The Native American Student Center organized a keynote address and a film screening to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 12 and 13.
The first event featured was a keynote address from Nez Perce artist Kellen Trenal Lewis titled “Exploration into Identity and Cultural Survival” held on Oct. 12. Lewis owns and operates Trenal Original, his own business that focuses on underrepresented communities in modern culture, focusing on the visual arts.
As well as owning his own business, Lewis has worked for the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure the representation of underrepresented communities in the 2010 Census through organizing meetings, educational seminars and city-wide informational events. He has also served as the Native American student recruitment coordinator for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Notre Dame.
During his keynote, Lewis discussed incorporating his intersectional identities as both an Indigenous and Black man into his art and his work, aiming to bring the topics of identity, tradition, innovation and culture into the contemporary art scene.
“I aim to increase visibility for Native American and African American people,” Lewis said. “I take the conjunction of my identities and let the world know, I am here. We are here.”
The second event held on Oct. 13 was a film screening of “Gather,” organized by the Native American Student Center and the Center for Volunteerism and Social Action. The film was followed by a virtual Q&A panel featuring Indigenous representatives to discuss the film and answer any audience questions.
The film explored the “growing movement amongst Indigenous Americans to reclaim their spiritual and cultural identities through obtaining sovereignty over their ancestral food systems,” according to the Indigenous People’s Events page on the University of Idaho website.
“This is a story that is so familiar to so many of our tribes throughout the United States,” Leanne Campbell, the practitioner of Coeur D’Alene Tribal History and Culture and a member of the Cultural Tourism Program, said. “This issue touches us all—the issue of food sovereignty.”
The Q&A panel included Leanne Campbell, Dr. Philip Stevens, an assistant professor of anthropology and the director of American Indian studies at UI and Lucinda Simpson, an enrolled member of the Nez Perce tribe and a graduate of the Idaho Police Officer Standard Training Academy. AC Sanchez, the Food Distribution Coordinator for the Coeur D’Alene Tribe was present in addition to Ciarra Greene, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe General Council Resolutions Committee and Nicholas Kager, a deputy travel Historical Preservation Officer for the Coeur D’Alene Tribe.
The panel discussed the film’s main themes of food sovereignty, the connection between Indigenous communities and natural lands and food sources and the importance of educating Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals alike on the history and traditions of the Tribes around them to preserve the unique culture.
“For all of us that continue with our traditional knowledge and our way of life, this is a conscious decision for us to learn, and to deepen our own knowledge,” Campbell said. “We have a responsibility to learn everything that we can and try to teach what we know so that the culture can continue.”
Katarina Hockema can be reached at [email protected].