Carol Anderson discusses Black voting, mail-in voting, and "voter fraud". Tells Maggie Bozeman and Julia Wilder story (my note: Google it). The power of the vote is the power of policy. It is transformative. #asalh2020
Dr. JZ: The system as-is works and can work when we vote for people who are responsive to our needs. But what happens when we try to participate in the system and it systematically tells you don't matter? #asalh2020
Dr JZ: Malcolm X continued to ask this question. It's not just about being invited to dinner. Just bc you're invited, doesn't mean you can dine (HT Malcolm X). Does the current system really work for Black people? What if I can't take it another day? #asalh2020
Dr JZ: Audre Lorde said she will not let go of her anger until something else comes along that is just as useful. What can you find that can keep you going and engaged? #asalh2020
Dr. JZ: Think about yourself as a drip that consistently drips on a single stone. A consistent drip is as powerful as a flood. #asalh2020
Sewell: Not voting is a vote. Not voting is allowing someone else to make decisions for you. Even if you are tired and frustrated, you must vote. In the face of voter suppression, you must vote. You must fill out the census. Must use many strategies. Must be engaged. #asalh2020
Sewell: Use your vote as your voice. To not be engaged is to leave your destiny up to others. #asalh2020
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Sherri Mitchell (Penobscot) is the final speaker at the #Indigenous History Conference. She is the author of the award-winning book Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change. sacredinstructions.life
Mitchell: What guidance have I been given that will lead me into the future? It's a circular route that we travel. We have to be living for all of our relations. This is how prayers are ended, relations are acknowledged.
Mitchell: so maybe that's where we should begin: how do we be good relatives? Think about grandmothers, mothers, aunties, they are the ones who have taught us how to be a good relative. This matrilineal line was directly attacked by colonialism and patriarchy.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is first up. If you haven't read her classic BRAIDING SWEETGRASS, you should get the beautiful special edition of it now (would make a great holiday gift!) from Milkweed Editions @Milkweed_Books: milkweed.org/book/braiding-…
Kimmerer: Will discuss the prophecies of the Seventh Fire which counter the myth of the First Thanksgiving and the overall lack of Native American historical literacy.
And the second session today at the #Indigenous History Conference is "From Traditional Knowledge to Colonial Oversight to Indigenous Integration: Educator’s Roundtable Indian Education in New England" with Alice Nash, Tobias Vanderhoop (Aquinnah Wampanoag),
Jennifer Weston (Hunkpapa Lakota, Standing Rock), and
Alyssa Mt. Pleasant (Tuscarora).
Vanderhoop: "The colonial system of education happened to us." Wampanoag in the colonized schools were seen as more controllable, agreeable, etc. But their intention to get rid of Native Americans via the colonize education system failed.
This morning I'm attending the second to last panels of the conference! "Writing Ourselves into Existence: Authors’ Roundtable: New England Native Authors and Literature" with Siobhan Senier @ssenier, Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel (Mohegan) @tantaquidgeon, Carol Dana (Penobscot),
John Christian Hopkins (Penobscot), Cheryl Savageau (Abenaki), and Linda Coombs (Aquinnah Wampanoag). This has been a fantastic conference, I hate that this is the last weekend! Thanks to all for your hard work! @Plymouth_400@BridgeStateU@joyce_rain18
Dawnland Voices edited by @ssenier is the first collection of its kind from Indigenous authors from what is now referred to as New England. Tribes are very good at shepherding their own literary works.