(bright music) - Hello and welcome to Journal.

I'm Steve Kendall.

It's an effort to make more visible, the artistry, activism, and presence of contemporary Native American artists.

It's called In the Round, and we'll be talking about it in detail in just a moment.

Joining us are Heidi Nees and jenn stucker from Bowling Green State University to talk about the speaker series In The Round.

I wanna welcome you both to Journal.

- Thank you.

- And jenn, let's start at the very beginning.

In The Round from the concept stage, from the first time the name came up or the idea.

Talk about how this came about, and then we can expand on that.

- Yeah, and first, thank you so much for having us here.

[Steve] Sure.

[jenn] So, yeah, In The Round, Heidi and I were part of the Land Acknowledgement Statement Committee.

Heidi, in fact, chaired that committee, and I was serving as a member.

And so, we got to the conclusion of developing the statement, and this statement was really about creating a cohesive one for the whole entire institution to use.

Faculty using different types, and so, how could we check the research, make sure it's solid across the whole institution as we present that.

So once then the statement went through student government, and Faculty Senate, and all the powers that be, then it became, "Well, those are really great words And important words that need to be said and acknowledged," but then, "Now, how do we put those words into action?"

Really became, for us, the next thing, and so, there was a grant, an interdisciplinary grant through Gland's Family Research for innovation in collaborative faculty, and so, I reached out to Heidi through this processes, and said, "You know, what do you think about us connecting together and creating a speaker series that recognizes what is known at the Arts Roundtable at BGSU?"

So it's the different sectors, the arts, creative writing, music, theater, film, and in design, and so, how do we maybe represent all of those areas through that?

And so, we wrote a proposal, and our idea was to have a speaker that reflected each of those different disciplines.

And so, the name, then we wrote a proposal.

We were awarded the grant, and then started to develop, and we also asked all the area disciplines of recommendations of who should be brought in those areas of Native American creatives.

And so from that list, we developed that group, very long list.

We still have many to invite, and then the name came from the Arts Roundtable, but also it's a language that really unites our two disciplines, her being in theater, and mine being in the arts.

When you are In The Round, a theater that's seen from all sides, or a piece of sculpture that's seen from all sides.

- [Steve] 360.

- Yeah, and then one of the facilities that we primarily use or try to use when available is the Donnell Theater, which is also a round theater.

So that really became the impetus for, we have this opportunity, the vehicle, and then it just really grew.

Our list was amazing, and we started to work across the campus and community partners like the public library, to help bring in these speakers, and so, what started pretty like, yeah, a few speakers, just became this really great series, and then, of course, at the end of completing that, we were like, "Well, we can't just do this for one year.

That would be like checking a box."

- [Steve] Right.

- And so now it's really become something we're very, very committed to long term.

- Well, and you mentioned the land acknowledgement, and that's the recognition by the university that, of course, this was Native American Indigenous people's land before it was settled or whatever, by people coming into the country.

Heidi, from your perspective, obviously, you said this is collaboration, we've got so many school of art, and we've got theater and film.

So talk about your role in this, and how you've envisioned this coming together, and how it has come together.

- Yeah, I think that, well, one of the things that we talked about with land acknowledgement and developing the statement is the idea of presence.

And so, land acknowledgement statements do recognize history, but they also recognize for the tribal nations for whom this is still homeland.

- [Steve] Still there.

- Right?

Yeah.

This is still very much homeland for many tribal nations, and so, thinking about the idea of presence, and here in Ohio, we have no federally or state recognized tribes.

However, interestingly, in Ohio, we have the highest rate of high school "Indian" mascots.

And so, we started thinking about, what is the relationship there?

What is the correlation there, right?

There's this perceived absence.

Of course, there's not an absence of Indigenous people in Ohio.

- [Steve] Right.

- But there is, again, an absence of federally recognized tribes.

And so, also thinking about the ways in which, in K-12 education throughout the United States, oftentimes, students stopped learning about Native Nations at about 1900.

- [Steve] Right.

- And so we wanted to really highlight this idea of presence, the presence of native artistry within our country, within our state.

Also thinking about how native artistry responds to issues that native nations are still facing.

