Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

12-4-07 Boston Coalition of Indigenous Students: Interview with Shanadeen Begay, Jonathan Ramones, and Mose Herne

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Host Dr. J. Kehaulani Kauanui engages in a conversation with three of the founders of the Boston Coalition of Indigenous Students: Shanadeen Begay (Diné), Jonathan Ramones (Mi’kmaq), and Mose Herne (Akwesasne Mohawk). This new coalition seeks to: provide a means for academic, social, cultural, and spiritual exchange among its members; foster the expression of a unified voice aimed at raising awareness of the rights and struggles of Native/Indigenous nations and communities in the Americas; create a forum from which the voices of indigenous peoples can be heard by furthering scientific understanding and creating progressive public policy initiatives through collaborative efforts and educational programming across institutional barriers; and promote cross-cultural understanding by highlighting the indigenous cultures of North and South America and thus to recognize indigenous diversity and presence.

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

3-4-08 Why Indigenous Nations Studies?: Interview with Professor Michael Yellow Bird

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This episode features a lecture by Professor Michael Yellow Bird, "Why Indigenous Nations Studies? Decolonizing Plasticities in Native American Studies." His talk was the keynote delivered at Columbia University for a conference, "Transcending Cultures, Transcending Disciplines: Native American Studies Today," on February 21- 22, 2008. Yellow Bird is citizen of the Sahnish (Arikara) and Hidatsa Nations. He is the Founder and Director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples' Critical and Intuitive Thinking and Associate Professor of Indigenous Nations Studies at the University of Kansas.

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

4-29-08 American Indians and US Federal Law: Interview with Professor Bruce Duthu

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Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, for an interview with Professor Bruce Duthu, an internationally recognized scholar on Native American issues, including tribal sovereignty and federal recognition of Indian tribes. Duthu is an enrolled member of the Houma Tribe of Louisiana. We discuss his new book, American Indians and the Law (Viking Press 2008), which is part of The Penguin Library of American Indian History series. He teaches at Vermont Law School, where he been a faculty member since 1991, and will take up a professorial position at Dartmouth College in fall 2008.

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

4-22-08 Chamorro Self-determination and the US Colony of Guam: Interviews with Julian Aguon, Michael Lujan Bevacqua, and Sabina Flores Perez

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui examines Chamorro self-determination in the US colony Guam and throughout the Chamorro diaspora. Guam is an island that is part of the chain of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean. It is an organized unincorporated territory of the United States-one of five US colonial territories with established civilian government. Guam is listed on the UN list of non-self-governing territories; the island and her people are still eligible to decolonize from the USA under international law. This episode will include interviews with three different Chamorro activists: Julian Aguon is a writer, human rights activist and speaker throughout the Asia and the Pacific region. He is the author of Just Left of the Setting Sun (2005), The Fire This Time: Essays on Life Under US Occupation (2006), and the just-released What We Bury At Night: Disposable Humanity (2008). He is currently a law student at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and a fellow with the East West Center. Michael Lujan Bevacqua is PhD student in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego, the editor of the Chamorro zine, Minaghet, and a co-founder of the Chamorro activist organization, Famoksaiyan. Sabina Flores Perez is a cultural activist in Guam and in the Bay Area who has helped organize several the trips of several Chamorro delegations to testify before the United Nations in New York.

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

4-15-08 Aboriginal Australia and Settler Colonialism: Interview with Aileen Moreton-Robinson

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Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, for a live in-studio interview with Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Professor of Indigenous Studies at Queensland University of Technology. She is a Geonpul woman from Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), Quandamooka First Nation (Moreton Bay) in Queensland, Australia. Moreton-Robinson has advocated for Indigenous rights at local, state, national and international levels and worked for a number of Indigenous organizations. Moreton-Robinson's activist and scholarly work theorizes settler colonialism and white possession in Australia. She is author of Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism; Whitening Race: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism; as well as Sovereign Subjects: Indigenous Sovereignty Matters. She will discuss contemporary indigenous politics in Australia, especially in light of the Prime Minister's recent Apology to Aboriginal peoples, and the Australian government's recent military invasion of the Northern Territory in the name of "protecting" Aboriginal children.

