Speakers
The Indigenous Cultures Speakers Bureau provides lectures and presentations by professional presenters, on a sliding-scale-fee basis. Topics include little known historical and cultural information about the Coahuiltecan people and general education about Native Americans in Texas. We offer lectures for college and community audiences, and presentations are available for schools.
Our presentations inspire a new awareness and deep appreciation for the past and present-day contributions of Native Americans. Please contact us to inquire about the speakers’ fees and to schedule one or more of the following lectures or presentations.
If you would like to engage one of our speakers, please email LaRay Guerrero at LaRay@indigenouscultures.org
Mario Garza, Ph.D.
Dr. Mario Garza is an elder of the Miakan/Garzas Band of the Coahuiltecan, a state-legislature-recognized tribe of Texas. He has a multi-disciplinary Ph.D. from Michigan State University and he currently researches and presents educational lectures about Native Americans. Dr. Garza has decades of involvement in the Native American community, including repatriation of remains, successful development of indigenous nonprofits, re-establishment of ceremonial sites, Native arts and events, and political issues. His presentations include:
- Repatriation – Return Our Ancestors: Reburial efforts in Texas
- Indigeneity of Hispanics: How ancient Indigenous people came to be erroneously identified as Hispanic
- Contributions of Native Americans: Eye opening facts about Native innovations and ancient contributions
Carlos Aceves, M.ED.
Carlos Aceves is a teacher, published author, and an elder among many indigenous communities. He has been teaching in the public schools for over twenty years, focusing on elementary school levels. He is a founder of the Xinachtli Project, a multi-disciplinary, indigenous based pedagogy that successfully teaches students how to acquire knowledge rather than learn by memorization. He is available to speak on this remarkable pedagogy as well as other topics about indigeneity.
EMILY AGUILAR, M.F.A.
Emi Aguilar is a Coahuiltecan Arts Educator, community organizer, and multidisciplinary artist, based among the Coahuiltecan homelands where her people have resided for over 14,000 years (recently known as Central Texas to Northern Mexico). She is of Indigenous and settler descent. Emi grew up on the Tohono O’Odham Nation reservation, and later in Central New York. She earned her MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from The University of Texas at Austin. With a decade of teaching experience, she specializes in Indigenous arts integration, digital storytelling as a community-affirming practice, and Indigenizing storytelling. She offers consulting on undoing settler-colonial culture and moving toward being in right relation with Indigenous communities, lands and waters. She is the Assistant Director of Pop Culture + Media at IllumiNative.
Marika Alvarado
I am Marika, a Lipan Mescalero Apache. I am a direct descendant of generations of Medicine Women: traditional native healers of spirit and body, midwives, and plant medicine practitioners. My mother, grandmother, and aunt handed the medicine down to me. I am here to help in the healing of others and to pass on these teachings I have been given. I believe that I should teach all people who have the dedication and spiritual will to use these teachings as Mother Earth and the generations before me intended.
Lilia Raquel Rosas
Lilia Raquel Rosas is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, but also calls Austin home after living and working with its diverse communities for two decades, including as the Executive Director of Red Salmon Arts, a Chicana/o/x/Latina/o/x/Indigenous-centered cultural arts organization. She is the proud daughter of a retired cook/former bracero and a retired domestica. She joined the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin as an Assistant Professor of Instruction in 2018, where her teaching and research interests include relational and comparative Ethnic and Queer Studies through the histories of (me)Xicana/o/s, African Americans, women, indigeneity, and race and sexualities. Recently, Lilia Raquel was awarded a U.S. Latino Digital Humanities-Mellon Foundation Grants-in-Aid to initiate the project, “Tejana Historias: Indigenous Indentations and Trans-frontera Transformation,” a visualization of the Tejana experiences from the Paleoindian Period to the present.