And so, again, really wrapping in that idea of presence, and so, this dovetails some with my own research, and so, jenn and I were able to have a lot of conversations about how do we render that presence?

And so, I think that that's a lot of my contribution.

Also, I grew up in Ohio.

I grew up in Piqua, Ohio.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- And so, I grew up, yeah.

I grew up in a town that's very much has a rich Shawnee and Miami history, and that also has an Indian mascot.

And so, thinking about, for me, how these different ideas resonate as well.

[Steve] Well, and you make an interesting point, and it's something you don't think about, and now that as you mentioned that, that sort of after 1900s, sort of like, Native Americans disappear from American history because they've been resettled permanently after being moved all through history across the United States, and it is interesting that after that, they sort of disappear from, because the resettlement, the wars or whatever you want to call them, were over.

So it is an interesting point to like, yes, they're still here and they're still doing, they're still being Native Americans and Indigenous people doing what they do and with all their representation in these various, like the arts, that sort of thing.

When you first started talking about this, how easy was it to get people to get on board?

I'm assuming fairly easy, but you know, it's a big topic and to some degree, a little bit controversial.

You know, when you mentioned mascots, of course that raises everybody's eye also.

- [Heidi] Yeah.

- Was there any discussion about how to approach this to make sure everybody felt comfortable with the idea?

- Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, it's raising awareness of issues that, again, because of a perceived absence in this state, maybe these are issues that people haven't been aware of before, right?

And so, our first speaker, Seth Thomas Sutton, who's out of Michigan, he's an Anishinabic scholar, professor, artist, a filmmaker.

He spoke and one of his works is a book he wrote about the deconstruction of Chief Blackhawk.

So referring to the hockey team in Chicago and thinking about the ways in which the images that are used go way back centuries, right?

How they haven't just popped up in the 20th century, right?

- [Steve] The 20th century.

- That they go way back in tracing this history.

And he also has a film that he worked on about Standing Rock.

And so he talked about that as well.

And the way he's using art and activism to raise awareness, again, of contemporary issues, and how images that have been in our society for a long time continue to affect people today.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

[jenn] And we can certainly look at the Super Bowl recently, right?

And the Kansas City Chiefs.

- Chiefs, sure.

- Depiction of the mascot and the war chants that are done by the participants, and recognizing that those are harmful representations that are not accurate.

Some perceive that this is an honoring rather than sort of making a mockery or trivializing what it means to be a native individual.

[Steve] But we come back, let's talk more about that because it is interesting that yeah, literally yesterday when we're recording this, obviously the day after the Super Bowl, and yes, you had the Kansas City Chiefs there, and of course, as you mentioned too, all over Ohio are Indian references and yet that's the level of acknowledgement, kind of, so.

- Yeah.

- Back in just a moment with jenn stucker and Heidi Nees here on The Journal.

Thank you for staying with us here on The Journal.

We're talking with jenn stucker and Heidi Nees, who are part of the program series called In The Round, which is trying to build and making sure we're more aware of Native American and Indigenous people in the now, the 21st century, versus how we've dealt with them over time and the contributions they continue to make that they are still here.

It's not as if, as we were talking earlier, they disappear from the history books in 1900 as if, "Okay, nothing more to say about them."

And in the last segment, we're talking a little about the fact that the representations are out there, and again, we tend to lump them, Native Americans into one group, when in reality there are well hundreds of tribes, if not thousands of tribes originally here.

And one of the things the series tries to do is delineate that, open that, like define that a little bit more.

So it isn't if, "Oh, Native American one size fits all," sort of thing.

This is someone from a particular tribe that existed or still does exist.

So talk a little about the effort to provide illuminate that part of it too.

That they aren't just all one, sort of monolithic Native American group.

- [Heidi] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- There are currently 574 federally recognized tribes.

- Okay.

- So we're talking about 574 separate sovereign nations.

Each with their own systems of governances, each with their own cultures, et cetera.

So I'm thinking for instance of Sadie Red Wing who was here, and she's Lakota and she talked about in her graphic design work, oftentimes she integrates into the design, motifs or images that are specific to her Lakota culture and heritage.

