LENAPEHOKING — An ambitious multimedia project has taken over the campus of one of the world’s leading performing arts centers, here on the homelands of the Lenape people.

Conceived by the legendary musician Nona Hendryx, The Dream Machine Experience is rooted in Afro-Futurism, the social, political and cultural movement that explores the intersection of the African diaspora with science and technology. A broad range of creative works, utilizing everything from augmented reality to artificial intelligence, are on display at the Lincoln Center in New York City through the end of June.

But as Hendryx explained on Saturday evening, Native people are playing a critical role in the shared vision of the future. Virgil Ortiz, from the Pueblo of Cochiti in New Mexico, and Cannupa Hanska Luger, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota, are two of the featured artists in the installation.

“All people are a part of Afro-Futurism,” Hendryx said in Lenapehoking, the Lenape term for the homelands they were removed from in the northeastern part of the United States.

“People think that because it’s called Afro-Futurism that it is a Black-only experience,” Hendryx continued at a panel presentation with several of her creative partners. “It is that we all — as I said earlier — come out of Africa. So we can all be a part of Afro-Futurism.”

Hendryx’s insistence on inclusion extends beyond the two Native artists featured in The Dream Machine Experience. Three of Luger’s fellow tribal citizens contributed some of their cultural traditions for what’s being called the Native Land Augmented Reality (AR) Activation at Lincoln Center.

“We created a Native presence,” JoAnn K. Chase, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation whose support was crucial for bringing the interactive portion of the project to life, told Indianz.Com in an interview on Saturday.

“We brought Virgil Ortiz, Canunpa Luger, George Gillette, Rusty Gillette and Kathy Whitman Elk Woman,” Chase said as she named the fellow Native creatives — the latter ones all hailing from the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes.

And of her work with Hendryx, one of her longtime friends and collaborators, Chase said: “These are our stories and Nona wanted to celebrate it.”

Hendryx in fact opened The Dream Machine Experience on June 12 with the help of the Lenape Center. The Lenape-led non-profit helps ensure that tribal culture continues to thrive in New York City.

“It’s very important for me and it was very important to have the Lenape Center and the Lenape people open this whole installation,” Hendryx said of a blessing that was offered during the project’s debut last Wednesday.

“That was really important that we had that opening in that way,” she added. The Yellow Trees, a five-piece band whose members are Lenape, Navajo and Native Hawaiian, also performed at the opening.

Ortiz’s work, which encompasses everything from pottery to fashion, immerses visitors to Lincoln Center in a significant way as well. He designed the logo for The Dream Experience — a version of which graced Hendryx’s neck in the form of a striking piece of silver jewelry.

“Virgil said to me, ‘What’s the inspiration for Dream Machine?'” Hendryx recalled. “And I began to tell him about the many different things that are important to me spiritually, are important to me mentally, and are important to me about the future and about how I relate to Earth, nature and others.”

During the panel presentation, Ortiz said he draws inspiration from an important historical event, one that continues to solidify the future of the Pueblo people in the present-day Southwest. In carrying on the traditions he learned at Cochiti, he informs the public about the Pueblo Revolt, an uprising that took place in 1680 in the form of a massive rebellion against oppression.

“Most people don’t know about the 1680 Pueblo Revolt and that is my main reason why I’m on this Earth,” said Ortiz. “It’s to educate globally about what happened to the Pueblo people using art.”

“It’s the first American Revolution, but nobody calls it that because of the bloodshed, the murders and everything that happened to our people,” added Ortiz, whose futuristic-looking pieces of art and fashion continue to tell the stories of Pueblo communities.

As part of The Dream Machine Experience, Ortiz is featured in the Native Land AR activation. Visitors to Lincoln Center can utilize a mobile phone application [Apple App Store | Google Play Store] and explore his works, along with those of Cannupa Hanska Luger’s, as they venture through the outdoor spaces of the facility on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The unique tour is guided by none other than Hendryx, portraying a character known as Cyboracle.

“Welcome to The Dream Machine,” Cyboracle tells the “Dreamers” who use the app.

Native Land AR includes a grass dancing performance by George Gillette and music from Rusty Gillette. Dreamers will also be able to explore the history of the Lenape people, whose descendants today are found among the Delaware Tribe and the Delaware Nation, both in Oklahoma, along with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin. In Canada, the Lenape continue as part of the Munsee-Delaware Nation, the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown and the Delaware First Nation at Six Nations of the Grand River.

Although the augmented reality experience is presented through modern technology, Chase, a former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians who served in the administrations of Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, said it is rooted in a tradition common to Native peoples.

“This is our land,” Chase said.

The Dream Machine Experience runs through June 30.

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