A presentation hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center explored how an Inupiaq folktale about the “Berry People” challenges Western and Catholic views of children as passive or in need of correction, instead presenting children as sacred, wise, and relational beings. Drawing from her Indigenous heritage and personal experience, UCSB Religious Studies postdoctoral fellow, Elisha Chi, used the story to highlight the harm done by colonial religious systems like residential schools and to propose a care-centered, reciprocal approach to understanding childhood.
As part of its “Storytelling for the Screen” series, the Carsey-Wolf Center hosted queer and Native American director, writer, and producer Erica Tremblay for a post-screening conversation about her film, “Fancy Dance” with moderator Lisa Parks, a professor in UCSB’s Film and Media Studies department.
Cherríe Moraga, playwright, essayist and activist, gave a talk titled “Imagine This: The (Re)generation of Place,” for the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s Imagining California series. Moraga tackled the inherent struggle to define one’s cultural identity in the aftermath of hundreds of years of degradation and mistreatment.
Joy Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States, came to UC Santa Barbara recenlty for a poetry reading and Q&A session. She is the first Native American to hold the title of poet laureate and writes about colonization, love, fear and empowerment.
HFA student intern Maxwell Wilkens moderated a discussion on the painful associations the Thanksgiving holiday holds for Indigenous peoples, to mark Native American Heritage Month. He was joined by panelists Alesha Claveria, a UC Santa Barbara Theater alum who is now an assistant professor of American Indian Studies at Cal State Northridge, as well as UCSB professors of English Amrah Salomón J, and Candace Waid. During this 45-minute Zoom session, the three professors discussed counter-narratives of Thanksgiving that have yet to become prevalent in the US education system.
As part of UC Santa Barbara's Migration Initiative, the Mellon Sawyer Seminar hosted Unsettling California, a student-curated art exhibition at the Glass Box Gallery. The exhibition, which ran through September, featured 11 artists and built dialogues on race and migration in California. The project continues to display art virtually.
The Indigenous Khoi and the San people have been present throughout South African history, yet media and historians have chronically misrepresented them and overlooked their importance. In a recent Research Focus Group talk hosted by the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Indigenous social justice activist Attaqua Ethel Williams Herandien spoke on the importance of including Indigenous voices in South African history in order to correct negative stereotypes and "speak the [Khoi and San] people out of extinction."
Journalist Tristan Ahtone and historian Robert Lee presented their research into stolen and underpaid indigenous lands that were granted to universities as real estate speculation to raise money. The event “Land-Grab Universiites” was co-hosted by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) and the IHC’s American Indian and Indigenous Collective Research Focus Group.
Environmental sustainability professor from the University of Michigan, Kyle Whyte, spoke to a virtual UCSB audience about climate justice and the importance of including of Indigenous peoples in the fight against climate change. This event was presented by the Walter H. Capps Center.
UCSB’s Linguistic Department hosted Tasha Hauff, a Mnikȟowožu Lakȟota scholar, teacher, and language activist who works on new ways to apply linguistic research to Indigenous communities. Hauff discussed rapid language loss and revitalizing Indigenous languages through education and activism.