And so I think also about Mary Kathryn Nagle who was here in October, and she's a citizen of Cherokee Nation.

And she writes, she's a playwright, and she writes plays from that perspective, especially bringing her family into her own family history into the plays.

She's also a lawyer who works in tribal law.

And so that Cherokee Nation very much informs her approach to the work that she does.

- Yeah, yeah.

[jenn] And I was just gonna add that our speakers, we're allowing them to bring that information, as white women, it wouldn't be responsible for us to speak about what represents Lakota or Cherokee or Laguna Pueblo.

So our speakers, we we're creating that space, right?

To allow them to share with us and present with us their backgrounds.

And so that information is accurate and reflective, and also speaks from the heart and the place of which they've created their own identity in that space.

[Steve] Yeah, because you think about it, yeah, they have, as you said, history stops.

We quit talking about Native Americans at that point.

So all of that, that's happened in the last, now 100, close to 125 years.

We see items show up, for instance, on Antiques Roadshow, there'll be a basket, there'll be some sort of weaving sort of thing.

And that's about as much as we get even there, which is a good thing.

But it doesn't really come close to telling the whole story, although there'll be little bits of information about the historical background and that sort of thing.

But as you said, no one's able to do it like the people that are immersed in that, that grew up through that, that have the history and the background.

So that's- [jenn] We're even looking in that way.

So our last speaker was Pat Pruitt, who Heidi's wearing earrings that he made there.

He works from a very technological perspective, using very advanced tools.

He spoke quite a bit about AI in work and in the future of creation.

And so many have a perspective that an Indigenous jewelry maker is gonna do bead work.

- [Steve] Yeah and they're still doing it the way they did and- - Right, and that is not.

There are motifs from his history that are in that work, but they're very technologically driven pieces.

[Steve] Yeah, well that's a good point because again, we sort of think, "Oh, there's still the movie vision version of them, someone sitting there doing whatever by hand."

And the reality is 21st century people just like everybody else, and yet somehow we don't think of it that way as the way we should.

So when you looked at who to bring in and the artists and the different people, was there an effort to try and provide a real across section of people?

Or did they just sort of naturally fall into place and, "Oh, here's someone who would be really good at this."

Did you try to, or was it just these are the best people?

Was there like, make sure we represent every single piece of this?

Or how did that come about?

[jenn] There are so many best people.

There are.

(all laugh) [Steve] I figured that was the case.

- Yeah.

- So I thought, okay, right?

[Heidi] Yeah, I mean we want it to a variety of specifically tribal identities and cultures represented.

But also just thinking about the type of work that people do.

Also, the availability of speakers.

We very much wanted to invite a children's book author and illustrator.

- [Steve] Right.

- And so last year we hosted the author and illustrator of We Are Water Protectors, and Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade.

And we wanted to do that in part so we could partner with the Wood County district public library.

- [Steve] Okay.

- And so, because it was very important for us to be able to reach out to the community as well, and to make sure that we were covering interests that would reach a wide cross section of ages as well.

So getting kids involved because what better way to start teaching people- [Steve] Yeah.

- Than teaching kids.

[Steve] Yeah, yeah, it really is.

Yeah, sure, go ahead.

[jenn] It's dealing with a contemporary issue as well as the Dakota Access Pipeline.

So bringing that other piece of information to young children about why this is such a challenge.

So it's not necessarily steeped in just a family narrative, but also how it really relates to our space and time.

[Steve] Yeah, well, and it's in a good point too, because again, you can this way, especially with children through illustrations, through these children's books, tell them a story that they can relate to, they can understand.

And yet also then brings them into the fact that this is a population, these are people that exist today and here's some of the history, but here's who they are today as well, which is really important.

When we come back, we can talk about obviously a little more about this, but then you have obviously have another big event coming up in about a month from now or a few weeks from now.

We can talk about that as well.

Back in just a moment with jenn stucker and Heidi Nees of In The Round from Bowling Green State University, here on The Journal.

Thank you for staying with us here on The Journal.

Our guests are jenn stucker and Heidi Nees from the In the Round program at Bowling Green, which is bringing Native American and Indigenous artists to campus and participating in many other activities as well, to sort of remind people that Indian history and Native American history didn't stop in 1900.

