Chad Hamill/ čnaq'ymi (Music BFA 93; MFA 97 ) is the Executive Director for Indigenous Arts and Expression and Senior Advisor to the President on Indigenous Affairs at CalArts. During the 2021-22 academic year, Chad was named the inaugural CalArts Presidential IDEA Fellow. Chad led the effort to establish a partnership between CalArts and the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA). He has also developed and taught the first Indigenous Studies and Native arts course in CalArts history, as well as organized numerous cultural events across the CalArts community.
Chad previously served as chair of the Department of Applied Indigenous Studies and Vice President of Native American Initiatives at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff. While at NAU, where he began teaching in 2007, Chad led innovative and impactful initiatives focused on a variety of areas, including tribal leadership, K-12 engagement with Native-serving schools, global Indigenous partnerships, wifi infrastructure on Native lands, and environmental sustainability in Indian Country.
Chad received his BFA in World Music Performance and his MFA in North Indian Classical Music from CalArts and went on to earn his PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Colorado.
A descendant of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, Chad is the co-founder of the Spokane Language House, a nonprofit tribal organization focused on language revitalization.
Chad’s research and publications focus on music and sovereignty, music and spirituality, Indigenous ecological knowledge, performative scholarship, and the Indigenization / decolonization of academic structures.
His book, Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau (OSU Press), explores song as a vehicle for spiritual power among tribes of the interior Northwest. Chad continues to write, record, and perform musical works centered on Spokane ways of knowing and being in the world.
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Beyond the Blue Wall’s Season 2 original theme music was composed and performed by Socks Whitmore (Music BFA 20). Learn more about their work at sockswhitmore.com.
Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at calarts.edu/btbw.