Anpa’o Locke
Anpa’o Locke - Communications Director
Anpa'o Locke is an Afro-Indigenous writer and filmmaker, who is Húŋkpapȟa Lakota & Ahtna Dené, and she comes from the Standing Rock Nation. She is a graduate film student from Mount Holyoke College, whose work has been creating films on the Native experience and a critical analysis of Native representation within popular media and culture. She has a strong passion for seeing more Black-Native represented within Indian country. Anpa'o Locke is an Afro-Indigenous writer and filmmaker, who is Húŋkpapȟa Lakota & Ahtna Dené, and she comes from the Standing Rock Nation. She is currently located on Tiwa territory in Albuquerque. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a Film Studies major, whose work has been creating films on the Native diaspora experience and a critical analysis of Indigenous activism and environmentalism. From 2018 to 2019, she was a fellow for AWAKE Youth Media Fellowship. AWAKE Youth Media created the fellowship after the Mni Wiconi protests; as a fellow, she finished and fulfilled a film project based on Urban Natives living in New York City. In February 2021, She won “Best Experimental” at the Five College Film Festival for her film, “Representation”.
Between growing up without the blend of cultures on television/film and navigating anti-Blackness from her community and relatives as a fundamental core of experience within Indian country created a strong passion for seeing Black Natives stories on screen. There is a need for more Afro-Indigenous voices to be seen, heard and held. They/We exist here too. They/We bridge the gap between both of our communities, bearing the pain, the trauma, the joy that our ancestors have experienced. We can heal both communities, only IF you listen to them. Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation work together and are essential to dismantling this white supremacist world.
She is curious and driven to create films focused on screen sovereignty and self-determination as a mode for empowered Indigenous storytelling. Working with Indigenous communities is one of the more essential aspects of her professional career as she sees herself as a creative community organizer. As a person who operates with an Indigenous worldview, being a good relative is a central ideology.