That these people are still around, they're still just doing what we all do as well and in representing their art in ways that are 21st century versions versus how we see them, let's say when things show up on Antiques Roadshow.

So, jenn, talk a little bit more about, obviously you have guest speakers coming in, not just this spring, but also in the fall, but they're doing more than just doing one presentation, one speaker event.

- Yeah, they're definitely multifaceted.

So we've been able to connect with the ICS Institute for the Study of Culture and Society to do podcasts through their Big Ideas.

So our speakers have participated in that.

We've also worked with the libraries to develop live guides, so there's extra access there.

Our speakers have come to classroom visits, and so they've done many talks with our students.

When Carole and Michaela came, they also went to the library and gave a talk the next day.

So really, really, an integrative, immersive experience.

The meals that we've shared with them, we've invited colleagues or students and even former alums to have opportunities to connect with them one-on-one.

And so it's not just come for a talk, but it's really, a day long, sometimes two day long experience and we're really excited that they leave so delighted to learn about our campus.

I mean, the music library has blown away several of our visitors.

(Steve laughs) - [Steve] Sure.

- And also Finders Music.

Can't not mention that.

(Heidi chuckles) - [Steve] Great, sure.

- But yeah, so it's been a really great experience.

And then also, I have to say as a graphic designer, I've been able to produce the graphic design materials for this project as well.

And so that also gives me a different way to experience.

And so on the first set of poster and there's elements in this poster that include printmaking pieces that are from my former student that is, her ancestry is Cherokee and Creek Muscogee.

And so some of her printmaking pieces have been incorporated, and so I've been able to work- - [Steve] Wow.

- With her in that as well.

So making sure that we're having as many touchpoints as possible in this experience.

[Steve] Yeah, well and it sounds like too, when these folks are here, these people are here, they get to sort of know them other than just by what they're representing with their art.

They get to actually get to know them and hear things that might necessarily show up in their presentations.

Obviously, you've had speakers on campus for the past, recent past.

You have somebody, two people coming on the 24th of March, which is a big event, and then obviously in the fall a follow up.

So talk a little bit about what's gonna happen on the 24th when Kevin Noble, is it Maillard?

- [Heidi] Maillard.

[Steve] Maillard.

And Juana Martinez-Neal are here.

- Yeah, so we are calling March 24th, "Fryday."

- [jenn] Fryday.

- Because it is a Friday.

But also we're celebrating their book Fry Bread.

- [Steve] Fry Bread.

F-R-Y, Fry Bread.

- Native American Bread.

- Yep, F-R-Y, Fry Bread and Native American Family story.

And so we are so lucky and excited that they will be joining us here in Bowling Green on March 24th, Friday.

- [Steve] Right.

- And then Saturday, March 25th.

And so we've partnered with the Mazza Museum, out of the University of Findlay - [Steve] Findlay.

- Mm-hmm.

And as well as the Wood County District Public Library.

And so they will be touring the Mazza Museum with some BGSU students on Friday.

They'll also be recording an ICS Big Ideas podcast episode, and then giving a campus talk at 5:30 in Olscamp 101.

Again, that's Friday, March 24th.

That talk is free and open to everyone.

So everyone, you don't have to be affiliated with the university to attend.

And then the next day, they'll be speaking at 10:00 AM at the Wood County District Public Library.

There will be a registration on the Wood County District Public Library's website for that event because space is a little bit more limited.

- [Steve] Sure.

- But that is also free and open to the public.

And each family that attends will be getting a copy of Fry Bread.

- [Steve] Oh, a book.

- Courtesy of WBGU.

So we are- - [Steve] Shame yourself.

- Yes.

- [Steve] While you getting all the credits, right?

(all laugh) No, we're glad, we're happy to be a part of it, obviously, so.

- [Heidi] Yeah.

- Yeah and it's interesting because the Fry Bread book tells a real story.

- [Heidi] Yes.

- I mean it tells on the surface, okay, it talk.

If you appear, talks about this.

But it's a family story.

It's a family historical story and tells it very, very well.

