TIMOTHY WHITE EAGLE
Timothy White Eagle, born in Tucson AZ, is an undocumented urbanized mixed race Indigenous American. He was given up for adoption at birth and raised by a working class white family in Washington state. Due to the circumstances of the his adoption is not a registered member of any tribe. Through DNA testing he found his fathers family and learned late in life that he is half British. He has found genetic, but not personal connection to his mother.
He graduated from Univ. of Utah with a BFA in Theater, worked in Seattle, made art and operated a performance art/coffee house performance venue, “the Coffee Messiah” in the late 1990’s. He spent his 20’s exploring performance based art. He has worked extensively in the past two decades exploring Native American, Pagan and other earth based Spiritual practices. He began a mentor/protege relationship with a Shoshone Elder Clyde Hall in 1995. Around that same time he began helping to craft personal and community rituals within his Spiritual circles.
In 2006 he began collaborating with photographer Adrain Chesser. Their work together has been displayed and published nationally and internationally. In 2014 he and Adrain released their book, “the Return”. Timothy continues to foster relationships with artists seeking to create objects and performances which contain the convenience of Spirit. He dances at a unique cross roads between art and ritual.
“I have been blessed to be active for the past 25 years in support of Indigenous elders and ceremonies, mostly through connections with my mentors and the Dance for All People. In that time I have been afforded access to many ceremonies and traditional people. I am deeply grateful for the experiences of connecting to traditional communities and ways of being. I continue to support Indigenous culture through my work on the board of the non-profit NCPC.“
shows
The Indigo Room
The Indigo Room is an immersive ritualistic theater and installation work by artist Timothy White Eagle and his team of collaborators, The Violet Triangle – Paul Budraitis, HATLO, and John Kendall Wilson. This new work, rooted in ritual theater, integrates avant-garde carnival and experimental sound design with compelling storytelling to explore one of the oldest and most universal myths: a hero being swallowed alive and then returned transformed. The artists use this ancient story to ponder what it means to be living in our contemporary moment through isolation and longing for community.
The Indigo Room or Swallowing monster is based in early mythologies the idea of a Swallowing Monster, a beast which devours it victims whole and alive is a near universal myth with deep resonance for modern people as we consider our current all powerful macro systems of capitalism, military industrial complex and corporate led politics. The Monster addresses the feelings of helplessness in the face of the seemingly unstoppable forces moving our world.
You are invited inside, literally into the belly of the beast. This is hosted installation art. It is performance art and space. Sea sounds, mumbled chants and deep blue are the stage, you can take action, move the camera and see through the monsters eye, make your mark in chalk, meet the madman and throw the bones seeking your future, plan your escape.
Stage: Gallery/Blackbox
Capacity: 75
Traveling Personnel: 6
Running time: 90 minutes
Language: English
Freight: Minimal
Indian School
In Process – World Premiere, Fall 2023
Indian School considers the complex terrain of race, cultural domination, and systematic attempts to erase Indigenous identity. The American government’s policies of forced relocation, re-education schools, and adoption practices were designed to assimilate Indigenous Americans into the melting pot fantasy of American. Having been adopted into a white family to be raised in a nearly all white town, White Eagle lived through the desired effect of the policies – cultural isolation.
White Eagle mixes mythologies expressing Indigenous views of Spirit and community with the Federally sponsored teachings of “American Values”, Protestant ideals, Individualism, private property and Manifest Destiny. Throughout the work, White Eagle grapples with his own tribal identity while processing the complexity of DNA testing surprises, abandonment issues and finding his birth family. Adding to this complexity, are the current day reminders, the discovery of forgotten graves of children on the site of Indian Industrial Schools and the recently discoveries that his own Grandfather was violently removed from his home and forced to attend such a school and carried the scares, literally.
Created in phases of collaboration with local cast and presenter.
Stage: TBD
Capacity: TBD
Traveling Personnel: TBD
Running time: TBD
calendar
The Indigo Room
Jan 6-22, 2022 | Under the Radar Festival @ La Mama ETC | New York, NY
2023 – 2024 Nationwide Dates TBA.
