积极学习本土文化

为纪念土著人民日，10月10日. 9, the Westminster community attended an all-school program to pay tribute to the culture and history of the Indigenous communities. The day kicked off with a keynote address in Werner Centennial Center by Lyla June Johnston, 一个音乐家, public speaker and an internationally recognized performance poet of diné (Navajo) and tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) lineages. Johnston spoke about her mission to share her own story and her research and knowledge on Indigenous people.

 

约翰逊将她在斯坦福大学的人类生态学研究结合起来, 土著教育学的研究生工作, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, 观点和解决方案. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island, 土著社区称之为美洲, 为人类和非人类生产丰富的食物系统.

 

在她内容广泛的演讲中, 约翰逊唱, recited her poetry and talked about the misconception of Columbus Day as a celebration of the discovery of America. 而不是, she said it signaled the start of the mass destruction of native communities.

 

It is a “no brainer that today should be called Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day,”她说。. European explorers first came to this country for the purpose of finding gold and people that could be enslaved.

 

而不是, the holiday should be a time to reflect on how much native peoples have endured, to recognize the legacy of oppression that they still endure and to preserve and to promote their history and call out misrepresentations of them in popular culture.

 

演讲结束后, students broke into home groups to discuss their take-aways from the presentation and what they might need to learn more about Indigenous peoples. 在下午, the community gathered again in Werner to watch a dance performance by Ángela Vela and to join her onstage in dance.

 

Vela graduated with a Master of Science in social work from the University of Texas at Austin and is the co-director at Native American and Indigenous Collective in Austin.

In her engagement with youth at the Indigenous Cultures Institute, Ángela提供有关食物公正的课程, 祖先食物的文化和历史相关性, and how access to traditional food ways and land can improve our well-being and mental health. Ángela is involved with danza Mexica and is learning about her mixed Indigenous roots as a descendant of the Dolores de las Minas community.

 

In her parting words to students, she asked them to be active learners. “You have so much responsibility as young people to be active learners. 参与并意识到你周围发生的事情.”