Forge Project’s Curator of Indigenous Programs

MAHICANNITUCK RIVER VALLEY – Forge Project, a Native-led arts and decolonial education initiative on the unceded homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok in Upstate New York, is pleased to introduce its new Curator of Indigenous Programs & Community Engagement, Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yaktitłutitłu yaktiłhini [Northern Chumash]).

Sarah is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and educator whose practice is grounded in collaboration across experiences, communities, and place. Currently a PhD candidate in Native American Studies at University of California, Davis, their previous work has included focuses on cultural rematriation, place-based knowledge, and language reclamation, among other areas of expertise.

At Forge Project, Sarah will work with Native communities in the region and across Turtle Island to shape public programming and spearhead new initiatives. Their role will involve deepening collaborations and partnerships with individuals and organizations in the Mahicannituck River Valley and beyond, aiming to develop and expand platforms for Indigenous-led learning and knowledge-sharing.

Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yaktitłutitłu yaktiłhini [Northern Chumash]) introducing “Organizing as Anti-Colonialism,” a special conversation on gentrification, colonialism, and organizing against their effects in the Mahhicannituck (Hudson River) Valley.  Photo: Alekz Pacheco
Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yaktitłutitłu yaktiłhini [Northern Chumash]) introducing “Organizing as Anti-Colonialism,” a special conversation on gentrification, colonialism, and organizing against their effects in the Mahhicannituck (Hudson River) Valley. Photo: Alekz Pacheco
“As coastal people, we understand waterways are our highways,” Sarah says. “I look forward to knowing the region fed by Mahhicannituck (Hudson River) through its peoples and confluences.” On their new role, they offer, “miqtołho nitsłitsputspu, I am a visitor in these beautiful lands. As such, I hope to support relationships interdependent with this place through close collaboration with its homeland peoples, grounded in aspiration towards expansive and Indigenized futures that remain interwoven with long regional histories of kinship and exchange.”

Forge Project has recently organized events including its “Gentrification is Colonialism” programming series, a sequence of discussions between local organizers, community members, and Indigenous activists regarding gentrification, the housing crisis, and the interlocking histories of displacement in the region. At Forge Project, Sarah is poised to organize new programs that will continue catalyzing dialogue and bringing new audiences together on a local and national scale. They will also manage the annual Forge Fellowship, Forge Project’s flagship program serving Indigenous artists, scholars, organizers, cultural workers, researchers, and educators, for which applications are currently open.

About Sarah Biscarra Dilley
Sarah Biscarra Dilley is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, educator, and member of the yak titłu titłu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash tribe.

She comes from good people at the villages of tsłtxala (Cayucos, CA), tsłtkawayu (Cambria, CA), tissimassu (San Simeon, CA), Etsmal (near Lucia, CA), tsłtqaya (near Bryson, CA), tsłtkaka (near San Marcos Creek), elewexe (Paso Robles, CA), Asarum (Blekinge, Sweden), Casas Grandes (Chihuahua, Mexico), Zinapécuaro (Michoacan, Mexico), Santa Catarina (Baja California, Mexico), Sicpats (near California Valley, CA), tšłłkłošoyoł (near the Cuesta Grade), Waimea (Hawai’i, Mokupuni o Hawai‘i), and tsłtqawł (Morro Bay, CA).

Their practice is grounded in collaboration across experiences, communities, and place. Relating land and beings throughout nitspu tiłhin ktitłu, the State of California, and places joined by shared water, her written and visual texts connect extractive industries, absent treaties, and enclosure to emphasize movement, relational landscapes and embodied sovereignties.

They listen, learn, and know from their homelands, their family, their kinships, their language, and are currently a PhD candidate in Native American Studies at University of California, Davis.

About Forge Project
Forge Project is a Native-led initiative centered on Indigenous art, decolonial education, and supporting leaders in culture, food security, and land justice. Located on the unceded homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok in New York, Forge Project works to upend political and social systems formed through generations of settler colonialism.

Launched in 2021, Forge Project serves the social and cultural landscape of shared communities through a funded fellowship program for Indigenous culture workers, including those working in food and land justice, law and decolonial governance, and art.

Forge hosts Native-led public education and events, a lending art collection focused on contemporary art by Indigenous artists, and art-, land-, food-based educational programming at the Community Learning Kitchen developed in partnership with Sky High Farm, and a multi-part partnership with Bard College.

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