Centering Indigenous Knowledge: Reconnecting Kinship (In Person & Online)

About

Centering Indigenous Knowledge: Reconnecting Kinship Dialogue Panel

November 18 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Payne Family Native American Center Rotunda/Online option available.

Bison Stew & Corn Bread Available

Reconnecting Kinship, part of the Centering Indigenous Knowledge series, will bring together Native American professionals, community leaders and students for culturally grounded dialogue about healthy relationship and communities. The panel will create space for a conversation about the experiences facing Native communities while also centering Indigenous strengths, knowledge, cultural teachings, and pathways toward healing.

This dialogue will explore the historical and contemporary systems that have disrupted Indigenous kinship networks, relationships, and traditional family structures. Panelists will consider how assimilation, boarding school experiences, displacement, child removal, disruption of cultural practices, and other systems have affected Indigenous families and communities across generations. “Reconnecting Kinship” will center Indigenous ways of knowing and ask what we can learn from our cultural traditions and teachings.

Panelists will explore traditional understandings of kinship, responsibility, respect, reciprocity, belonging, community care, and our responsibilities to one another. The dialogue will consider how relationships were traditionally understood between couples, families, clan/band/tribes, and societies. The event will also connect to practical resources and support including the Bright Sky app, which will be featured and promoted as an additional resource for individuals seeking information, support, and tools related to healthy relationships.

Note re. artwork above: The Terran Last Gun piece we are using to promote the event is titled "Exploring Dazzling Places." It's a triptych ledger drawing with colored pencil and ink on antique “Sinking Fund Ledger, Disbursements and Collections” ledger sheets, dated 1945–1949.

Panel moderator: Dr. Karla Bird

Presenters: Dr. Ciara Hansen, Matthew Johnson

Sponsors: Vodafone Americas Foundation, RJS & Associates, Inc. , Western Region Continuums of Service, Montana Campus Network for Civic Engagement