Dr. Nichole S. Prescott
Dr. Nichole S. Prescott is a proud citizen of the Miami Nation of Oklahoma (Myaamia), whose homelands are in the Great Lakes region. Her traditional name is Neehweeta (She Speaks). She serves as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas System and is a thought leader on critical issues regarding student success and systems change. The daughter of a Myaamia elder, Nichole has become a culture bearer and continual student of her Myaamia language and culture. She lectures on: Indigenous issues in higher education and K-12, Indigenous leadership, history, culture and language revitalization, food sovereignty, gender, and Two-Spirits/Whiteface. In addition to lecturing, Nichole offers a range of consulting services. She lives in the Texas Hill Country with her wife, two kids, two dogs, and three cats.
Delvin Johnson
My name is Delvin Johnson, Beaver Clan, and a citizen of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas. I sit on many committees within my reservation such as Johnson O’Malley, Alabama-Coushatta Cultural Committee, Powwow Association, and Tribal Enrollment. I work in the field of finance where I am employed with Indian Health Service which offers health, dental, and behavioral services within the reservation and surrounding communities to Native Americans. Growing with strong Coushatta values, I believe it’s important to educate the world about my people on our journey to Texas, struggling to keep our lands, language, traditions, and how we are still here.
Ricardo Alarcon
I strive to continue the traditions and share my knowledge to the public about the indigenous cultures of Mexico, I’m Ricardo Alarcon and began performing at the age of 9, and as a young adult, represented Mayan Culture for more than a decade at Xcaret, Mexico’s popular ecological park located in the Mayan Riviera. I eventually moved to Texas and formed Grupo Pakal, a Mayan Dance Company. I represent this cultural heritage through ancient ceremonial dance rituals to traditional native music.
Lydia CdeBaca-Cruz
Lydia CdeBaca-Cruz is a Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin in Mexican American/Chicane, Latine, and Native American/Indigenous Literatures and Cultures. Her work examines the performative literacies of Mesoamerican peoples and how the legacy of writing in the Américas is re-membered in contemporary literary and musical practices. Lydia is a mother of three sons and a bassist and percussionist in the duo, Rico-ico.
"Uncle gene" randall
Host of Indigenous Freedom Radio, “Uncle Gene” is an activist, elder, Gourd Dancer and Powwow M.C. From growing up de-tribalized to Indigenous spirituality, the Indigenous perspective on Racism, and the many issues, past and present in the news, he addresses those topics in an engaging manner to inform and to make our indigenous cultures more visible in todays world.
Jodi Voice-Yellowfish
I Chair the organization MMIW Texas Rematriate (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women). We help Indigenous families in the crisis scenario that a relative is missing. We aid in ways ranging from missing persons fliers to on the ground searches. I lead our group by finding resources to make this things happen and in community education. I have spoken at many events and even did a TEDx Talk on what MMIW work is and how to go beyond the “movement” work towards real tangible work. I strive to educate every opportunity I have.
Laura Yohualtlahuiz Rios-Ramirez
Laura Yohualtlahuiz Rios-Ramirez (she/they) is a detribalized Mexican-born Xicana of Tepehuan and Guachichil origins trained in educational pedagogy & community organizing. They are a scholar-practitioner recognized for their canon of healing-informed praxis intersecting performance art, ancestral knowledge systems and restorative/transformative justice practices as tools for personal and collective transformation. They are known for their work in Participatory Action Research catalyzing social change through Indigenous pedagogies and have received National and International fellowships & awards with the Southwest Folklife Alliance, the Intercultural Leadership Institute, Southern Movement Assembly, NALAC, Alternate Roots, & Southwest Worker’s Union. They transnationally represent Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin, an inter-tribal group of families preserving Traditional (Aztec) Mexica-Chichimeca Danza & Nahuatlaka teachings/philosophy and currently lecture at the University of Texas San Antonio as a Profesora in the Race, Ethnic, Gender & Sexuality Studies department focusing on Mexican American/MesoAmerican Studies and Women & Gender studies. They are tapping into their ancestral Tlazohteotl vibes by weaving and aligning stars with the Center for Cultural Power as the Constellations Network Weaver, where her passion as a culture bearer, artist, advocate & Afro-Indigenous Futurist have confluenced to spark love, hope, & joy for the next 7 generations through narrative strategies that uplift the ingenuity of Artists of the Global Majority!
