Event

Miss Navajo

Indigenous Showcase
Navajo Weekend

May 25

(Billy Luther, 53 min)

Co-presented with Longhouse Media

Sunday, May 25 at 06:00PM
As winners of Miss Navajo Nation, women are challenged to take on the great responsibility of becoming community leaders who are fluent in the Navajo language and knowledgeable about their culture and history. Conceived as a "celebration of womanhood" by filmmaker Billy Lutherwhose mother, Sarah Johnson Luther, was Miss Navajo Nation 1966this documentary is a different take on what it means to be beautiful.

For the past 50 years, Miss Navajo Nation has celebrated women and their traditional values, language and inner beauty. The pageant is held over a five day period at the annual Navajo Nation Fair and the contestants are required to showcase their traditional and cultural skills. Pageant events include demonstrating skills that are crucial to Navajo daily life, including sheep butchering, fry bread making and rug weaving.

No ordinary beauty pageant, Miss Navajo is all about determining who can rise to the challenge of becoming a community leader, by demonstrating fluency in the Navajo language and in-depth knowledge of their unique culture and history. The film Miss Navajo is a celebration of women and tradition in Dine (Navajo) culture explored through one young woman's quest for the Miss Navajo Nation crown.