#eventreflection

For my final event, I went to the Cultural Survival Bazaar at Prudential Center this past weekend. The Cultural Bazaar was a festival where Indigenous artists were able to share their culture and art to the public. I actually found this event through a friend, who saw the bazaar at Prudential. I initially thought that the artwork and artists were only Native American; however, I saw many different indigenous cultures from around the world on display. It was very interesting to see the variety of artwork in one scene as I was able to make comparisons and differences between the cultural artwork. One aspect of some of the native artwork that was fascinating was how they painted their dolls or figurines in black. I was confused as to why they were colored black as it seemed a bit racist in my eyes. Another aspect that was cool was how they included a lot of ancient or ancestral artwork. They had put up signs that talked about the deceased artists that explained where they lived and what culture their artwork represents. In addition to the Native American art, the artwork of indigenous Mayan artist from Guatemala particularly interested me because it bore a strong resemblance to the native artwork. I noticed how both cultures had a similar theme for their artwork, such as animal sculptures and woven textiles. 

One of the major highlights of this event was talking to an ambassador from a group called the Radical Grandma Collective. The woman explained to me how they are supporting women in Thailand that come from Indigenous tribes. The collective is also all women-lead, which I thought was interesting to compare to the impact of Native American women in their rights movements. For example, the last event I went to, the art gallery and movie, the movie “Warrior Women” explained how women were the “invisible organizers” of the American Indian Movement. While thinking about this women-lead movement, I also realized that almost all of the vendors, artists, and staff from across the world were women. 

I found this art exhibit rather moving. 

Although I always find art rather reflective and moving. Thinking about what  nágshibi, what “to be after/past,” might mean made it even more so.

It’s sci-fi. Indigenous Sci-fi. Which is a medium I don’t think I’ve seen in place before? It was gorgeous art, and it told a story. One about what the future could be, not in a world that envolved to disavow colonialism, but in one where those ideas left. 

I didn’t get to go the same day as Warrior Women. There was no event going on. The gallery was completely empty when I was finally to go, save for the two staff members at the front desk.

I found myself thinking while I was watching the short movie they had in a room off to the side: how did I find myself forgetting that the land matters so much? When I was younger I found myself outside more often than not, feet on the ground and eyes on the tree. When I was older I forgot about that and dreamed of space and running away to the stars. When I was older still (now) I found myself standing in an art exhibit wondering how I had forgotten. 

Which is mostly a very poetic way of saying that the ideas of settler colonialism sure are taught. The idea of land as something to be exploited, as something that you can take from without giving back? Taught. The idea of colonization, that there is another land to go to and take, to conquer? Taught. One way or another. It’s all taught. And now I’m trying to un-teach all that. I’m trying to un-learn all of that. 

In my environmental sociology class today, we were talking about the Environmental Movement and how it is different from Environmental Justice. The idea of the wilderness as something to be protected because it's pretty or because its got natural resources mostly come from the old environmentalism, while the EJ movement is community-based. It takes all the issues into account. 

But even Environmental Justice isn’t the same as Indigenous Environmentalism. I remember there was one part of a video in the exhibit when Cannupa Hanska was telling a story from his indigenous sci-fi future he said that those who were left had to remember that they were from the earth not that the earth was from them. That's a different approach, a more holistic approach I guess you could say. One that remembers that there are no people without the planet. 

Mapping the 19th Century and Erasing Native Legacies

Maps are pretty important to how we think about the world. They definitely show our relationship to other people. Maps for different purposes emphasize different things. Some maps emphasize roads. Others emphasize geographical features like deserts and mountains and forests. Some emphasize borders, cities, or bodies of water. 

Maps are also tools of colonialism. In our class discussion following the visit to the Levanthal map center. Someone mentioned how many of the maps portrayed US expansion as almost inevitable. Like a manifest density thing. As if it were necessary for the United States to span from coast to coast and have definite borders between Canada and Mexico that we see today. 

(image source) I think a part of that is the idea that the united states never lost land, it simply gained it. This is like an extension of manifest destiny.

I think that the viewpoints were very important. However, I didn’t like that they were posed as “alternative viewpoints” as much. They did a good job of making people consider the fact that the United States was not just expanding their borders, but also killing and taking land from Native Americans in order to do so. However, I feel like at times they were off to the side as if these viewpoints were not important enough to be stated as fact. 

One such viewpoint was next to a map calling settlers to new land divisions in Ohio, it read:

These divisions remind us of the harmful game of wrongful land dispossession. For Native people, these squares represent a systematic disruption of our ancestral ways of life. This diagram reflects the colonial concept of land ownership: packaged up in little squares, as though one can compartmentalize a way of life and sell it.

- Rebecca Sockbeson, Ph.D., Penobscot Indian Nation, University of Alberta (source)

I think this is an important sentiment, and equally important to have it attributed to a native voice as a part of stopping erasure, however, I would have liked it if things like the fact that is was harmful to Native people in dispossessing them of their land was simply a part of the description instead of some viewpoint, that people may not consider being “”as factual.””

