See you soon and a message about last week
Published on October 1, 2021 by Marina Lopez
Thank you so much for joining us for Solidarity Grantmaking and Investing last week!
You can find the recording here. You may notice that the we've removed the musical performance that ordinarily opens our sessions. We did this because we want to recognize, take responsibility, and apologize for the harm that was caused and the pain that was felt during last Friday's session due to the music/sound/performance at the start of the event. The performance included flute music that is not traditional to the Native presenter, a call to ancestors, and pan-Indian language in what felt like a ceremony. Ceremonies were illegal for Native peoples to use until 1978 and cannot be appropriated or taken and used and pan-Indian language and sounds creates harmful stereotypes.
The team at Art.coop should have asked the Native presenter how to start the event, and worked together to actively shape it. We are sharing this as we learn in public, as we commit to learning how to organize, collaborate, and hold space in solidarity. We believe that transformation and liberation cannot happen without commitment to education and repair. We are taking time to reflect, learn, and repair around how this music/sound/performance continues to perpetuate cycles of trauma, and we aim to move from commitment to action based upon what is requested of us, including training in decolonization, which will also include the voices of Indigenous people collaborating and shaping the work we do moving forward.
You can find the recording here. You may notice that the we've removed the musical performance that ordinarily opens our sessions. We did this because we want to recognize, take responsibility, and apologize for the harm that was caused and the pain that was felt during last Friday's session due to the music/sound/performance at the start of the event. The performance included flute music that is not traditional to the Native presenter, a call to ancestors, and pan-Indian language in what felt like a ceremony. Ceremonies were illegal for Native peoples to use until 1978 and cannot be appropriated or taken and used and pan-Indian language and sounds creates harmful stereotypes.
The team at Art.coop should have asked the Native presenter how to start the event, and worked together to actively shape it. We are sharing this as we learn in public, as we commit to learning how to organize, collaborate, and hold space in solidarity. We believe that transformation and liberation cannot happen without commitment to education and repair. We are taking time to reflect, learn, and repair around how this music/sound/performance continues to perpetuate cycles of trauma, and we aim to move from commitment to action based upon what is requested of us, including training in decolonization, which will also include the voices of Indigenous people collaborating and shaping the work we do moving forward.
We want to thank the members of Ohketeau Cultural Council and Double Edge Theatre who have generously supported us through conversation and learning. We also want to uplift their visionary work and encourage each of you to watch all parts of their series, The Living Presence of Our History (Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) and visit them online. The #landback work that these two organizations are engaged in models the cultural economy we want, and we are grateful that they are working with us to repair and transform.
Please join us today for our final session in this series for Making / Meaning: A live DJ set / jam session / zine making workshop with Cierra Peters & Paige Curtis of the Boston Ujima Project to brainstorm and create music, media, and printed materials together.
You can find us live HERE
And we will be here on this Jam Board to collectively create. If you need to keep your live stream window open for ASL or closed captions, please feel free to put your contribution in the chat and we will populate the jamboard.
Please join us today for our final session in this series for Making / Meaning: A live DJ set / jam session / zine making workshop with Cierra Peters & Paige Curtis of the Boston Ujima Project to brainstorm and create music, media, and printed materials together.
You can find us live HERE
And we will be here on this Jam Board to collectively create. If you need to keep your live stream window open for ASL or closed captions, please feel free to put your contribution in the chat and we will populate the jamboard.