Michael Roberts
Multiple time World Champion in the Men’s Fancy War Dance. I have had the opportunity to travel to showcase my style and share the stories that go along with this dance style. I am also a storyteller/flute player/ singer of native songs. My background is also choreography with the American Indian Dance Theatre, Native Pride and the Anoli Dance Group.
Ángela Vela, LMSW
Ángela graduated with a Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin. She has experience in engaging with older adults, queer and trans youth, and BIPOC youth in school and medical settings as a social worker.
Ángela works with youth to provide culturally relevant care and mental health services. In her engagement with youth at the Indigenous Cultures Institute, Ángela provides lessons on food justice, the cultural and historical relevance of ancestral foods, and how access to traditional food ways and land can improve our wellbeing and mental health. Ángela is involved with danza Mexica and is learning about her mixed Indigenous roots as a descendant of the Dolores de las Minas community.
Laray guerrero
LaRay is an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe and Apache on his father’s side. LaRay earned his Bachelor’s degree in Forensic Science at Baylor University. He is currently employed as the Deputy Chief Field Agent for Collin County Medical Examiner’s Office. He is currently the Presentations Coordinator for ICI and serves on the Board of Trustees for Texas Native Health. He is a founding member of Indigenous ACE (an indigenous performance group). LaRay has been heavily involved in native culture and customs since a young age. He gives lectures throughout the country, providing insight and knowledge in regards to Indigenous customs, dances, religious practices, etc.
nan blassingame
Nan Blassingame is Cheyenne from Hammon, Oklahoma. She is the Creator and Designer of Native American Notions. She fuses modern day textiles with her Native American heritage. She was a featured designer at New York and Austin fashion weeks. She is also the Program Director for Great Promise for American Indians 501 (C)(3). Nan presents on her experiences in the fashion industry and working for a 501(C)(3).
pablo montes
Pablo Montes is a descendant of the Chichimeca Guamares and P’urépecha people from the valley of Huatzindeo, specifically from a small rancho called La Luz at the foot of the Culiacán mountain. They are a Queer first-generation scholar and is an Assistant Professor in the Curriculum Studies Program at Texas Christian University as of Fall 2022. They spent 6 years in Tza Wan Pupako (Austin, TX) where they recently received their Ph.D. in the Cultural Studies in Education program at the University of Texas at Austin within the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Their main research interests are at the intersection of queer settler colonialism, indigeneity, and Land education. Their dissertation project emphasis the transformational learning spaces that Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans Indigenous educators create alongside their Indigenous community, with Land, and other Queer Indigenous people. Additionally, they have served as the Native Youth Director for the Indigenous Cultures Institute where they helped lead the annual Summer Encounter which brought elementary-aged youth for a ceremonial one-week experience lead by community and the elders of the Miakan-Garza Band.
jeremy thompson
Jeremy Thompson is an Iroquois professional lacrosse player for the Georgia Swarm of the National Lacrosse League. His traditional given name is GaaGwaGyeHé “the sun is leaning”. I am from the Onondaga nation Haudenosonee confederac
Alanna Bluebird
Meet Alanna Bluebird, a transformative artist and the founder of HEAL, Helping Every Artist Live. With a passion for creativity and self-expression, Alanna has pursued a diverse range of artistic endeavors throughout their career. As a professional photographer, Alanna has captured stunning images that have been featured in numerous publications and exhibitions. In addition to their work behind the camera, Alanna is also an accomplished spoken word poet, captivating audiences with their powerful performances. They have also self-published a children’s book. As an artistic director and producer, they have brought together diverse artists to create truly unforgettable productions.
Through their work with HEAL, Alanna has helped countless artists to realize their full potential, providing resources and support to help them thrive. Their commitment to helping others has made a real difference in the artistic community, and their own creative work continues to inspire and transform. Overall, Alanna is a true artist at heart, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible and inspiring others to do the same.