"Postcolonial" Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World

CFP: Engaging Indigenous Communities: Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence

2009-10-31T03:18:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR PAPERS

Engaging Indigenous Communities:
Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence

August 9-13, 2010
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada

This conference is being undertaken in honour of the 1850 Robinson Treaties. The vision of the Anishinabeg leaders to protect our heritage and resources while sharing with the newcomers. It is this vision that remains as relevant today as it was 160 years ago. Contact between different peoples has resulted in a multitude of responses including peaceful interactions, uneasy relations, and far too often to war and genocide. Recognizing the autonomy of nations to determine their futures, including the allocation of resources, or the lack of such recognition, has sometimes been mediated by various types of agreements and treaties. It is through access to, or exploitation of resources (i.e. human, land, forest, mineral, water, and animal), that the colonial project has had the greatest affect on Indigenous peoples and Indigenous peoples on the colonial project. Thus the focus of the conference will be on exploring Indigenous peoples’ perspectives on resources, and the moments in history (and in present day) when Indigenous peoples have fought (peacefully or otherwise) to protect those resources. It is the contemporary resurgence of Indigenous perspectives and understandings or appropriate relationships to resources that we hope informs the conference. The conference will begin on the 9th with registration and at conclude at noon on the 13th of August.

Presentations on the following themes are encouraged with other related proposals welcome

How do Indigenous communities define ‘resources’?

How do Indigenous communities regulate/relate/engage with resources?

How have historical neglect, misrepresentation, misunderstandings affected Indigenous communities’ relationships with their resources?

How have agreements and/or treaties protected/attempted to protect resources?

Are treaties valid methods to protect resources?

How have community-university partnerships advanced Indigenous access to and/or protection of resources?

How have universities forwarded exploitation of Indigenous people and resources?

How can a relationship between the larger society and Indigenous people be shaped to benefit the environment?

Individual papers and panel submissions are welcome. Please submit a 250-350 word proposal for individual papers and 250-500 word proposal for panels. Please submit you proposals electronically by email or mail to the address below. The deadline for submissions is 8 January 2010. For further information please contact

Dr. Karl Hele
c/o Organizing Committee
Engaging Indigenous Communities: Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence
Department of Community Economic and Social Development
Algoma University
1520 Queen Street East
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Canada P6A 2G4
eicrrr@gmail.com

Indigenous Studies Engages Ethnic Studies

2009-03-11T16:51:00.001-07:00

Due to the success of last year's Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World Conference, the UCSD Ethnic Studies Department will organize a symposium on May 8th, 2009 titled Indigenous Studies Engages Ethnic Studies. The intent of the symposium is to further the dialogue between scholars and students of these two disciplines, in the hopes of pushing Ethnic Studies to take seriously the place of indigenous people in modern racial politics and also indigenous theories of knowledge and social change. The link for the symposium website is below as well as the mission statement for the symposium:

Indigenous Studies Engages Ethnic Studies

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Mission

As scholars in the Ethnic Studies Department at UCSD, we stand incredibly proud of the cutting edge critical race and ethnic studies work developed in our department, and in its potential to push the limits of the larger Ethnic Studies project. In this spirit, we find that in order for Ethnic Studies to move beyond the usual emphasis on immigration, diaspora and slavery paradigms, the critical potential of Indigenous Studies should become an integral part of our intellectual agenda. Just as the scholarship ‘about’ people of color does not describe our notion and practice of Ethnic Studies, scholarship ‘about’ indigenous people must reflect more than merely the violent history of the academy within indigenous communities. It must, in fact, engage the sophisticated indigenous theories, which have been circulating for many years, especially those that confront the ways in which colonial power still operates in nation-states. In the last few years, a number of graduate students and faculty have taken important steps towards facilitating this integration. These include the creation of the “Voicing Indigeneity” podcast, the Post-colonial Futures in a Not-Yet Post-colonial World Conference, and the proposal for an indigenous studies focused cluster hire.

Building on these efforts, we are organizing a one-day critical indigenous studies symposium to be held on May 8, 2009. The symposium focuses on native feminism scholarship because we believe it offers a critical perspective missing in both indigenous studies and in most analysis of race, gender, sexuality, colonialism and citizenship. We have invited Andrea Smith, Audra Simpson and Noenoe Silva, scholars who are at the forefront of this field of thought. Additionally, we have invited 3-4 senior graduate students who are not only moving the field in new directions, but more excitingly are doing so by employing theories emerging from our Ethnic Studies department, thereby highlighting the critical possibilities that lie at the interstices of these fields. Furthermore, this symposium anticipates our desire to improve the recruitment of indigenous graduate students, post-docs and faculty.