Very well, so yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

- It's beautiful.

And I will say the back matter of the book has a recipe for fry bread.

And it also gives some of that history, which is a great resource for parents and teachers to also be able to help contextualize for children, the story.

[jenn] Yeah, the meaning of fry bread.

And then I guess our second part of our announcement.

[Steve] Well give us a little hint of the meaning of fry bread.

Not to give away the whole plot of the book, or the whole story.

But can we briefly, yeah?

- Well.

- Just, yeah.

[Heidi] To quote my five year old's- - Okay.

(jenn chuckles) - Favorite line of the book.

- Okay.

- Fry bread is everything.

[Steve] Yeah, okay, well that pretty much says it then.

- Yeah.

[Heidi] It's a beautiful story about family and connection and something that has become part of cultural practice.

And so, yeah.

[Steve] Yeah, yeah.

And, now go ahead, I'm sorry.

[jenn] No, I was just gonna say that we're thankful to WBGU to help us make possible additional books available that we're gonna be providing to K through 3 children in Bowling Green City schools.

[Steve] Oh, great.

[jenn] And so that's a big part of the story that Heidi was mentioning earlier about how do we educate young children about Native American stories and Indigenous people, of this region and beyond.

And so we see this book as a great, for many people, a first step in seeing Native Indigenous stories being told.

[Steve] Yeah, yeah.

And I think that as we talked about earlier, you mentioned that especially for children, learning about it in that context is extremely important.

You mentioned too, obviously this isn't just a one year thing.

You have the event on the 24th and we'll remind people of that before we leave today.

But obviously you've got things coming up in the fall as well to follow through with this.

So talk briefly about that as well.

[jenn] Yeah, so our fall speaker is Ryan Redcorn.

[Steve] Okay.

[jenn] So he has many hats.

So he's a photographer, WGA screenwriter.

He's also a graphic designer.

So he's really crossing a lot of platforms for us.

He also happens to be a current writer on the TV hit show Reservation Dogs.

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

- And so I think that'll be a big interest to a lot of young students in campus, individuals that have been watching the show, right?

That there's an opportunity.

And we'll also have a film screening of a short film that he's done as well with that talk.

So, and he'll also be in classroom visits- - [Steve] Through the whole.

- All of that.

Through the whole experience, yeah, live guides and interviews.

So we're really excited to have him.

And then, we have an ever-growing list.

Last year was six talks.

We're really proud to bring in, technically seven speakers over six talks.

And it was a lot to manage, so we did have to dial that back a little bit.

So we're working hard to make sure there's always something in the fall, in the spring, that we're bringing those stories.

So our list is big and that's a great challenge to have.

And so we're already thinking about next 2024 and beyond.

- [Heidi] Yeah.

[Steve] Well, because there's obviously lots of stories to tell and lots of people out there who have, who can bring the things that you've talked about to the campus and to the area as well.

But yeah, we wanna remind people.

Anything else that we haven't touched on that you wanna talk about briefly?

We know that the event on the 24th.

Wanna make sure people are there with the 24th and 25th actually as well.

And just the whole idea of this to remind people that when they see an Indian, Native American name, that it's more than just a representation for a sports team or the title of something.

There's a lot of history behind that, that remains to be told.

And that, it continues.

It didn't just stop at that point, as you mentioned the Chicago Blackhawks.

It's not as if Chief Blackhawk showed up when they made the National Hockey League team, and yet that's most people's frame of preference on who he was.

So, yeah.

So it's a really good, and the university's acknowledgement of the land here, that was Indigenous people's land, Native American land as well.

So it's a really good thing.

So I appreciate you both taking all the time to do this and come on and talk about it.

And we'll have you back sometime, in the fall to talk about before the fall event, to make sure people are aware of that as well.

[Heidi] That'd be great.

- Great work, very well.

- Thank you.

(chuckles) [jenn] Thank you.

[Steve] Thank you so much.

So thank you jenn stucker, Heidi Nees for being here.

You can check us out at wbgu.org, you can watch us every Thursday night at 8:00 PM on WBGU-PBS.

We will see you again next time.

Good night and good luck.

(bright music)