{"id":10101,"date":"2015-03-05T10:45:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T15:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=10101"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:07","slug":"native-leaders-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=10101","title":{"rendered":"Representation and Empowerment in Indian Country: Third Annual Native Leaders Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is great truth in the old adage \u201cout of sight, out of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Adrienne<\/a>
Adrienne Keene, founder of Native Appropriations, will speak at the Native Leaders Symposium in March. Photo credit: Matika Wilbur.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We can\u2019t truly understand and discuss the things we can\u2019t see, and that\u2019s exactly why the First Nations Graduate Circle (FNGC) at UNC-Chapel Hill is organizing the\u00a0symposium.<\/a><\/p>\n

In light of controversies surrounding the use of stereotypical \u201cIndian\u201d images and epithets for sports team mascots or Halloween costumes, the group of American Indian graduate and professional students decided that this year, the annual symposium will focus on visibility and representation.<\/p>\n

The FNGC hopes the symposium will amplify American Indian voices and increase the visibility of American Indians on campus. The event will take place at 1 p.m. March 27, 2015<\/a>, at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center and will be open to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cVisibility is always a good starting point,\u201d said Liz Ellis, <\/strong>who is the\u00a0<\/strong>co-president of FNGC with Brooke Bauer<\/strong>, both doctoral students in the history department.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t have a conversation about American Indians if you can\u2019t see the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis said there\u2019s a lot of interest and curiosity in the student body about how culture represents Native people.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents want to talk about the [Washington] Redskins, about dressing up as Indians and about similar issues. So we are hoping that talking about visibility and representation at the symposium will be an opportunity to address those very difficult topics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Native blogger and scholar Adrienne Keene<\/strong> will speak at the symposium. In her writing, she points out that much of the visibility American Indians do have is through inaccurate and often negative stereotypes: the feather-decked noble warrior, the hyper-sexualized \u201cPocahottie,\u201d the war-painted savage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does a nerdy Indian look like?\u201d Keene asked. \u201cThat\u2019s an image that\u2019s not existent in any media.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turns out, a \u201cnerdy Indian\u201d might look something like Keene, who earned her doctorate in education at Harvard University and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University. She\u2019s the self-described \u201cmillennial, nerdy, doctorate-holding, mixed-race, Cherokee woman\u201d behind Native Appropriations<\/a>, her blog that pushes back against stereotypes of American Indians. As the blog\u2019s audience grew into the thousands, Keene\u2019s posts fueled a national conversation about what it means to be a contemporary Native person.<\/p>\n

Ellis and Bauer agree that social media projects like Keene\u2019s have been crucial in giving American Indians visibility in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

\"Liz<\/a>
Liz Ellis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI really do think that social media has done an amazing job in making Indian people heard \u2013 in making them visible,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cI remember as a kid growing up never seeing Indians in the news, ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keene takes on popular representations of Native people in her posts. Her Halloween post this year warned partiers to \u201cStep away from the \u2018Indian\u2019 costume.\u201d Keene reminded readers that dressing up as an \u201cIndian\u201d perpetuates harmful stereotypes and the marginalization of people who have been fighting genocide for centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to help folks develop a critical lens so when they see the Land O\u2019Lakes \u2018butter girl\u2019 in the grocery store or Peter Pan on the TV, they don\u2019t just continue to accept these images,\u201d Keene said.<\/p>\n

Keene said she wants to replace those negative stereotypes with positive representations of real Native people and culture. But the difficulty, Keene said, is that many Americans have little contact with Native people.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy blog is the first time many Americans have heard a Native person\u2019s voice, and they realize that I talk like \u2013 like you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Keene said her blog and other Native social media can help change that.<\/p>\n

\"Brooke<\/a>
Brooke Bauer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keene\u2019s blog also provides a window into Keene\u2019s own struggle to discover and maintain her own Native identity. Keene said her identity is constantly evolving but that what stays with her is a responsibility to preserve and celebrate her heritage in the face of societal pressure to assimilate.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, what I really feel now is that my role as a contemporary Native person is to be a survivor and to continue to resist,\u201d Keene said. \u201cIt took a lot of generations fighting to maintain their identity for me to be here and to even be able to identify as a Cherokee woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keene is enthusiastic about speaking at the Native Leaders Symposium, co-sponsored by The Graduate School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think any event that can highlight contemporary voices and talk about the success and the good things going on in Indian Country is really important, and I\u2019m really proud to be a part of that,\u201d Keene said.<\/p>\n

Ellis said the conversations about the representation of American Indians are \u201calways uncomfortable and hard.\u201d The symposium seeks to generate a safe space for people to ask questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople, no matter where they come from, are often worried their questions will be considered inappropriate,\u201d Bauer said.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s exactly the purpose of the symposium. \u201cWe are all here to talk it through together,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n

Ellis, Bauer and the other graduate and professional Native students of FNGC also hope that bringing in leaders like Keene will facilitate those discussions. UNC-Chapel Hill American Indian alumni and current graduate students will also participate in panels and discussions.<\/p>\n

\u2666 Written by Andrea Pati\u00f1o Contreras and Jess Clark, master\u2019s degree candidates in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is great truth in the old adage \u201cout of sight, out of mind.\u201d We can\u2019t truly understand and discuss the things we can\u2019t see, and that\u2019s exactly why the First Nations Graduate Circle (FNGC) at UNC-Chapel Hill is organizing the symposium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47187,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10101\/revisions\/47187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}