This week is Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Celebration Week, a time dedicated to honoring the Mardi Gras Indian tradition and taking a closer look at the community's achievements over the past year. This year, the Hall of Fame is taking special effort to address an issue that affects all of the tribes who hit the streets-- due credit and compensation between Indian artwork and photographers.

The campaigns, called “You Get Paid, I Get Paid” and “green paper” are dedicated to making the distribution of proceeds from the sale of Mardi Gras Indian images and representations more equitable. The initiatives are styled after a traditional white paper but renamed because of the focus on the cultural economy. The paper draws from policy research and first-person stories collected from Mardi Gras Indians and their relatives, to demonstrate the financial and emotional impact on those who have seen their images – including those of small children and deceased chiefs – sold in galleries and online without the subject’s permission or compensation.

"Our culture sets New Orlean­ians — and indeed, all Louisianians — apart as one of the most unique in the world,” said Foundation for Louisiana CEO and President Flozell Daniels. “The foundation is committed to supporting efforts to increase the equitable distribution of revenue from this rich heritage to benefit those who are most directly responsible for creating and preserving it.”

This year's Blue Linen Night, a photo exhibit that celebrates existing collaborations between Indians and photographers, provides a prime example of exactly that. Blue Linen Night, organized by the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame, happened August 3 with art on exhibit all week. The exhibit features the numerous photographers in the city who already work for the mutual benefit of the Indians and share the proceeds from their work. The featured photographers have recognized the Indians' months of work and artistry with both proper recognition and finances. Blue Linen Night also included a panel consisting of notable photographers and Indians who discuss how the two groups can continue to adequately collaborate for art exhibits, sales, and distribution of photos, and expand this Fair Use agreement to other photographers and artists. This year's Blue Linen Night exhibit focuses on the role of the Wild Man within a tribe.

Since 1998, the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame has worked to celebrate, document, and preserve the singular culture of the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans. The brainchild of Cherice-Harrison Nelson and her mother, Herreast Harrison, the daughter and widow of the late Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., the Hall of Fame has grown in recent years to include community outreach, education, and archival work. Part of this extensive work includes this year's ongoing collaboration with WWOZ, a rare look into the unique traditions of the Mardi Gras Indian Queens. The Hall of Fame has also produced three portrait photography yearbooks highlighting different roles within tribes -- Flag Boy, Spy Boy, and Wild Man.

The Hall of Fame takes a week in August each year to celebrate the Indian culture, concluding with an awards ceremony that honors masking Indians alongside community members who support their traditions. 

The Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Week concludes with the Crystal Feather reception at Basin St. Station on Saturday, August 8, and the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Awards and closing ceremony on Sunday, August 9 with panel discussion, speakers, awards presentation, performances and a meet-and-greet at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center.