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

4-1-08 Tuscarora Song and the Politics of Decolonization

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui interviews with Jennifer Kreisberg live in the studio. She is Hartford-based Tuscarora woman with roots in North Carolina who defines herself as a Mother, Singer, Composer, Producer, Teacher, and Activist. Kreisberg comes from four generations of Seven Singing Sisters through the maternal line, and has been singing since she was young. For the past 18 Years she has toured with the world-renowned trio Ulali, which was formed in 1987. Blending their strong traditional roots with contemporary musical sensibilities, which included southeast choral singing (pre-blues and gospel) and pre-Colombian (before the borders) music, Ulali redefined Native American Music. Kreisberg is now a solo artist who has shared the stage with performers such as Buffy Saint-Marie, Bonnie Raitt, and Jackson Browne. In 2007, she was among a diverse group of independent musicians named as winners of the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards. Additionally, Kreisberg was awarded a Genie (Canadian Oscar), and a NAMMY (Native American Music Award).

Posted by Indigenous Politics at 1:30 PM |  1 comments  

Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

3-25-08 The Christian Roots of the Doctrine of Discovery: Interview with Steven Newcomb

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui interviews with one of the top legal scholars on indigenous issues, Steven Newcomb(Shawnee/Lenape), who is the indigenous law research coordinator at the Sycuan education department of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego County, California. Newcomb is the author of a newly released book, Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, which provides a provocative challenge to U.S. federal Indian law and policy. His book draws upon major findings in the theory of the human mind (cognitive theory) as a framework for challenging the presumption that the United States has any legitimate claim to "plenary power" over originally free and independent Native nations. Newcomb argues that U.S. federal Indian law and policy are premised on Old Testament narratives of the chosen people and the Promised Land, as exemplified in the 1823 Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. McIntosh that the first "Christian people" to "discover" lands inhabited by "natives, who were heathens," have an ultimate title to dominion over these lands and peoples. Newcomb is the co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, a fellow with the American Indian Policy and Media Initiative at Buffalo State College in New York, and a columnist with the newspaper Indian Country Today.

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

3-18-08 Native Humor and the Uses of Irony in Decolonization: Interview with James Luna

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui interviews installation and performance artist, James Luna (Luiseno, La Jolla band of Mission Indians). His work speaks to the fraught nature of indigenous cultural politics as his art engages histories of colonialism, representation, and decolonization through the use of irony and humor. Luna was selected by the National Museum of the American Indian for the 2005 Venice Biennale for his installation-exhibit, "Emendatio," a project that collapses time between 1834 and 2005, and the space between Italy and California. With its homage to Pablo Tac (a Luiseno Indian) who came to Rome from the San Luis Rey mission to study for the priesthood in 1834, "Emendatio" claims Venice as part of American Indian history. "Emendatio" is currently on exhibit at the George Gustav-Heye Center in New York City, which is part of the National Museum of the American Indian through April 20, 2008. Listen in to this conversation about Luna's artistic trajectory, his process, the interventions his work intends, and what we can anticipate in the future.

Posted by Indigenous Politics at 12:46 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

3-11-08 A Native American Affairs Commission in Connecticut?

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui examines legislation currently before the Connecticut state Committee on Environment: HR 5141, an Act Concerning a Commission on Native American Indian Affairs. The state of Connecticut already has state commissions such as the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, and the African-American Affairs Commission. Dozens of states across the United States have Native American Affairs Commissions, and New England is no exception with the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, and the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs. Given that Connecticut is rapidly earning a reputation for its anti-Indian hostility, many people suggest that a Commission could help turn the tide of fear, racism, and ignorance regarding the state-recognized Native Nations and other Native American residents, including the increasingly diverse population of Native Americans from tribes across the country moving here for employment and educational opportunities. This episode will feature a range of perspectives on the politics of this proposal in interviews with L. Mixashawn Rozie (Mahicanu), Mikki Anganstata (Eastern Cherokee), Sherman Paul (Maliseet), Ruth Garby Torres (Schaghticoke Tribal Nation), Trudie Lamb Richmond (Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, and Cedric Woods (Lumbee).

