Friday, Jul 24, 2009

Militarization and Indigenous Women

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Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, for an episode that will focus on the gendered effects of militarization on indigenous women. The first guest will be Vivian Newdick, co-founder of the Comité pro-Reparaciones de para las Hermanas Gonzalez de Chiapas, which was formed in the Fall of 2008 by former volunteers at the Chiapas Women's Rights Center, a Mexico-based nonprofit. The Comité is organizing to create political pressure on the Mexican government in support of the González sisters. On June 4th, 1994, in the town of Altamirano, Chiapas, three indigenous Tzeltal sisters, one of whom was a minor, were detained by members of the Mexican military, and were tortured and raped by the soldiers. The case was presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1996, which led to a ruling from the Commission in 2001 that found the Mexican State had violated a range of fundamental human
rights contained in the Convention. In March 2009, the OAS human rights commission has weighed in on the case. The Comité is committed to linking the Gonzálezes with US-based organizations that struggle against state violence against indigenous women.

The second guest is Margo Taméz, who co-founded the Lipan Apache Women Defense with her mother, Eloisa G. Taméz. The US government has seized their family’s land – held in title from an agreement with Spain in 1767—without consent or consultation for the US/Mexico border wall. The official government estimate for the wall is 7.5 million per mile. This is an 18-foot high cement and steel border scheduled to cross all 1,969 miles of the dividing line between Mexico and the US, 1400 miles of which is claimed by the Apache as traditional homeland. Taméz has been a guest on the show before and returns to give us an update on the case since Obama took office. Taméz is Lipan Apache and Jumano-Apache from two Texas-Mexico border communities. Original air-date: 07-14-09.

Posted by Indigenous Politics at 2:24 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Monday, Jul 06, 2009

For the Seventh Generation: American Indians, Youth and Education

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Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui for an episode that will focus on the politics of education, representations, and youth. The first guests is Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo Tribe), publisher of an Internet blog and resource called American Indians in Children's Literature that is used by parents, librarians, teachers, and college professors in Education, Library Science, and English Literature. Reese will offer critical perspectives of indigenous peoples in children's books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large. Reese is an assistant professor in the American Indian Studies program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she teaches courses including: Politics of Children's Literature, Introduction to American Indian Studies, and History of American Indian Education. Her current research projects include a book titled, Indians as Artifacts: How Images of Indians are used to Nationalize America's Youth. The second guest is Loren Spears (Narragansett), the Founder and Executive Director of the Nuweetooun School, Rhode Island. Nuweetooun is a Native school open to all children that has a core curriculum of Native culture and history combined with environmental studies. Spears received her Masters in Education from the University of New England in 2002. She spent 12 years teaching under-served youth in Rhode Island public schools. She was a Narragansett Tribunal Judge, and is currently serving her people on Tribal Council. Original air-date: 06-23-09.

Posted by Indigenous Politics at 2:43 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT