AFS Annual Meeting Highlight: Myaamia Language Advocate Daryl Baldwin to Deliver the Presidential Invited Lecture

The Presidential Invited Lecture for the 2022 Annual Meeting will be given by Myaamia language advocate and MacArthur Fellow Daryl Baldwin (Kinwalaniihsia), citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Executive Director of the Myaamia Center, Miami University Ohio. The lecture will take place Saturday, October 15, 7:00 pm. The title of Baldwin’s lecture is “Miami Tribe – Miami University: Neepwaantiinki ‘Partners in Learning.’” The program is sponsored by a grant from Oklahoma Humanities.

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.

This in-person session will be live-streamed, and the session will be recorded and available for later viewing online. View session details on the Annual Meeting Hub.

Praise for Baldwin’s Presidential Invited Lecture

“One of the key concepts of my Presidency is the principle associated with Kwanzaa known as Kujichagulia, or Self-determination:  To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.  With his life and his work, Daryl Baldwin has fully embodied this—especially by revitalizing the language of his people, the Myaamia.” – Marilyn White, President, American Folklore Society

“The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma has been at the forefront of Indigenous language renewal work—and in cultural renewal work more broadly—and Daryl Baldwin has played a central role in those efforts over an extended period. Beyond his work in support of the Miami people and in building up the Tribe’s vital partnership with Miami University, he has played a key leadership role in projects such as the Breath of Life archival institutes for Indigenous languages that have had important, positive impacts on communities from across North America. Folklorists can learn much from the work of the Miami people and their partners across the Myammia homelands. MacArthur Fellow, National Council on the Humanities member, and Miami citizen Daryl Baldwin is an ideal person to share these lessons with the AFS community and with others who will gather with us in Tulsa.” Jason Baird Jackson, Professor, Indiana University

“I am excited to see this work highlighted at the presidential lectures at the Tulsa AFS conference because it is such a great example of a longstanding and reciprocal relationship between a higher education institution and an Indigenous sovereign nation working together to acknowledge and disrupt the effects of centuries of U.S. colonialism.” Sarah Milligan, Head of the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program and Hyle Family Endowed Professor

More about Daryl Baldwin

• In the fall of 2016, Daryl’s lifelong efforts, and arguable those of his family, tribal community, and university, were recognized with an award from the MacArthur Foundation.
• “President Biden Nominates Daryl Baldwin to National Council on the Humanities.”