Protect the Sacred Voice: A Gallery Talk with Demian DinéYazhí & Dr. Meranda Roberts

Join us for a special talk in the Center of Southwest Studies' main gallery with artist Demian DinéYazhí and guest curator of Constellations of Place, Dr. Meranda Roberts, as they discuss this important exhibition and how DinéYazhí’s work aims to challenge cultural, heteronormative, and capitalist structures while envisioning liberated Indigenous futures.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Demian DinéYazhí was born in Gallup, New Mexico to the clans of Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) and Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water). Their work spans many mediums, including photography, sound, video, printmaking, performance, street-based work, and textiles, which all aim to confront the entanglements of settler colonialism, institutional power, and survival while centering Indigenous, queer, trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit perspectives. Their upbringing within Diné culture, alongside an early engagement with writing and poetry, continues to shape a practice that moves between visual art, language, and collective action. Humor, irony, and playfulness thread through their work, subverting oppressive systems and paying homage to those who have carried forward sacred knowledge and resistance.

Dr. Meranda Roberts, a citizen of the Yerington Paiute Tribe of Nevada and Chicana, is a scholar, a writer, an educator, and an independent curator whose work sits at the intersection of Indigenous history, museum studies, and visual culture. Guided by Indigenous methodologies and anti-colonial pedagogy, she is committed to reconnecting museum collections with descendant communities and reshaping the way institutions engage with Indigenous histories and futures. Dr. Roberts holds a Ph.D. in History and an M.A. in Public History from the University of California, Riverside, and she serves on the Scholarly Advisory Committee for the Smithsonian Women’s History Museum.

Constellations of Place is an exhibition made possible with funding from the Belonging Colorado initiative of The Denver Foundation and the Greater Good Science Center and is in partnership with the America 250-Colorado 150 Southwest regional “Power of Place” project. Demian DinéYazhí’s artwork in this exhibition is also generously supported by The Ford Family Foundation.

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Co-hosted with: Native American Center