NAS Graduate Students Host Excellent Symposium at UC Davis
by Corinne Bancroft
I write with gratitude to the graduate students of UC Davis’ Native American Studies Department who planned the Symposium “Dreaming to Knowledge: Acorn Eaters in Transnational Waters” held at UC Davis April 17th and 18th. Davis’ third annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium hosted more than thirty presentations from students representing six UC schools (Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Diego, and Los Angeles). The planning committee (Vanessa Esquivido, Rebecca Figueroa, Sandra Gutierrez, Angel Hinzo, Bayu Kristianto, Cuauhtemoc Lule, Stephanie Lumsden, and Cutcha Risling Baldy) structured the conference in such a way that although presenters came from diverse departments and programs, clear themes emerged in each panel and across all sessions.
One such vital theme was the importance of indigenous knowledges in a context where western epistemology often reenacts the violence it made possible in the first place. For instance, on the first panel, Vanessa Esquivido explained that her tribe had to resort to racist 19th- century newspapers reporting on massacres of Native people to attempt to fulfill present day criteria of Federal Recognition. The conference and its presenters asserted that knowledge exists and can be gathered among tribal groups and traditions as suggested by the words “it’s a good day to gather knowledge” in the Symposium’s art contributed by Professor Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (Taskigi/ Diné).
Indigenous knowledges provide constructive alternatives to the problems caused and perpetuated by nation-states. Stephanie Lumsden’s critique of the prison industrial complex in the United States argued that her tribe, the Hupa, lived together for centuries without ever putting a human in a cage. Significantly, Indigenous ways of knowing not only offer more restorative paradigms for justice, but also for maintaining balanced communities. In her presentation, Cutcha Risling Baldy corrected much flawed anthropological studies that sought to inscribe western taboos onto Native traditions and showed how the initiation ceremonies of the Hupa people provide ways of valuing women. Yvonne Sherwood discussed how conflicting epistemologies can play out in academia and made incisive arguments for the value of experiential knowledge shared through story.
One such vital theme was the importance of indigenous knowledges in a context where western epistemology often reenacts the violence it made possible in the first place. For instance, on the first panel, Vanessa Esquivido explained that her tribe had to resort to racist 19th- century newspapers reporting on massacres of Native people to attempt to fulfill present day criteria of Federal Recognition. The conference and its presenters asserted that knowledge exists and can be gathered among tribal groups and traditions as suggested by the words “it’s a good day to gather knowledge” in the Symposium’s art contributed by Professor Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (Taskigi/ Diné).
Indigenous knowledges provide constructive alternatives to the problems caused and perpetuated by nation-states. Stephanie Lumsden’s critique of the prison industrial complex in the United States argued that her tribe, the Hupa, lived together for centuries without ever putting a human in a cage. Significantly, Indigenous ways of knowing not only offer more restorative paradigms for justice, but also for maintaining balanced communities. In her presentation, Cutcha Risling Baldy corrected much flawed anthropological studies that sought to inscribe western taboos onto Native traditions and showed how the initiation ceremonies of the Hupa people provide ways of valuing women. Yvonne Sherwood discussed how conflicting epistemologies can play out in academia and made incisive arguments for the value of experiential knowledge shared through story.
UCLA Professor Mishuana Goeman, whose teaching and 2013 book Mark My Words: Native Women Mapping Our Nations provided the inspiring spark for many presenters, delivered Friday’s keynote lecture that spoke to the value and necessity of indigenous knowledge. Her talk “Routed Stories and Native Geographies: Land Water and Body” encouraged us to consider the ways terminology frames and limits, cordons-off, our thinking. The word “transnational” itself assumes the existence of drawn boundaries and implies the legitimacy of nation-states in a way that posits land as disaggregated and divided. Rather, Goeman challenged us to think of land and water as connected emphasizing Chadwick Allen’s term “Trans-Indigeneity.” Goeman pointed out that this theoretical perspective should not seek to paint all tribes and Native people as the same, but rather should emphasize the interconnectedness among diverse and specific Native groups. Goeman, a scholar of literature as well as politics, explained that stories, rooted in land and history, are also routed in that they connect different peoples of different places and traditions. Goeman argued that looking at the world with this acknowledgement of connectedness transcends the fragmentation demanded by nation-states and provides essential grounds for resurgence. Taken together, the conference, talks, and gathering worked towards Goeman’s vision of uniting through leaning about difference and forging coalition through profound acts of sharing of stories.
Professor Steve Crum, the chair of Native American Studies at UC Davis, opened both days of the conference with remarks about his own research and the importance of Native scholars in academia and he concluded each opening address with songs. Keynote speakers Victorio Shaw and Mishuana Goeman modeled what Native scholars can do in and out of the academy. After earning his law degree from UC Davis, King Hall, Shaw dedicated himself to serving tribes and Native peoples. In his Thursday keynote speech, he shared a moving story about how, in his path towards this vocation, he turned obstacles into switchbacks, so he could continue climbing.
The program not only featured exciting scholarship from diverse places and disciplines but also emphasized and incorporated artistic work. The banquet and creative hour featured the talented animation of Angel Hinzo, a reading from a soon to be published collection of short stories by Cutcha Risling Baldy, poignant recordings and photography by Vanessa Esquivdo, and an interactive map by Wayne Marci.
The planning committee did an excellent job not only of organizing a conference where graduate students could feel comfortable presenting and sharing our projects but also of setting a professional and inspiriting tone for a field, that because of scholars like these, will grow and flourish.
Professor Steve Crum, the chair of Native American Studies at UC Davis, opened both days of the conference with remarks about his own research and the importance of Native scholars in academia and he concluded each opening address with songs. Keynote speakers Victorio Shaw and Mishuana Goeman modeled what Native scholars can do in and out of the academy. After earning his law degree from UC Davis, King Hall, Shaw dedicated himself to serving tribes and Native peoples. In his Thursday keynote speech, he shared a moving story about how, in his path towards this vocation, he turned obstacles into switchbacks, so he could continue climbing.
The program not only featured exciting scholarship from diverse places and disciplines but also emphasized and incorporated artistic work. The banquet and creative hour featured the talented animation of Angel Hinzo, a reading from a soon to be published collection of short stories by Cutcha Risling Baldy, poignant recordings and photography by Vanessa Esquivdo, and an interactive map by Wayne Marci.
The planning committee did an excellent job not only of organizing a conference where graduate students could feel comfortable presenting and sharing our projects but also of setting a professional and inspiriting tone for a field, that because of scholars like these, will grow and flourish.
Corinne Bancroft is a graduate student in the Department of English at the University of California Santa Barbara. Bancroft’s work focuses on the role of narrative in contemporary politics—especially in the ways in which it creates exclusive boundaries of nationhood and nationality. Bancroft has worked with No Más Muertes (No More Deaths) for seven years walking migrant trails with water on the southern border between Arizona and Mexico. Bancroft has published in the Journal of Cognitive Semiotics about the rhetoric of border narratives and has delivered papers on the subject of the border wall. She is currently examining the ways in which Native literatures assert types of tribal sovereignty to make interventions in U.S. law.
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