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The Native & Indigenous Higher Education Symposium serves to create a reflection of Native culture that fosters a sense of belonging at UW Tacoma for Native and Indigenous students, raise awareness of the contributions and challenges of Native and Indigenous people, and instill a college-going culture within these younger generations from these communities.
Gathering Strength: Reigniting Indigenous Community and Success
November 22, 2024
9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Milgard Hall, Room 110 — UW Tacoma campus
Advance registration required
Agenda
- 9:00-9:20 Opening
- 9:20-10:10 Keynote Speaker: Indigenous Warriors – FSOCC Native Affinity Group (Panel)
- 11:05-11:50 UWT Campus Tour - Admissions
- 12:00 Keynote Speaker/Lunch: Carrie Chesnik: Trama Healing
- 1:00 Breakout Sessions #2
- 2:00 Closing
Keynote Speaker
Trauma Healing
Carrie Chesnik (Ojibwe)
Trauma healing: Reclaiming old life ways of experience to use with current tools for more effective social justice movements and everyday life. Science meets traditional indigenous knowledge. These tools offer key teachings that are life changing through creating peace, strength, confidence and compassion. Tools knowledge credited to the Center for Mind Body Medicine. These teachings are at the heart of Mashkikiike, which contributes community support for elders and youth including reclaiming original life ways and cultural practices.
Keynote Panel
Indigenous Warriors - CTC Native American Professionals Affinity Group
Maya Esquivido (UW Tacoma), Melissa Eyle (Peninsula College), Alexis Burris (South Seattle College), Cynthia DePoe (Pierce College - Puyallup), Danny Marshall (SBCTC)
The Indigenous Affinity Warriors Group was founded through attendance at the Faculty Staff of Color Conference 2022. We're a collected team of Native American Indigenous professionals from all levels of employment within Washington State Board of Technical and Community Colleges. We share information from our facilities that benefit Native American Indigenous students at every station of our group. We support one another not only in academia but in all forms of being Native Indigenous.
Breakout Presenters
Informative Session:
AISES (American Indian Science & Engineering Society) Puget Sound Professional Chapter
AISES Professional Chapters make a difference by: Acting as role models for students and other professionals by identifying community contributions of Indigenous scientists and engineers. Providing support and mentorship for students in transition from student status to professional status. Organizing professional development seminars and workshops to develop and enhance management, communication, and other skillsets. Sharing networking resources.
(re)Creation Stories; (re)Connecting with Self
Sonia Berry, UWT Ed.D. student
Since first contact, Indigenous communities have experienced traumatic injury and loss of collective memory due to the displacement, erasure and genocide that resulted in disconnection from Indigenous identity. Indigenous research shows that one traditional pathway towards healing from intergenerational trauma starts with breaking the silence and sharing our stories. We cannot heal from what we do not name. Based upon the research of Vicki Besaw and “The Transformative Power of Story” participants will engage in a reflective process of guided story mapping and storytelling to reconnect to their Indigenous identity and pivotal moments in their identity development. The process will be holistic incorporating visual, written and spoken methods. Participants will be encouraged to express their personal narratives with guided practice to (re)create their identity, (re)connect with self and move toward collective healing.
Explorative Case Study: Environmental Sustainability and Indigenous Science
Hozoji R Matheson, UWT undergraduate student
Hozoji Matheson-Margullis is a citizen of the Puyallup Tribal Nation and a senior at UW Tacoma. Her 14 years of working with both her tribe and non-tribal entities in the marine science world brought her to an academic journey at UW Tacoma. She is working toward an individually designed major in Environmental Sustainability and Indigenous Science. She will be presenting her ideas/goals on working with the local Tribal community and UW Tacoma to create a "Two-Eyed Seeing" Science degree at the University. "Two-Eyed Seeing" combines the strengths of Indigenous Ways of Knowing with the strengths of Western Ways of Knowing to do collaborative, equitable, and holistic work in the scientific research community. The goal of her talk is to introduce these concepts to new minds, to empower Native students who have interest in the scientific research world, and to join many others in giving voice to the scientific validity of the wisdom that is inherent in Traditional Indigenous Ecological Knowledge.
Strategies for Surviving School
UW Tacoma Ed.D. Muckleshoot cohort panelist: Yvonne Peterson, Betty Pacheco, Cheebo Hou-E-Now-E Frazier, Maya Esquivido-Strom
Join us for an insightful panel discussion where we delve into the motivations behind pursuing higher education and the challenges faced in graduate school. Our diverse panel of students and educators will share their personal journeys, exploring key reasons for their academic pursuits, such as passion for their field, career opportunities, and personal growth.