Something that I hadn't really dwelled on before seeing all the maps and their accompanying viewpoints was the role of the railroad in the colonization of America. In high school history class, the railroad was never viewed as a bad thing, it was never properly contextualized as a method to destroy the connection between and seize land from native people. The Native people were instead portrayed as either force that was stopping “good” “progressive” change (like the “Indians are Anti-science” myth does) or erased them entirely.

These narratives play out in the maps that choose to highlight railroad lines, but intentionally also choose not to label Native Americans. Trying to erase them from existence on paper. 

On the topic of that erasure, it’s also interesting that maps that showed population left out Native people too, so that it appeared that the west was slowly filling up with people, instead of displacing people who had already lived there.

However maps aren't just used to erase Native people, they are also able to demonstrate the crimes the US has committed in taking their land. The shrinking maps of "Indian land" in the United States readily show how much the US had taken. 

But I think the maps of Indian land in the US play a different role internationally. When I was in France this summer I found an article that had a map of Indian land in the united states. The first thing that jumped out at me though, was the map over-exaggerated the land that belonged to native people. For example, half the state of Oklahoma was still labeled as Indian land in the map. Unfortunately, I can't read french, so I don't know exactly why the map was like that. However, I can guess, that maps like that, make the US look better than it actually is, by making it seem like the US granted their indigenous people some land and not mentioning how much of their land was taken away. 

I was super grateful for this opportunity to get outside the classroom and support indigenous folks, especially those whose lands I live on. In so many classes its a lot of talking and not a lot of doing. In that sense, it's hard to see what kind of steps there are to take. 

When we read Decolonization is Not A Metaphor and other readings I was swamped by how much I don’t know. I don’t know a lot about decolonization and indigenous resistance. And I don’t know how to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people. Because these are things that I am in the process of learning.

I enjoyed the Sacred Paddle solidarity action because it was a part of my learning experience, but also because there was a community on that bridge. To an extent, there was relationship building. All those things from All My Relations and “Decolonizing Together” came together for me. I realized that if I want to learn how to support indigenous communities I have to build relationships with other people.

The sacred paddle wasn’t something I deemed important because of its impact on me. I was there to support the paddlers themselves. The Nipmuck have been doing this paddle for 30 years but they’ve been resisting for 400 years. These are concepts of time that are longer than I’ve been alive. 

The festival that hosted the 1491s was called “inPublic”. It was a public event, anyone who wanted to could go, but to me, it seemed that people more or less were there intentionally. 

There was a lot of Native people in the crowd, which makes sense because the 1491s are an Indigenous comedy group, and that’s probably who they are most popular with. I think in class we talked about the visibility of Native people. By not being portrayed everywhere, and only being portrayed in places like statues outside of Art Museums or other places where they are relegated to the past, this myth of “All the Real Indians Died Off” gets reinforced. But in this instance, it was a very open public event, with both Native presenters and many Native attendees. There were people from all different parts of “Turtle Island” from Alaska to Oklahoma, people who grew up on reservations, those who grew up in cities, all of them here at that event in Boston.

To my knowledge, I’ve never seen that many native people in Boston before. By seeing those people, and hearing them laugh and ask questions and banter with The 1491 members, it brought a lot more humanity to what we are learning and talking about it class. 

In the past when I’ve met native people it’s been in a formalized setting. Such as when I attended a powwow, or when I heard Adrienne Keene give a talk. There was this divide between us and them. But laughing together is powerful. It's a tool to build community (like this festival was all about) but also to recognize each other as people. People with our own individual cultures, communities, experiences, and knowledge.

After the festival, when I was talking about this with my classmate, I realized that not only did we get to experience this membership of audience with all these different people, indigenous and non-indigenous, but the fact that we were all watching indigenous people mattered too. 

From my experience as a marginalized identity, the ability to see yourself in public matters. To be able to exist simply as yourself without being politicized, matters. Seeing authentic reflections of yourself impacts your self-esteem, and seeing people like you, out and about in society, reinforces the idea that you are allowed to exist in public spaces. 

Rishi Patel

Professor Brown

Native American Resistance

Event #1 - Indigenous Women’s Perspectives on Deer Island

The October event went really well; we were expecting it to fall apart to a degree because we felt really unprepared for it in terms of the supplies we had but the RD, CDC and Noelle really came through for us. We weren’t expecting many students to show up since we were unaware of how much advertising had happened but we were pleasantly surprised when residents not only showered up, but came early! They said that they found out through their CA’s so we’re assuming that the CA’s emailed hem and they may have also seen the poster in the lobby. The residents seemed really excited for their Bailey Hall t-shirts and they also enjoyed the cupcakes, snacks and movie.

The cupcakes and t-shirts were definitely the hit of the night since they went so well, but the actual incentivizing of the t-shirts was a bit mismatched because we didn’t have enough resources and groups/involvement planning for the event. It was encouraging, however, to hear residents discussing different groups that they were in and inviting each other to events.

If I were to give advice to future PFacs it would definitely be to plan for every possible thing that could happen in case there are no supplies or all the supplies just because it is very reassuring to have a backup plan. I would also say to plan t have multiple things/activities occurring because it can be hard to tell what people are really going to enjoy so if there are multiple activities then it is likely that residents will find something they enjoy.