Some pics that we could get our hands on... nothing fancy. Lots of Grad Students from NAS presented at NAISA this year. You can read more about it here. Pictured above is NAS Grad Student Christine Willie during her presentation: Meet at the Top: Diné Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge Contemplate Dibé. And BELOW are Christine and Professor Zoila Mendoza waiting for their presentation panel to begin. NAISA was held May 19-22, 2011 in Sacramento, CA.

From the back of the book:
Oscillating between alienation and wholeness, Other Suns carves a path between light and darkness, grief and continuance. From the edges of violence and doubt to “ridiculous hope,” these poems are firmly grounded in both the material world and spiritual risk. Killelea’s clear lyrics speak to the ways in which land shapes perception, reminding us that natural space is, indeed, social space.


“A marsh of all places— Patricia Killelea abides in this wild realm, writes of its character with respectful human engagement, and searches—by listening—the flow, temper, song, and silence of its birds and water. It in the saturated earth of Northern California’s Montezuma Slough, where the poet lives deeply, Killelea is the sharpest spiritual eye. Her voice is important to all who would learn, from the very silt of Creation, how to navigate personal and ecological disasters with a bold and pure adherence to vision.”

-- Sandra McPherson

“In Other Suns, the poet takes us, in her words, to “this in-between place… we peel back to,” the heart’s place of “merging voices” and “life saying itself to life again.” As a reader, I have received gratefully the fog in my throat and my mouth, indeed, tastes this river.”

-- Inés Hernández-Avila

On May 19-21, the UC Davis Department of Native American Studies hosted the official meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). The program featured three days of presentations and activities. Several UCD NAS Grad Students presented including:

Brook Colley & Gina Caison: Uneasy Remains: Backyard Documentary, Human Remains, and the University of
California, Davis

Angel Hinzo: One People, Two Nations: The Ho-Chunk/Winnebago and the Implications of the
2000 Enrollment Addendum

Patricia Killelea: Between These Songs: Sherwin Bitsui’s Decolonizing Poetics in “Floodsong”

Cutcha Risling Baldy: NAGPRA 20 Years Later: What Works

Abel Ruiz: Indigenous GIS Mapping: Past and present challenges

James D. Sarmento: Reclamation and Revitalization: identity and language ideology in Native American
Studies

Silvia Soto: Zapatismo and the Buried Knowledges of an Indigenous Consciousness

Christine Willie: Meet at the Top: Diné Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge Contemplate Dibé

The winners of the Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium have been announced.  UC Davis Native American Studies Grad Student Lori Laiwa received the Dean's Prize for Best Oral Presentation, Division of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies for her presentation:

"Ya Hintil Ha Janon: We Are Speaking Our Language: Unsung Heroes of Language Documentation and Preservation Projects within Central Pomo Language Speaking Communities"

The Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium (IGPS) is an opportunity for graduate and professional students at UC Davis to share their work with each other, the campus, and the wider community. The three day symposium featured presenters, performers and panels across disciplines and colleges. The symposium was held on April 21-23.

The "Uneasy Remains" Film Project has received a $5,000 grant from the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development and a $1,800 grant from the Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California (CCREC).

The "Uneasy Remains" Film is a project of Wren Usdi Productions, a film production company run by NAS Grad Students Brook Colley and Cutcha Risling Baldy (along with UCD English Grad Student Gina Caison). The project also involves several grad students from the NAS department and other departments across the UCD Campus.

The Uneasy Remains Film Project and Research Interest Group examines the history of studying and collecting Indigenous human remains at UC Davis and how this history has been informed by the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The film also queries the gendered dynamics of this history as it relates to academic research and the representations of Indigenous bodies. the project represents a collaborative effort of local tribes, community members, and students in multiple disciplines and departments at UC Davis. It brings these groups into dialogue on this complex issue and aims to promote interdisciplinary educational opportunities for students interested in learning more about the history of the study of Indigenous human remains and repatriation movements. the project will result in a feature length film, curriculum materials, and an archive database of research materials for use by tribes, schools, and other organizations. Although the project examines UC Davis as a case study for these issues, this dialogue has implications for museums and Native groups throughout the nation and globe, as access to human remains and repatriation movements represent a significant node in the ongoing conversation regarding the human rights struggles of Indigenous peoples. So far the Uneasy Remains Research Interest Group includes a network of 25 students and the support of several faculty members. Currently, the project is supported by the UC Davis Consortium for Women and Research, the Yocha Dehe Endowed Chair in Native American Studies, and the Native Women's Collective. For more information, please email uneasyremains@gmail.com.