On Saturday, January 23, 2010, Antioch College’s Morgan Fellows will host the second in a series of monthly symposia focusing on issues in higher education and society. The topic of this event will be “Native American Identity and Representation,” and will take place in the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, One Morgan Place, Yellow Springs, Ohio, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm with a reception to follow.
“The identities of Native Americans are inherently linked to landscape, relatives, and language,” says Beverly Rodgers, Ph.D., one of four Arthur Morgan Fellows at Antioch College. Even when relatives have gone on, the land degraded, and language fallen into disuse, these elements continue to form the context of identity for most Native Peoples. In representing these identities, indigenous writers, artists, and cultural workers face the dual necessities of educating a broader public to see past deeply rooted stereotypes of Native Peoples and creating awareness of the variety of Native experiences and realities. This has also meant a heightened interest in mixed blood, hybrid, and multiple identities, and in the increasingly common urbanized Native realities.