Celebrate Native American Heritage with Humanities Councils
November marked a time of gratitude but also commemoration with National Native American Heritage Month, and Indigenous cultures are often the focus of humanities councils’ work. The recipient of a grant from California Humanities, the virtual California American Indian Culture and Art as Pedagogy: A Teaching and Learning Exhibit centers on Indigenous ecology and systems of knowledge, and it’s accessible to all. In Florida, communities gathered virtually to hear Sandra Starr, an art historian who assisted in the grand opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, present “Beauty from Ashes: American Indian Art as Witness to American History.” A global, week-long social media event with Nebraska Humanities, Rock Your Mocs (#rockyourmocs) encouraged Indigenous people to post pictures of their moccasins and share their stories, promoting cultural pride and intertribal unity. And coming up in December, Maine Humanities welcomes Dr. Darren Ranco, whose lecture “Wabanaki Climate Justice & Adaptation” will take a close look at environmental threats to Indigenous livelihoods and the impacts of climate change specifically on the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the Wabanaki Tribal Nations.
