14 Facts About Dana Claxton

Dana Claxton was born on 1959 and is a Hunkpapa Lakota filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist.

Dana Claxton's work looks at stereotypes, historical context, and gender studies of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically those of the First Nations.

Dana Claxton co-founded the Indigenous Media Arts Group and has taught at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.

Dana Claxton has worked closely with numerous Canadian and First Nations organizations, such as the National Film Board of Canada, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, among others.

Dana Claxton served as director and producer for 52 episodes of the Canadian program Wakanheja, a First Nations oriented children's program and 26 episodes of ArtZone, an art show for teenagers.

Dana Claxton served as producer and a storyteller for First Stories-VTV, a program about the Aboriginal population of Vancouver.

Dana Claxton lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and is a faculty member at the University of British Columbia.

Dana Claxton previously studied acting at HB Studio in New York City.

Dana Claxton combines her own world-view with Indigenous issues from the past and present.

Dana Claxton investigates concerns about colonization, body imagery, beauty, politics, spirituality and the iconography of Native peoples and how it is placed in popular culture.

Dana Claxton has focused on the American Indian Movement which features blown up black-and-white photos of declassified government documents about the at times controversial civil rights organization.

The documents were collected when Dana Claxton lived in New York City in the late 1980s and early 1990s, from the New York Public Library.

In 2019 Dana Claxton received the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the category of Arts, Culture and Design.

Dana Claxton won the 2020 Governor General's Award for Artistic Achievement in the Visual Arts Category.