Native Voices at the University of Washington is a multifaceted organization that offers media training, video production services, and the distribution of Indigenous produced documentaries.

When Luana Ross and Daniel Hart started the Native Voices program at Montana State University in 1987, they may not have envisioned how it would grow when they moved it to the University of Washington.

"Documentaries produced by our program have won awards and been screened at Sundance, the American Indian Film Festival, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Modern Art, and many other venues," says Ross, an Associate Professor in Women Studies. "Our student films are used in Indigenous education throughout the world."

Native Voices is a program of study whose goals are to provide media training and facilities for Indigenous students and producers interested in documentary expression.

"It provides students a framework in which they develop professional media projects in conjunction with Indigenous theories and methodologies.," says Ross. "We offer students the opportunity to explore documentary from an Indigenous perspective, and to produce programs that speak to critical issues in our lives."

One of Native Voices primary commitments is to Indigenous education and the dissemination of those films.

"We travel to Tribal and other schools, museums and community centers to screen our films," says Ross. "Native Voices faculty and graduate students work with tribal education and youth leaders to conduct youth media workshops. In these programs, Native students learn about media literacy, media arts history, scriptwriting, and digital video production."

The Native Voices class is one of the required classes in the Native Voices program. Women Studies Associate Professor Luana Ross teaches the class, along with American Indian Studies Professor Daniel Hart.