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008

2-26-08 Engaging Indigenous Critiques of Native New England History

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Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, for an episode featuring selections from a recent symposium held at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, "Engaging Indigenous Critiques: Reconsidering Race, Gender and Politics in Native New England History." The event was sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Native American Student Society at UMass Boston, in conjunction with Harvard University's Native American Program and Plimoth Plantation sponsored. This panel discussion focused on the impact of racial hierarchy and discourses of race on Native American communities. Participants include: Professor Amy Den Ouden, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UMass, Boston; Lisa Brooks (Abenaki), an Assistant Professor of History and Literature and of Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University; Daniel Mandell, Truman State University; Marge Bruchac (Abenaki), Tufts University; David E. Wilkins (Lumbee), Professor of American Indian Studies and Political Science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; and Maurice Fox (Mashpee Wampanoag), Chair of the Commission on Indian Affairs in Massachusetts.

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008

2-19-08 Beyond Conquest: Rewriting Native Connecticut: Interview with Dr. Amy Den Ouden

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui interviews Dr. Amy Den Ouden, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she teaches courses on cultural theory, colonialism, gender and power, critical approaches to history and historiography in Native New England, contemporary political issues in Native North America, and indigenous rights and the law in global perspective. She is the author of Beyond Conquest: Native Peoples and the Struggle for History in New England, a history of Native American peoples in southern New England from the seventeenth century to the present with a focus on the complex cultural and political facets of resistance to encroachment on reservation lands. Her important work also links how the current white American scrutiny and denial of local Indian identities is a practice with a long history in southern New England, one linked to colonial notions of cultural-and ultimately "racial"-illegitimacy that emerged in the context of eighteenth-century disputes regarding Native land rights.

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008

2-11-08 Bio-Colonialism in Hawai'i: Interview with Dr. Lorrin Pang and Andre Perez

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui addresses GMOS—genetically modified organisms--with a focus on the genetic modification of life forms in Hawai'i, and how this form of biocolonialism poses many threats far beyond the islands. Hear from two special guests--both of whom join the show by telephone from Hawai'i-Dr. Lorrin Pang, a Medical Doctor who has served as a Consultant to the World Health Organization since 1985, who has been at the forefront of challenging the GMO industry in Hawai'i, and Andre Perez, a Native Hawaiian activist whospeaks to the links between the fight against GMOs in Hawai'i and the struggle for Hawaiian land, sovereignty and self- determination. The genetic modification of taro, known to Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) as kalo, forces an examination of cultural issues relating to this traditional Hawaiian food staple as it is subjected to a new form of biotechnology.

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008

2-05-08 Tribal and Non-Native Alliance-Building: Interview with Andy Mager

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui interviews Andy Mager, a staff person at the Syracuse Peace Council and one of the founders of Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, a grassroots organization of Central New Yorkers that recognizes and supports the sovereignty of the traditional government of the Onondaga Nation. The Onondaga Nation is an Indian Nation, and a member of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee. The Nation's present territory is south of Syracuse, New York. According to their tribal website, the Onondaga Nation is taking action to assert its legal rights to its homelands in Central New York, with the principal goal of achieving legal recognition of title to its homelands, but without suing individual land owners. Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation supports the right of native peoples to reclaim land, and advocates for fair settlement of any claims which are filed. Learn more about this organization and how it is distinctly different from the numerous anti-Indian organizations that are flourishing in this country who oppose tribal land rights and self-determination, whose anti-indigenous racism is thinly veiled behind the purported quest for "equality."

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008

1-29-08 The Politics of the NAGRPA in New England: Interview with Dr. Marge Bruchac

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J. Kehaulani Kauanui interviews Dr. Marge Bruchac (Abenaki), a scholar whose research focuses on the historical erasure and cultural recovery of indigenous peoples in the Connecticut River Valley, who discusses the "unintended consequences" of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the ways in which the language of erasure have been encoded into archaeological practices and state recognition, federal recognition, federal law, in ways that make northeastern Indians appear to have vanished, or to have been disconnected from their own ancestral past. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a Federal law passed in 1990. Among indigenous peoples in the United States, the Act is considered landmark legislation that works to restore respect to ancestors whose remains have long been considered the property of non-Native others since the legislation was grounded in recognition that alienation of human remains and items of cultural patrimony violated Native religious traditions and common-law rights to protect the dead. However, her critical work in this area asks, How does this important legislation deal with the cultural differences and distinctive histories that mark the nation's hundreds of Native societies? Given the varied survival strategies of Native people, does the law accommodate groups whose legal statuses may differ significantly? What kinds of evidence should be accepted in repatriation decisions?

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