Check out the thread of programming co-sponsored by the AFS Local Planning Committee and local partners, including the Presidential Invited Lecture by Daryl Baldwin. [add anchor]
Native American Collections and Community Connections: A Philbrook Museum Tour
Wednesday, October 12, 2022, 1:30 pm–3:00 pm, Philbrook Museum of Art
Led by Christina Burke and Kalyn Barnoski
In this tour of the Philbrook Museum of Art, Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art Christina Burke and Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow for Native Art Kalyn Barnoski (Cherokee, Muscogee) introduced the museum’s collections, projects, and collaborations related to Native American art. Participants encountered works not presently on exhibition as well as receive a guided tour of the galleries and gardens with a focus on Indigenous arts. Discussions focused on the museum’s work collaborating with Native artists, communities, and nations. The program was free but signup was required.
This Land Is Whose Land?
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 10:30 am–12:30 pm, Woody Guthrie Center Theatre, 102 E. Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK 74103
Sponsored by the AFS Cultural Diversity Committee, the AFS Local Planning Committee, and the American Song Archives (Woody Guthrie Center and Bob Dylan Center)
Free and open to the public. Woody Guthrie first penned the words for what would become his most venerated song, “This Land is Your Land.” Nearly a century after it was written, the song remains active in the collective American consciousness, equally praised as it is debated. Though Guthrie, a white male folk hero, remained committed to excavating the plight of America’s most vulnerable, the question remains, just who is this song speaking to? Whose Land Is This Land? To further explore this question, the American Song Archives (Woody Guthrie Center® & Bob Dylan Center®) in collaboration with the American Folklore Society will host a paneled discussion titled “This Land Is Whose Land?”. Using Guthrie’s lyrics as a starting point, conversation will engage Native American leaders in topics relating to land and tribal sovereignty in the US and Oklahoma. Tracking present and historic Native lifeways panelists will provide an informed look into subjects from environmental justice and food sovereignty to state and federal governments and sacred sites. Read this article by Gustavus Stadler published by Aljazeera to contextualize the discussion in this special forum: www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/26/this-land-is-whose-land-the-history-of-woody-guthries-song.
Cherokee Language Concert
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm, Cain’s Ballroom, 423 North Main Street, Tulsa, OK 74103
Sponsored by the AFS Local Planning Committee, the American Folklore Society, the American Song Archives (Woody Guthrie Center and Bob Dylan Center), Cain’s Ballroom, and Horton Records
To celebrate the launch of the album Anvdvnelisgi (ᎠᏅᏛᏁᎵᏍᎩ) and the American Folklore Society’s Annual Meeting celebrating folk traditions and cultural preservation, the American Folklore Society, Woody Guthrie Center, and Horton Records present a Cherokee Language Concert with a few of the album’s artists. Led by Cherokee citizens as part of a wide-ranging commitment to preserve and expand the Cherokee language, the album is produced by Cherokee filmmaker and creator, Jeremy Charles and distributed by Horton Records, a non-profit 501c-3 committed to providing support and tools for Tulsa-area musicians to broaden their reach. The project was funded in part through the Commemoration Fund, dedicated to supporting bold and innovative efforts to correct social, political, and economic injustices that impact Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and People of Color.
Closing Reception and Participatory Native American Stomp Dance Hosted by the Duck Creek Ceremonial Ground
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 8:30 pm–11:00 pm, Cain’s Ballroom, 423 North Main Street, Tulsa, OK 74103
Sponsored by the AFS Local Planning Committee, American Folklore Society, Duck Creek Ceremonial Ground, Cain’s Ballroom, and Oklahoma Humanities
American Folklore Society Annual Meetings often conclude with a participatory and celebratory dance event. This year, the closing dance will be a participatory stomp dance hosted by the Duck Creek Ceremonial Ground, a Yuchi (Euchee) Ceremonial Ground of the Muscogee Nation whose membership includes people of Yuchi, Muscogee, Shawnee and other Native American heritages. The dance will be open to all annual meeting attendees as well as to other Native and nonNative participants. Stomp dance is the shared social dance form found among almost all of the Native American Nations of eastern Oklahoma, including among the Cherokee, Muscogee, Shawnee, and Yuchi living in and near the city of Tulsa.
AFS Presidential Invited Lecture: Miami Tribe – Miami University: Neepwaantiinki ‘Partners in Learning’
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 7:00 pm–8:15 pm, Tulsa South
Sponsored by the American Folklore Society
Lecture given by Daryl Baldwin (Kinwalaniihsia), citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Executive Director of the Myaamia Center, Miami University Ohio.
Since 1972, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio have been engaged in a partnership rooted in a concept of neepwaantiinki: ‘partners in learning’. Central to this 50-year relationship are the capacity building efforts of the Myaamia Center located on campus. The center serves as the research and educational development arm of the Miami Tribe with focus on language and cultural revitalization. Important to this effort are the use of extensive archives and the development of tools and processes that allow for archival content to directly serve the tribe’s educational needs and language revitalization efforts. This talk will broadly cover various aspects of this capacity building effort in the context of this unique tribe-university relationship and will share observations and lessons for the general work of community-institutional partnerships, especially but not only with Native Nations.
Watch the recorded lecture below [link to come].