We hope the department will actively participate in this symposium in order to push the limits of our scholarship and political commitments, whether they directly fall within what is traditionally seen as the indigenous field or not. Ultimately, this symposium is an invitation to engage in a productive troubling of the ethnic studies project as well as to expand our understanding of what indigenous studies can be.

Conference Photos

2008-06-30T02:25:00.001-07:00

Conference Audio #4

2008-05-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

"The Audacity of Hope: Contemplating the Futures of Stateless and Refugee Peoples" was the closing plenary for the was the opening plenary for the conference, "Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies," which took place March 5-7, 2008 at the Ethnic Studies Department at University of California, San Diego. This panel hoped to highlight the political âin-between-nessâ shared by indigenous, stateless and refugee peoples. While the panel was interested in considering the productivity of âstatelessnessâ as a category for resistance and transformation, we would also like to discuss the different historic-political conditions that confront indigenous populations in settler and postcolonial societies, refugee populations formed through violent displacements and other global formations of statelessness. The panel took place on March 7, 2008 and consisted of Renya Ramirez (UCSC), Chandan Reddy (UW) and Jesse Mills (USD).

Click here for audio

Conference Audio #3

2008-05-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

"Beyond the Fourth World Wall: The Global Practicing of Indigeneity," was a plenary panel for the conference, "Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies," which took place March 5-7, 2008 at the Ethnic Studies Department at University of California, San Diego. This panel hoped to put into conversation different notions of indigeneity as articulated within European settler/colonial societies and within postcolonial worlds. More specifically this panel was interested in discussing indigenous movements across the globe, in order to highlight the multiple and complex ways in which indigeneity is understood, positioned and practiced globally. This panel took place March 6th 2008 and consisted of speakers Denise Da Silva (Ethnic Studies UCSD), Vince Diaz (U Michigan) and Robert Perez (UC Riverside). Robert Perez by personal request, has been edited out of the audio.

Click here to listen to the audio.

Conference Audio #2

2008-05-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

"Intersections: A Conversation with UCSD Faculty" was a plenary panel for the conference, "Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies," which took place March 5-7, 2008 at the Ethnic Studies Department at University of California, San Diego. This panel consisted of UCSD faculty who discussed their work, their ideas or the work of their departments in the context of the conference theme. The panel discussed in relation to the conference theme, what sort of work is or isnât being done here at UCSD, and what the panel members or other faculty, grad students or departments are doing to make this campus a more receptive place for doing cutting edge ethnic, indigenous and postcolonial studies, or work which straddles these intellectual disciplines. The panel took place on March 6, 2008 and its participants were Rosemary George (Literature), Ross Frank (Ethnic Studies) and Roberto Tejada (Visual Arts).

Click here to listen to the audio.

Conference Audio #1

2008-05-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

"Global Histories/Local Designs: Contemplating San Diego as a Glocal City," was the opening plenary for the conference, "Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies," which took place March 5-7, 2008 at the Ethnic Studies Department at University of California, San Diego. This panel was billed as "A panel of activists from different local organizations who will discuss the ways in which San Diego through issues of militarization, borders, Native American tribes fits into the theme of the conference, or how these issues position San Diego as a site where different ethnic, postcolonial and indigenous world intersect, conflict or disappear." The panelists were Andrea Guerrero, San Diego ACLU and Mshinda Nyofu, UJIMA Institute for Civic Responsibility. This panel took place at the Duetz Room in the Institute of the Americas on March 5th.

Please click here to listen to or download the audio from this panel.

Acknowledgments

2008-03-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

The conference was a great success and I'll be posting more info and photos on it soon. In the meantime the conference committee would like to thank and acknowledge the following groups and individuals for their support and help.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to William Runk, Yolanda Escamilla, Theresa Aitchison and Jackie Griffin, for sharing their knowledge, expertise and time, and for keeping the Ethnic Studies department running!

To K. Wayne Yang, Pat Washington, Yen Le Espiritu, Susan Gordon and Lisa Sun-Hee Park, thank you for encouraging your classes to participate!

