The CHR returns to Mason's ARIE Conference to present on joint project, "IndigenoUs Northern Virginia"
At Mason's first ARIE National Conference in 2022, the CHR presented a poster on our project, "Alienation and Belonging: Shifting Cultural Landscapes in Northern Virginia." This project was supported by a $10,000 Virginia Humanities Planning Grant.
This year, the team returned to present findings from an ongoing project "IndigenoUs Northern Virginia: Activating Local and Diasporic Native Identities at Mason," jointly carried out by the CHR, RRCHNM, and the Co-Creative History Space. This project, which carried on work completed in "Alienation and Belonging," was made possible by a $50,000 seed grant from Mason’s Office of Research Innovation and Economic Impact and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
We appreciated the opportunity to present our work, which we feel is a robust and instructive example exactly in line with the ARIE conference's stated 2024 theme, "Action through Research and Practice."
Our four presenters were co-PIs Associate Professor Gabrielle Tayac (History and Art History) and CHR Director and Professor Alison Landsberg (History and Art History; Cultural Studies), and advanced undergraduate students Nardi and Domi.
The session began with Professor Landsberg reading Mason's land acknowledgement, authored by Professor Tayac. Professor Landsberg then introduced the project and its grounding in the humanities, especially the public humanities. Speaking of how the project fits under the scope of work within the CHR, she stated, "In addition to supporting the humanities research that faculty and students are engaged in at Mason, we support and facilitate public humanities projects, projects that are community-based and in which knowledge is co-created with community partners and stakeholders-- knowledge which benefits the stakeholder community, the broader community, as well as the academic community."
She then turned to the evolution of the project, continuing to emphasize the importance of involving the community in research. Our unique location, and unique student population are foundational to the stakes of the project: "Mason as a campus and university is unique in many ways; it’s privileged to have a diverse student body, reflecting the demographics of the region. Northern Virginia has long been the destination of migrants from both Central and South America, which has led to the development of robust LatinX communities in the region. However, these LatinX identities are complicated, sometimes inflected by national ties (to Bolivia, El Salvador, Peru, etc.) but also by Indigenous ancestry. In categorizing students by national origin, as governments and universities do, alternative indigenous dimensions of identity get suppressed: a gesture which repeats, in a more subtle way, the violent impositions and erasures of colonialism." Both "Alienation and Belonging" and "IndigenoUS Northern Virginia" have allowed us to bring these alternative stories to the surface--not just of the violent historical past, but also of the incredible strength and resilience of migrant and Indigenous communities, both past and present.
Next, Professor Tayac provided us withan overview of the Indigenous Summer Institute she led alongside Professor Landsberg in June 2023, which included student participants from a variety of backgrounds--Indigenous, non-Indigenous, and many examining their relationship to indigeneity. Professor Tayac emphasized the initiative's commitment to community engagement and living, public history. She introduced attendees to the project's community partners (many of whom are also close friends) and partner organizations, including the International Mayan League, Barrios Unidos, Quechua Project. Colectiva Kawesay, Dr. Ricardo Sanchez, Chakana Ardaya, American Indian Society and Piscataway Tribal Members.
Professor Tayac also spoke of the inspiring creative work and learning happening at her Co-Creative History Space (formerly the Public History Lab), which continues to be an active and inspiring site of new actions and ideas for how we might indigenize Mason's campus and curriculum. She walked us through the experience of sharing food and bringing ceremony (a koa) to campus, asking the question, "When we bring community-based experience to campus spaces, how does that open opportunities for reimagining the university?" The summer institute provided students with a series of responses to this question, creating possibilities for participants and the land itself, all guided by Indigenous knowledge holders.
Mason senior Nardi then presented on the incredible representation of Indigenous populations among Latin American communities, showing how an identification with national origins, symbols, and traditions alone (including official national languages) can mask the richness and diversity of Indigenous identities and traditions in this landscape. By extension, in our own region of Northern Virginia--and at Mason specifically--these same dynamics are at play. Showing us the deeply personal nature of this work, and its impact on communities as well as individuals, Nardi told us about the way her own thinking about her identity shifted during the summer institute. She explained to us that while she used to identify as Bolivian, she now traces her origins not to this country, or through the language of Spanish ("Why do you think we speak Spanish?" she added, evoking the continent's violent colonial history), but to her own pueblo, Villaverde, and her own Indigenous language, Quechua. Meeting Quechua speakers from Bolivia who identified as Indigenous during the institute and associated events was life changing for Nardi, a sort of powerful homecoming she was surprised and moved to find had awakened a powerful new connection to indigeneity for her.
Nardi and Domi were then invited to present their insights on how place-based, experiential, and community-engaged learning are powerful educational experiences that bolster typical "lecture-style" or classroom-based learning. Domi spoke about how activating space in new ways on campus might more fully allow Mason to step into its own, shedding its old reputation as a commuter campus where students come only to attend class. Instead, through renewed attention to Mason as a physical place with an Indigenous history, we might transform it into a more dynamic and inviting space, full of possibilities and opportunities to engage with the land and with each other.
Please also see earlier (October 2023) articles about these projects by Hayley Madl and Sarah Holland.
March 19, 2024