Register Now for 18th Annual Gila River Festival Online

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This year’s festival theme, One Water, Many Currents, will explore the many ways in which water connects us and is the common thread weaving together the Gila River watershed’s human and ecological communities of the past, present and into the future.

Nuevomexicana writer and biologist Leeanna Torres opens the festival on Thursday night, September 22nd at the WNMU Global Resource Center Auditorium with the Sonnie Sussillo Memorial Keynote Presentation, sharing her personal narrative through the thread of the great Gila.
On Friday night, September 23rd, a panel discussion focused on the indigenous connections to the Gila River from its headwaters in New Mexico to the Great Bend of the Gila in southwest Arizona includes Archaeology Southwest’s Tribal Outreach Fellow Skylar Begay, Gila River Indian Community historic preservation officer Barnaby Lewis, Fort Sill Apache Tribe Chairwoman Lori Gooday Ware and moderated by Diné anthropologist Alex Mares.
Landscape photographer Michael Berman will present After the Fires, a “little verbal ramble” along with photos from the post-fire Gila Wilderness on Saturday, September 24 at 10 am at the Silco Theater.
Living history actor, rancher and conservationist, Neil Fuller will share his stories of growing up on a ranch on the Gila Lower Box in a special storytelling event with the Silver City Museum entitled A Life Entwined with the Gila: Reminiscences and Observations of a Rancher/Conservationist on Saturday, September 24th at 1pm in the Silver City Museum Courtyard.
With 20+ field trips and workshops to choose from, connect with the Gila River and its human and ecological communities through one-of-a-kind experiences from birding, to rock art, to fly fishing.
We are excited to welcome back the Fort Sill Apache Fire Dancers with the Gooday Family! They will share with us the Dance of the Mountain Spirits scheduled for Saturday, September 24th at WNMU’s Regent’s Square.
Bringing the 18th annual festival to a close, a Gila River Blessing – One River: Many Faiths, Many Cultures, Many Voices – will be held at Mogollon Box on Sunday morning, September 25 and led by faith leaders from several traditions, including to date Claudia Elferdink (Unitarian Universalist), Mariam Wiedner (Sufi community), Norma Santos, Daniel Hernandez, and Athena Wolf (La Escuela de Curanderismo), Gwen Lacy (Quakers), Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache leaders (invited), and others to be confirmed.