 |
 |
     
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Seminars and Symposia Program
The Seminars and Symposia Program is the intellectual home for the investigation, discussion, and understanding of issues regarding Native communities in the Western Hemisphere and Hawai‘i. Through the Seminars and Symposia Program, the museum promotes meaningful study, discussion, and civic engagement, providing a national forum for historical and contemporary topics of concern and interest to Native peoples and the general public.
Selected themes include cultural values, the environment, encounters, and Native achievements, as well as the content and ideas presented in the museum’s permanent and temporary exhibitions. In addition, the program will develop and host public forums, ranging from intimate roundtable discussions to seminars that are webcast around the world.
Chocolate: The Once and Future Food
Illustrated Talk–Dr. Howard Shapiro
Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14, 2010
2–3 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian–Rasmuson Theater
4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C.
This special, once-daily presentation, given in conjunction with the museum’s The Power of Chocolate Festival, will begin with a look at the mythology of chocolate, describing the special relationship that people have had with this tropical treasure and the remarkable role it has played in human culture through time. Dr. Howard-Yana Shapiro, Global Director of Plant Science and External Research at Mars, Incorporated, will then discuss this amazing plant in the context of a sustainable future. Dr. Shapiro will identify promising new terrain for cacao research and development.
For more information, please email NMAI-SSP@si.edu.
Surveying Andean Legacy: Archaeological Research along the Inka Road System Symposium
December 8 and 9, 2009
program guide program flyer
This two-day symposium featured illustrated lectures by noted international scholars about the Qhapaq ñan, the magnificent road network developed by the Inka more than five hundred years ago. Distinguished speakers included Gary Urton (USA), Roberto Bárcena (Argentina), Victoria Castro (Chile), Mauricio Uribe (Chile), Alexei Vranich (USA), José Berenguer (Chile), Sergio Martin (Argentina), Christian Vitry (Argentina), Edmundo de la Vega (Perú), José María López Bejarano (Bolivia), José Pino (Perú), and Donato Amado (Perú). Co-sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center.
Indigenous Mapping: Tools for Native Politics in Panama and the World
December 4, 2009
program flyer
Anthropologist and indigenous rights advocate Mac Chapin presented an illustrated lecture about a remarkable mapping project carried out with the Kuna of Panama. The maps that resulted from this innovative project are being used by the Kuna to protect their territory, strengthen their culture and political organization, and for education in their schools. Similar methodology for mapping indigenous lands has been used in Central and South America, Africa, and New Guinea. Co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
An archive video of this program is located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkQ8GcveDRA.
IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas Symposium
November 13, 2009
program guide
Symposium Explores an Indivisible Heritage
A part of the American story has long been invisible—the story of people who share African American and Native American ancestry. Over centuries, African American and Native people came together, creating shared histories, communities, and ways of life. Often divided by prejudice, laws, or twists of history, African-Native Americans were united by a double heritage that is truly indivisible.
A capacity audience attended the IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas Symposium symposium that brought visibility to African-Native American lives and initiated a healing dialogue on African-Native American experiences for people of all backgrounds. Speakers on this vitally important topic included curators and authors Robert Keith Collins (African and Choctaw descent), Penny Gamble-Williams (Chappaquiddick Wampanoag), Angela Gonzales (Hopi), Judy Kertész, Tiya Miles, and Gabrielle Tayac (Piscataway). NMAI director Kevin Gover (Pawnee) moderated. The symposium was held on the occasion of the groundbreaking exhibition IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas, which was developed, produced, and circulated by NMAI, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The Museum extends a special thank you to our participating partners for the symposium, The Links, Incorporated, Eastern Area and the Capital City Chapter.
The Blues: Roots, Branches, and Beyond
Saturday, August 22
Special Program Rocks the Blues
The Blues: Roots, Branches, and Beyond provided a fascinating look at the roots of the blues and points of confluence and difference between Native and African/African American music and styles. Producer and Aboriginal arts activist Elaine Bomberry (Ojibwe/Cayuga, from Six Nations, Ontario) explored the Native connection to the blues and showed highlights from her award-winning Canadian television show, Rez Bluez TV—a popular, groundbreaking series that showcases Aboriginal blues music. Ron Welburn (African-American and Native American descent), a poet and professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, discussed his research on Native Americans in jazz and the blues and delighted the audience with clips from great vintage blues and jazz tunes. He was formerly coordinator of the Jazz Oral History Project (National Endowment for the Arts) at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
Musicians from the George Leach Band, the Rez Bluez All-Starz, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Corey Harris—all of whom performed in an Indian Summer Showcase concert after the program—joined the speakers for a lively question-and-answer session with the audience.