Past Symposiums
Indigenizing Education: Practicing Decolonial Pedagogy
November 15, 2019
- 8:30 - 9 a.m.: Check-in/Breakfast
- 9 a.m.: Opening Remarks by Director of the Center for Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Jimmy McCarty
- 9:05 a.m.: Blessing by Shelby Cross (Puyallup)
- 9:10 a.m.: E&I Welcome by Assistant Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion, Dr. James McShay
- 9:15 a.m.: UW Tacoma Welcome by Chancellor, Dr. Mark Pagano
- 9:20 a.m.: Keynote address by Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot)
- 10:15 a.m.: Breakout Session 1
- A Pedagogy of Peace: Using Peacemaking Circles in the Classroom
Learn about the history, philosophy, and practice of peacemaking circles, and explore ways they can be used in classrooms and other educational settings. (Dr. Jimmy McCarty)
- A Pedagogy of Peace: Using Peacemaking Circles in the Classroom
- 11 a.m.: Breakout Session 2
- Don't Leave Your Culture at the Door
Learn how to create a more equitable and inclusive atmosphere in your learning settings by giving space to individuals that speak indigenous and native languages and how this fosters a sense of belonging for your students. (Austin Escalera, UW Tacoma Senior)
- Don't Leave Your Culture at the Door
- 11:45 a.m.: Lunch in WPH
- 12:50 p.m.: Breakout session 3
- Learning in Place: Muckleshoot TEKnology in Practice
We will be diving deeper into the Muckleshoot story of putting theory into practice around indigenizing our education system and using our living history and culture to increase engagement, relevancy and empowerment with our students and in our community. With a focus on food sovereignty and living culture, we will start with story and give specific examples of how students are learning in place in the Tomanamus forest and how teacher trainings are providing the tools needed to bring cultural teachings to the center of the classroom. Participants will get a closer look at the Cedar Bentwood Box Teaching Toolkit and its curriculum. They will hear and see examples of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) lessons and their outcomes. (Leslie LaFountaine-Bill and Cinnamon Bear)
- Learning in Place: Muckleshoot TEKnology in Practice
- 1:30 p.m.: Indigenous Doctoral Student Panel with Professor Mera Penehira
- 2:15 p.m.: Closing remarks by Dr. Jimmy McCarty
Activism in Education
November 16, 2018
Featured presentation by Sui-Lan Hookano (Taino and Native Hawaiian) and Asia Tail (Cherokee Nation)
- 9 - 9:30 a.m.: Check - in/Breakfast
- 9:30 - 9:45 a.m.: Welcome Prayer
- 9:45 - 10 a.m.: Assistant Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion and Chancellor of UW Tacoma, Welcome
- 10 - 10:45 a.m.: Keynote address from Sui-Lan Hookano
- 11 - 11:45 a.m.: Workshop for Educators/Elders with Sui-Lan Hookano
- 11 - 11:45 a.m.: Student breakout sessions - Choose one below
- Indigenous Student Panel: In this insightful session, students will be able to hear the experiences of indigneous college students and their journey in higher education. There will an opportunity to ask personal questions of navigating higher education specifically UW Tacoma. This workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Danica Miller.
- It's All About You Workshop: Tired of being asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” In this workshop, we will take a different approach and you will answer different questions that matter to your family, community and – most of all - YOU. You will also get college resources and career tools to help you prepare for your future goals and dreams.” This workshop will facilitated by DJ Crisostomo and Vanessa Frias.
- 12 - 1 p.m.: Lunch
- 1 - 2:30 p.m.: Keynote address by Asia Tail for Educators and Elders
- 1 - 2:30 p.m.: Students will participate in a photo scavenger hunt around campus. This will be an interactive and fun way to explore UW Tacoma!
- 2:30 - 3 p.m.: Closing remarks
Indigenizing Education
November 13, 2017
- Keynote talks from Megan Bang, Ph,D, (Ojibwe) and Nicole Marie Sutton (Puyallup)
- Indigenous Student Panel
- Resource Fair
- Campus Tours
- Admission Presentation
Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian descent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research. Dr. Bang studies dynamics of culture, learning, and development broadly with a specific focus on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. She focuses on reasoning and decision-making about complex socio-ecological systems in ways that intersect with culture, power, and historicity. Central to this work are dimensions of identity, equity and community engagement. She works closely with Indigenous communities. She conducts research in both schools and informal settings across the life course. She has taught in and conducted research in teacher education as well as leadership preparation programs. Dr. Bang currently serves on the Board of Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Education.
