Missy Whiteman (Northern Arapaho and Kickapoo) understands her work to be a voice for her ancestors to foster deeper understanding and to cultivate positive change. While based in part on traditional cultural ways and ideas, her work also addresses themes of loss in relation to larger cultural forces and the rebirth process of healing and redefinition of cultural identity. Many of Whiteman's short films incorporate, Indigenous languages, teachings, and values and have screened for audiences ranging from intertribal to local urban venues, like the Walker Art Center to national venues, such as National Geographic All Roads Festival. Currently she is a recipient of the Sundance Native Lab Fellowship and Jerome Fellowship for her short film project Coyote Way: Going Back Home, which is in post-production and is scheduled to be released in 2018. Rooted in the arts at an early age, Whiteman was raised in an artistic home. Her biggest influence being her father, Ernest Whiteman, who taught her how to envision the world as an artist. Missy Whiteman’s upbringing in Minneapolis gave her the opportunity to learn and grow in her artistic abilities because of her relationships with other Native artists and filmmakers of various social and ethnic backgrounds. She continued her pursuit of the arts when she attended the Minnesota Center for Arts education where her artistic and healing creative process were first developed. She later attended the Minneapolis College for Art and Design for Filmmaking and Photography where she continued developed her skills as a media artist and filmmaker. Today, as well as being a filmmaker, Whiteman is also a film and media consultant with Independent Indigenous Film and Media (IIFM). The production company’s mission, is to help educate, empower media self sufficiency by providing digital media production, video training and visibility for communities, organizations and youth. As a digital media and producer and consultant she also partners with larger institutions and organizations, specializing in digital media workshop facilitation, video screenings, film & video programming/curation, public speaking and artist residencies.
The (Un)Covered Wagon: An Arapaho Filmmaker Unpacks the Complexities of an Early Western
Missy Whiteman has a complicated relationship to The Covered Wagon, a 1923 silent film: it’s deeply racist, yet it’s a source of pride on the Wind River reservation, because many Arapaho people—including her relatives—appeared as extras. Here, with her father, she shares images, music, text, and audio about the film and its meaning then and now.