An archive video of this program is located at: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2028381.
Mother Earth: Confronting the Challenge of Climate Change
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Summer Symposium Examines a Planetary Crisis
Mother Earth: Confronting the Challenge of Climate Change explored how indigenous peoples are responding to the crucial challenge of climate change in creative ways, calling on traditional knowledge and adapting new technologies to craft solutions that benefit all.
Symposium speakers Patricia Cochran (Inupiat), chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council; Robert Gough of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (Intertribal COUP); Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez (Ribereño/Caboclo), director of international programs, Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), Columbia University; and Deborah Tewa (Hopi), solar energy specialist and educator, offered engaging presentations and lively discussion about innovative indigenous strategies, from the Arctic to Amazonia. José Barreiro (Taino), NMAI assistant director for research, moderated the symposium.
Mother Earth is a vital part of the National Museum of the American Indian’s ongoing commitment to disseminate knowledge about sustainable living and advance understanding of human-made climate change.
From Code Talkers to Immersion: Native American Language Summit
May 12, 2009
Native American Language Advocates Share Experiences and Expertise
Opening sessions of this fascinating program featured two elder warriors, Barney Old Coyote (Crow) and Samuel Tso (Navajo). Their heroic use of Native languages in wartime as code talkers was recently recognized by Congress’s passage of the Code Talker Recognition Act, first introduced in 2004 but only passed late in 2008. More than 250 people attended the day's events, representing tribal communities from Alabama, Alaska, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, New York, many more states, and from several First Nations of Canada.
Panel discussions featured directors of successful language immersion schools such as ‘Aha P?nana Leo, the Cherokee Nation, and the Piegan Institute, as well as tribal language program directors working with small speaker populations—including communities in California (Karuk), Massachusetts (Wampanoag), and Oklahoma (Euchee and Sauk). The nonprofit organization Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival, which has over many years refined the master-apprentice method of immersion language learning, also presented an interactive language training workshop. The conference was held as part of the May 11-13 National Native Language Revitalization Summit in Washington, D.C., organized with Cultural Survival and the National Alliance to Save Native Languages.
Images of the American Indian, 1600–2000
December 4–5, 2008
NMAI and National Gallery of Art Explore Native Images in American Art
With the National Gallery of Art's Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Seminars & Symposia co-organized a Wyeth Foundation for American Art Conference titled Images of the American Indian, 1600–2000, which was held on the occasion of the exhibitions George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington and Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian, NMAI, Washington and New York. The two-day conference presented illustrated lectures by noted scholars Nancy Anderson, Ned Blackhawk, Philip Deloria, Leah Dilworth, Kate Flint, Michael Gaudio, Katherine Manthorne, Jolene Rickard, Paul Chaat Smith, and William Truettner.
Harvest of Hope: A Symposium on Reconciliation
November 13, 2008
November Symposium Focuses on Reconciliation
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, this timely and insightful forum moderated by Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Director Kevin Gover (Pawnee/Comanche) focuses on topical issues of reconciliation and highlights national apologies made to Native peoples.
The symposium covers the eloquent apology issued in June 2008 by the Canadian government for the abuse and cultural loss suffered by Aboriginal peoples in Canada's residential schools. It includes a presentation on the Native American Apology Resolution recently passed in the United States Senate as well as an examination of reconciliation efforts in Guatemala. A wrap-up speaker considers the issues involved in apologies and reconciliation processes in a broad scope. Concluding with panel discussion and questions from the audience, Harvest of Hope seeks a deeper, more inclusive understanding of our national narratives and the experiences of the Native peoples of the Americas.
National Museum of the American Indian
Smithsonian Institution
Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, SW
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Email: NMAI-SSP@si.edu