Thank you to the following individuals for their generous support:
Kim Barrett, Dean of Graduate Studies
Beckie Callahan, VP of Finance, Graduate Student Association
Wayne Cornelius, Director for the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies
Paul W. Drake, Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
Jeff Elman, Dean of the Division of Social Science
Heath Fox, Assistant Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities
Ruth Padron, Program Coordinator for Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies
David Pellow, Director for the California Cultures in Comparative Perspective
Thea Tagle, OGS Community Intern
Gershon Shafir, Director, Institute for International, Comparative and Area Studies
Eric Van Young, Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities

Many thanks also, for their strong interest and support, to:
Rosemary Marangoly George and Lisa Lampert, Department of Literature
Gary Fields, Department of Communication
David Gutierrez, Department of History
Roberto Tejada, Department of Visual Arts

Thank you to the following student organizations for their support:
Shae Lynn Zastrow from the Native American Student Alliance
The Ethnic Studies Collective

To Drew Hendricks and Scott Mosher of Hi-Rez Digital, and Jack Lujan Bevacqua of Pump Fake Nation – thanks for your awesome artwork!

Thank you to Angela Morrill, Madel Ngiraingas and Michael Lujan Bevacqua for sowing the seeds of this conference through their Voicing Indigeneity podcast.

To all our invited guests, presenters, and participants – thank you for making this possible!

Last but definitely not the least, thank you to the graduate students in Ethnic Studies and our fantastic faculty: Pal Ahluwalia, Roberto Alvarez, Yen Le Espiritu, K. Wayne Yang, Ana Celia Zentella. Thank you especially to Lisa Sun-Hee Park, Ross Frank, Denise Ferreira da Silva and David Pellow for their tireless support and guidance.

Conference Registration

2008-03-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

Please click here for online registration form.

Registration closes February 29, 2008. We look forward to seeing you in March!

Conference Schedule

2008-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, March 5

3.00 – 4.30 PM
Plenary 1: UCSD Ethnic Studies Colloquium: Meet some of our newest Faculty Deutz Room, CILAS*
- K. Wayne Yang
- Roshanak Kheshti

5.00 – 6.30 PM
Plenary 2: Global Histories/Local Designs: Contemplating San Diego as a Glocal City Deutz Room, CILAS
Moderator: Ross Frank
- Louis Guassac, Kumeyaay Border Task Force
- Andrea Guerrero, San Diego ACLU
- Mshinda Nyofu, UJIMA Institute for Civic Responsibility
- TBA, Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee

6.45 – 8.00 PM Reception and Undergraduate Film Screenings Deutz Room, CILAS
Moderator: K. Wayne Yang
- Joseph Ramirez, “Untitled"
- Lawrence Mojado, "Native America”
- Matthew Reiderer, "From your pen I sprang"
- Chris Marino, "Qui estamos y no nos vamos"
- Yusria Malik, "Care"
- Terri Phan, “Human Trafficking of Women & Children"

Thursday, March 6

8.30 AM Breakfast SSB** 103

9.00 – 10.30 AM
Panel A: A Critique of Colonial and Postcolonial Reason IR/PS*** 1328
Respondent: Long Bui, 3rd year, Ethnic Studies
- Post-colonial mindscapes and shifting burdens – whose frame is it anyway?
Garga Chatterjee, Harvard University and Somnath Mukherji, Association for India’s Development
- Demystifying the Post(colonial): An Examination of Myth as Meeting Point Between Ethnic, Indigenous, Postcolonial and Gender Studies
Amina Ben Ezzeddine, Washington State University
- Nativism: A Strategic History of Western Colonial Discourse
Sean Corbin, University of California, Riverside

Panel B: The Possibilities for Sovereignty and Resistance Against US Colonialism in the Asia-Pacific Region IR/PS 1428
Respondent: Cathleen Kozen, 3rd year, Ethnic Studies
- Transnational Feminism, Competing Domesticities: Circuits of Ethnicity, Indigeneity and (Post)coloniality
Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, University of Hawai`i at Manoa
- Bridges are Made with Many Footsteps: Re-imagining Filipino Identity as Resistance to a Militarized Present
Ellen-Rae Cachola, California Institute of Integral Studies
- O La Ata: Shadows, Reflections, and Images
Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Independent Artist
- Spectacles of Citizenship: Native Hawaiian representations and rights
Maile Arvin, University of California, San Diego

10.45 AM – 12.15 PM
Plenary 3: Intersections I: A Conversation with UCSD Faculty SSB 107
Moderator: Rosemary Marangoly George
- Ross Frank, Ethnic Studies
- Rosemary Marangoly George, Literature
- Roberto Tejada, Visual Arts

12.15 – 1.15 PM Lunch Fireside Lounge

1.30 – 3.15 PM
Panel A: The Ghost of Guam in the Machinery of American Sovereignty IR/PS 1428
Respondent: Michael Lujan Bevacqua, 4th year, Ethnic Studies
- Antoinette Chafauros, Ursuline College
- Michael Perez, California State University Fullerton
- Michael Leon Guerrero, Grassroots Global Justice
- Michael Lujan Bevacqua, University of California, San Diego

