POW! WOW! Long Beach?

 Last year, we became aware of an organization that uses the term “POW!  WOW!” to promote art events around the world. This organization is based in Hawaii and is known as POW! WOW! Hawaii.  When they promote their art events in cities around the world they use the term “POW! WOW!” followed by the name of the city and when they came to Long Beach this past year the marketing of the event with “POW! WOW! Long Beach” created some confusion and concern. Folks thought that this art event was connected to our annual celebration, the CSU Long Beach Pow Wow at Puvungna, that has taken place for the past 46 years. This was something that this organization had not encountered in cities in Asia. At that time, AIS posted a statement making it clear that this arts festival has nothing to do with American Indian Pow Wow Culture and expressed our concerns about their name as well as the confusion that it was causing. We suggested that people who wish to learn more about American Indian Pow Wows and the actual meaning of the them might begin with a visit to http://www.powwows.com

For the City of Long Beach’s art community and especially for the Long Beach Museum of Art, the POW! WOW! Long Beach event proved to be the most successful arts promotional event in many years bringing in record crowds and press to the Long Beach arts community and especially to the Long Beach Museum of Art. Many Long Beach artists, however, felt that this event did not include, honor or reflect the artists living and working in Long Beach. 

After the festival was over and some time passed, we contacted this organization’s founder, Jasper Wong, along with the Pow Wow Committee Chair of the Kauai Pow Wow, Kaplin Bruce, and expressed our concerns.  We invited the director to experience an actual Native American Pow Wow in Kauai to be able to understand the meaning and significance of these events first hand.  Jasper agreed and pitched in to assist the Pow Wow committee over the entire weekend as he became familiar with one of the Native American Pow Wows in Hawaii. During the following weekend he attended another Hawaii Pow Wow on Oahu to learn more.  In March of 2016 we invited the organizer of the POW! WOW! Long Beach event to attend our annual Pow Wow and John spent the weekend helping and learning about our Celebration of Life.

Based on these interactions, we look forward to continued conversations with this organization to develop a relationship of mutual respect that could lead to collaborations that would benifit both communities, however, we are still concerned about the confusion created by the use of the term Pow Wow in their name.  This year the POW! WOW! artists and participants will be introduced to the significance of the land and the indigenous people of Long Beach and a Long Beach based Native American Artist from Southern California, Gail Werner, will be producing a mural for Pow! WOW Long Beach.

AIS has also agreed to participate in a public dialogue with the Long Beach Arts Council to discuss the issues that arose around this event last year and ways of making the event beneficial and respectful to all residents in the City of Long Beach and reflective of our local cultures.