the artists.

Participating artists include Ali Istanda, Aluaiy Kaumakan, Chang En-Man, Ciwas Tahos, Idas Losin Iyo Kacaw, Labay Eyong, The Makotaay Eco Art Village, Mayaw Biho, and Rngrang Hungul. Aluay Kaumakan’s (Paiwan) Sprouting Series 1 is a work related to land, nature, and the living environment. In this and similar works, she reflects on the transition faced by her community after typhoons and village relocation, exploring how they began adapting to a new world.

Ciwas Tahos’ (Atayal) installation “Pswagi Temahahoi,” features a self-invented ceramic wind instrument and a monumental sound script. The bulbous instruments contain multiple mouthpieces intended for communal playing. Tahos created them as way-finders to discover the mythical location of Temahahoi. In the Atayal oral story, only women live in Temahahoi. As keepers of traditional knowledge and powers, they communicate with bees. While researching wild bees for her work, Tahos observed, “they were in these discreet spots you would have never imagined. It’s similar to how marginalized people like queer people live within the creases of society.”