Womens Studies
2004-2005 Laura C. Harris Symposium
Identity, Gender & Politics
The Laura C. Harris Symposium on Native American Culture
Daystar Dance September
13, 2004
Daystar Rosalie
Jones, Artistic Director
4:30pm, Slayter Auditorium
No Home But The Heart
From an early age, Daystar was intrigued by her mother’s
stories of growing up in the Blackfeet Reservation. In No
Home But The Heart, Daystar has drawn from events in the lives of her
great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother and tied them to historical events
affecting the resettlement of native peoples in the late 19th
century. This work acknowledges the
search for identity, family, and homeland.
Mounds,
Moundbuilders & Social Activism_In Licking County September
23, 2004
4:00-5:30pm, Olin 114
What is the local – and international – significance of the
American Indian Mounds in Licking County? What are the politics surrounding the mission
and struggles of “The Friends of the Mounds”, a local grassroots political
activists organization? Why should our
local community be involved and invested in the preservation and care of the
Mounds? What ethical considerations
should be involved in our work to preserve and interpret the Mounds?
Bradley Lepper October 12, 2004
4:30pm, Burton Morgan Lecture Hall
An Archaeologist’s
Perspective On The Mounds
An internationally-recognized expert on the archaeology of
the local earthworks, Dr. Bradley Lepper will provide an informative discussion
of the mounds from an archaeologist’s perspective.
Paula Gunn Allen Keynote Speaker October 21, 2004
4:30pm, Burton Morgan Lecture Hall
Paula Gunn Allen is the daughter of a Lebanese-American
father and a Pueblo-Sioux-Scots mother. She was raised near Laguna and Acoma Pueblo reservations and influenced
by the matriarchal Pueblo
culture. Her 1983 novel, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, reflected
her own upbringing. Her collections of
poetry include Coyote’s Daylight Trip (1978),
Shadow Country (1982), and Life
is a Fatal Disease (1996). The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in
American Indian Traditions (1986) explores the importance of women in
traditional Indian culture. Her latest
work is Pocahontas: Medicine Women, Spy,
Entrepeneur, Diplomat, a new look at Pocahontas through the eyes of a
Native American woman.
Daystar Rosalie
Jones-World Dance Concert November
5 & 6, 2004
8:00pm, Doane Dance Building
The Denison University Dance Department and Visiting
Assistant Professor Daystar/Rosalie Jones will present students of the World
Dance and Repertory program in a unique concert of Native American traditional
and contemporary dance. Students will
dance the traditional Plains Shawl Dance and Grass Dance and the Northwest
Coast Blanket Dance. As contemporary
choreography, they will perform Wolf: A
Transformation and Prayer of the
First Dancer from the repertoire of Daystar Dance Company and a new work, The Seventh Direction, a mediation on
indigenous teachings.
A Festival of
Native American Singing, November 16, 2004
Drumming & Dancing
7:30pm, Mitchell Center
Come see and participate in a night of Native American
drumming, singing and dancing, representing several different American Indian
traditions, such as the Cherokee Mingo, Lumbee, and Creek. Performers will include South Eastern Water
Spider, and the Mingo River Singers. This will be an educational event as much as it will be an evening of
cultural celebration. Dancers, drummers,
and singers will be joined by a Native American educator, Jamie Oxendine of Bowling Green State University. You will be moved and regaled by a multi-tribal
Grand Entry, reminiscent of a POW WOW’s opening ceremonial march, and will be
invited to join in during other portions of the night’s festivities. These exhibitions and information sessions
will provide an opportunity for people to learn about American Indian dance
from two traditions.
Barbara Crandell
and Helen Griffin February 1, 2005
4:00pm, Burton Morgan Lecture Hall
Conversations On
Living Native Off A Reservation
“Living Native” carries a special meaning for American
Indians who were not born and raised on a reservation. Everyday life experiences vary, as you might
expect; but did you know that there were legal consequences to living off a
reservation? What are the political
realities for those who have no “reservation” versus those who do? In this small group presentation and
discussion, Barbara Crandell, a Cherokee, and Helen Griffin, a Shawnee,
will share over 100 years of their combined life experiences as Native American
activists and Central Ohio citizens “living
off a reservation”.
Winona LaDuke Keynote Speaker February 8, 2005
4:30pm, Burton Morgan Lecture Hall
The Preservation of
the American Indian Landscape
An Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe), Winona LaDuke is an enrolled
member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives and works on the White
Earth Reservation. As Program Director
of the Honor the Earth Fund, she works on a national level to advocate, raise
public support and create funding for frontline Native Environmental groups. She also works as Founding Director for White
Earth Land Recovery Project: a
reservation-based non-profit focused on land, cultural and environmental
issues. In 1996 and 2000, LaDuke ran as
a Vice-Presidential candidate for the Green Party with Ralph Nader. She organized substantially to increase Native
American and progressive order voter registration and activism. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities,
she has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. She is a former board member of Greenpeace USA and serves
as co-chair of the Indigenous Women’s Network. In 1998, Ms. Magazine names
her “Women of the Year” for her work with Honor the Earth. Also in 1997, her first novel, Last Standing
Women, was published by Voyager Press. In 1999, South End Press published All
Our Relations, a non-fiction book on Native environmental struggles.
Rebecca Benes March 7, 2005
4:30pm, Burton Morgan Lecture Hall
Native American
Picture Books of Change, The Art of Historic Children’s Editions
Bene’s discussion of the federal government’s involvement in
Indian education from 1920-1940 addresses Indian artists, indigenous languages,
and even contemporary social politics. Gloria Emerson of the Indian American Materials Development center has
described Bene’s work as “important
research that adds to our own understanding of how Native American histories
were intimately intertwined with the federal Indian policymakers and
adiministrators”.
Joy Harjo March
30, 2005
4:30pm, Slayter Auditorium
How We Became Human
Joy Harjo has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from
the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. Her prose, How We Became Humans: New and Selected Poems, won the 2003 Oklahoma
Book Award for poetry. Harjo received
the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award in 1990. Her work has been included in the Pushcart Prize Peotry Anthologies XV &
XIII.
Tod Frolking April
13, 2005
4:00pm, Burton Morgan Lecture Hall
Licking County Landscapes and The Distribution Of
Prehistoric Occupation Sites
How does the earth teach us about the Mounds and the people
who created them? What tales does the
soil tell?
