Fall 2021
The Beads That Bought Manhattan: A Conversation
Collaboration with the Brown Arts Institute
Oct. 12, 6:00pm-7:30pm, in person 154 Angell St, Providence, RI 02906
Martinos Auditorium, Granoff Center
Join artist Hartman Deetz and Indigenous human rights lawyer Michelle Cook to celebrate their project on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which is currently on view in Granoff’s Cohen Gallery. Deetz and Cook will be in conversation in Martinos Auditorium followed by a reception.
This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are suggested but not required; seating is first-come, first-served. Doors open at 5:30pm.
Register here.
The (Post)Colonial Predicament in Community Mental Health Services for American Indians: Explorations in AlterNative Psy-ence
October 13, 6:00pm-7:30pm, via Zoom**
In this talk, Dr. Joseph Gone explores depression and problem drinking among his own people on the Fort Belknap Indian reservation in Montana, USA. He interviewed a middle-aged cultural traditionalist named Traveling Thunder who explained to me why many community members struggled with substance abuse and associated distress. In his view, the primary problem was that, “We never was happy living like a Whiteman.” Talk to be followed by questions and answers moderated by NAISI affiliate faculty Dr. Jeffrey Proulx.
Register here.
The Search for the Anasazi: A Conversation with the Chongo Brothers
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
October 14, 6pm-7:30pm, via Zoom*
Join Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology Director, Dr. Robert Preucel as he welcomes the Chango Brothers: Diego and Mateo Romero (Cochiti Pueblo) for a screening and lively conversation of their film The Search for the Anasazi. This film is a satirical take on archaeologist’s fascination with Pueblo culture and a Native commentary on archaeologist-Native relations. Supported by generous donors to Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum.
Register here.
Beyond the Trail of Tears: K-12 Education about Native Americans at the National Museum of the American Indian
by the Center for Public Humanities
October 19, 12pm-1pm via Zoom**
For centuries, Native Americans have been depicted as backward savages. Such beliefs have been perpetuated by people and institutions to justify horrendous treatment and to serve political and economic purposes. Native American content in K-12 education is inaccurate and incomplete. Such omissions and insufficient knowledge perpetuate stereotyped and racist thinking and behaviors toward Native Americans and leave generations of Americans with an incomplete understanding of U.S. and world history. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is engaged in Native Knowledge 360°, a national initiative to transform K-12 education about Native Americans.
Register here.
Storied Portraiture: Practicing Community Strokes
by the Native American Heritage Series
October 20, 6pm-7:30pm in person* at Peterutti Lounge for Brown Native students, staff, and faculty only
Join the Native American Heritage Series for an evening of storied painting, in which we encourage you to thread your ideas and themes that run through your mind onto the space a canvas offers, in collaboration with our other community members. By the end of the night, we will have an anthology and gallery of storied portraits.
Register here.
Patricia Rubertone, Native Providence
by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
October 21, 4pm-5pm via Zoom**
In Native Providence, Patricia Rubertone describes Providence as a city of modest size with the third-largest Native American population in the U.S. by the first decade of the 20th century. Native Providence tells their stories at this historical moment and in the decades before and after, a time when European Americans claimed that Northeast Natives had mostly vanished. Rubertone chronicles the survivance of the Native people who stayed, left, and returned, who faced displacement by urban renewal, who lived in Providence briefly, or who made their presence known there and in the wider indigenous and settler-colonial worlds.
Register here.
Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s Capital
by the Center for Public Humanities
October 28, 12pm-1pm via Zoom**
In this talk, Elizabeth Rule, PhD (enrolled citizen, Chickasaw Nation; Assistant Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University) will discuss the historical and contemporary Indigenous presence in Washington, DC. She will showcase her iOS mobile application, the Guide to Indigenous DC, which maps 17 sites of Indigenous importance in the District of Columbia, and preview her forthcoming manuscript, Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s Capital.
Join here.
Dia De Los Muertos with Sarah Chavez
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
October 25, 6pm-7pm via Zoom**
Join Sarah Chavez as she unpacks the history behind today’s Dia de Muertos traditions. Learn how Dia de Muertos connects to a rich legacy of resistance that defines identity, cultivates community, and helps to decolonize the borders between the living and the dead. Supported by generous donors to Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum.
Register here.