Panel B: Immigrant and Indigenous Subjectivities in the Borderlands SSB 103
Respondent: Stevie Ruiz, 1st year, Ethnic Studies
- Strategic Reflections on Indigenous and Migrant Alliances Against Borders
Nandita Sharma, University of Hawai’i Manoa and Cynthia Wright, York University
- Sovereignty, border control and citizenship: Intersections of immigrant and indigenous rights talks in the United States
Monisha Das Gupta, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
- Peripheral Migration: Potentialities of Border Subject to Become Decolonial Subject
Keina Espiñeira Gonzålez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
- Identity Formation in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones and Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl: A Comparative Look at Two Contemporary African and Caribbean Novels
Chinenye Okparanta, University of Maryland

3.30 – 5.00 PM
Panel A: Futures Imperfect: Indigenous Interrogations of the Postcolonial IR/PS 3202
Respondent: Tomoko Tsuchiya, 3rd year, Ethnic Studies
- Indigenous Interrogations of the ‘Postcolonial’ in Mahasweta Devi’s “Imaginary Maps and After Kurukshetra"
Arumina Paul, University of Southern California
- Postcolonial Futures and the Pre-Modern Past in “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”
Joanne Lipson, University of Michigan
- Encountering My (Colonized/Colonizer) Self: Reconciling Conflicting Subjectivities
Beenash Jafri, York University
- ‘See’ing the city as a contested landscape through the lens of Indigenous histories
Julia Nagam, York University

Panel B: Intersections II: A Conversation with UCSD Graduates SSB 103
Moderator: José Fusté, 5th year, Ethnic Studies
Provincializing Literature
- Neel Ahuja, Literature
Criminalization, Race and Citizenship in the Processo Mohoza, Bolivia, 1899-1905
- Nancy Egan, History
Beyond the Quandary of Nation/Post-nation: What Latin Caribbean Subaltern Thinkers Can Teach Us
- José Fusté, Ethnic Studies
Pollyanna in Ethnic Studies
- Angela Morrill, Ethnic Studies
The Coloniality of Cream Cheese: True Confessions of an (Almost) Grad School Drop Out
- Traci Voyles, Ethnic Studies

5.15– 7.00 PM
Plenary 4: Beyond the Fourth World Wall: The Global Practicing of Indigeneity Hojel Hall of the Americas
Moderator: Denise Ferreira da Silva
Angana Chatterji, California Institute of Integral Studies Americas
Denise Ferreira da Silva, University of California, San Diego
Vince Diaz, University of Michigan
Robert Perez, University of California, Riverside

7.00 – 9.00 PM Open Mic and Dinner Women's Center

Friday, March 7

8. 30 AM Breakfast SSB 107

9.00 – 10.30 AM
Panel A: (Un)Exceptional States SSB 107
Respondent: Kit Myers, 2nd year, Ethnic Studies
- Palestinian Predicaments: Jewish Immigration and Refugees Repatriation
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Tel-Aviv University
- Silenced Conversations: American-Israeli Exceptional Relation and What It Means for Arabs and Arab Americans
Magid Shihade, University of California, Davis
- Reconceptualizing the Refugee Figure Through the Intersection of Statelessness and Indigeneity
Ma Vang, University of California, San Diego
- (Many) Nations Within: Sovereignty and Nativism in the Rural U.S.
Rachel Ida Buff, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Panel B: Spaces of Resistance: Critical Responses to Contemporary (Post-)colonialism SSB 103
Respondent: Tere Ceseña, 7th year, Ethnic Studies
- The Amasizghs mainly known as “Berbers” The Education Policy of North Africa: The Case of Morocco, Algeria
Ed Larchgar, Tamaynut Morocco
- Comparative Maya, Nahautl and Latino Studies
Gabriel S. Estrada, Cal State Long Beach
- (Red)efining Boundaries: Representations of Contemporary Native Lives and Identities at the National Museum of the American Indian
Tere Cesena, University of California, San Diego

10.45 AM– 12.30 PM
Plenary 5: The Audacity of Hope: Contemplating the Futures of Stateless and Refugee Peoples Hojel Hall of the Americas
Moderator: Lisa Sun-Hee Park
- Jesse Mills, University of San Diego
- Renya Ramirez, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Chandan Reddy, University of Washington

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch Hojel Hall of the Americas

* CILAS – Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies/Institute of the Americas
** SSB – Social Sciences Building
***IR/PS - International Relations/Pacific Studies

Local Hotel Information

2008-03-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Sheraton La Jolla
(official conference hotel)
3299 Holiday Court
La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel: (866) 500-0335 (UCSD line)
Fax: (858) 453-5550
3 minutes or 0.77 miles
Special contract UCSD rate: $159/night
*Please ask for UCSD Ethnic Studies conference rate, limited spaces available

Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine
3777 La Jolla Village Drive
San Diego, CA92122
Tel: (858) 552-1234
Fax: (858) 552-6066
3 minutes or 1.17 miles
UCSD rate: $199-284/night
Special rate not always available.

Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa
9700 North Torrey Pines Road La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel: (858) 550-1000
Fax: (858) 550-1001
3 minutes or 1.53 miles
UCSD rate: $180-210/night

Marriott Residence Inn La Jolla
8901 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037
Reservations: (800)-876-1778
Tel: (858) 587-1770
Fax: (858) 552-0387
4 minutes or 0.93 miles
UCSD rate: $149-219/night

San Diego Marriott La Jolla
4240 La Jolla Village Drive
La Jolla, California 92037 USA
Phone: 1-858-587-1414
Fax: 1-858-546-8518
5 minutes or 1.90 miles
UCSD rate: $162.00/night
Special rate not always available.

Hotel La Jolla At the Shores
7955 La Jolla Shores Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92037
Reservations: 1-800-666-0261
5 minutes or 2.57 miles
UCSD rate: $139-159/night

Hilton in La Jolla
10950 North Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037
Phone: 858-558-1500��
Fax: 858-450-4584
5 minutes or 2.86 miles
UCSD rate: $208/night
Special rate not always available.

Holiday Inn Express in Mission Bay
4610 De Soto St
San Diego, CA 92109
Phone: 858-483-9800
Fax: 858-483-4010
9 minutes or 5.70 miles
Regular rate: $106-110/night

Hampton Inn in Del Mar
11920 El Camino Real
San Diego, CA 92130
Phone: 858-792-5557
Fax: 858-792-7263
9 minutes or 6.06 miles
UCSD rate: $119/night

Homestead Sorrento Valley
9880 Pacific Heights Blvd
Sorrento Mesa, CA 92121
Phone: 858-623-0100
Fax: 858-623-9600
10 minutes or 5.26 miles
UCSD rate: $114/night

Holiday Inn Express La Jolla
6705 La Jolla Boulevard
La Jolla, CA 92037
Phone: 858-454-7101
Fax: 858-454-6957
12 minutes or 4.98 miles
Regular rate: $160-185/night

Days Inn San Diego at Sea World
3350 Rosecrans Street
San Diego, CA, 92110
Phone: 619-224-9800
Fax: 619-224-0706
12 minutes or 9.42 miles
Regular rate: $94-112/night

Almost Time

2008-03-01T20:16:00.001-08:00

Less than a week now before the conference. The committee is hard at work on the last minute details to ensure the conference is a success! See everyone next week!

Guma'Famoksaiyan Gathering

2008-03-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

Please distribute widely...

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Guma’Famoksaiyan
Gathering Strength for our Journey Ahead
May 23-25, 2008
San Diego, California

Famoksaiyan is a group comprised of dedicated and passionate people who work on issues of decolonization, cultural and language revitalization and the dissemination of information regarding the proposed military build up of Guam. The organization’s first conference was held in San Diego, California, on April 14-15, 2006, and was titled “Famoksaiyan: Decolonizing Chamorro Histories, Identities and Futures.” The people who attended that first gathering left with the desire to transform the energy and excitement of the conference into something more sustainable.

Famoksaiyan translates into “the time or place of nurturing or growing,” or “the time to paddle forward.” And it was in this spirit that more than 70 Chamorros and individuals of other ethnic identities from Guam gathered together to share their work, ideas and stories in hope of effecting a positive change for Chamorro communities in the Marianas Islands and the United States.

In a short period of time, Famoksaiyan has organized and assisted in organizing several historic meetings, trips and conferences. Most prominently amongst these have been the following:
• Three trips to the United Nations to testify to the international community on the question of Guam.
• The “Decolonizing Our Lives” forum held at the University of Guam, which gathered more than 250 people. The event served to educate individuals about what different organizations are doing to facilitate Guam’s political and cultural decolonization.
• A second Famoksaiyan conference held on April 20-22, 2007, in Berkeley and Oakland, California. Titled Famoksaiyan: “Our Time to Paddle Forward,” Summit on Decolonization and Native Self-Determination, the conference brought together more than three hundred people to share and learn about the struggles of indigenous people in the Pacific and the Americas.

As part of Famoksaiyan’s continuing commitment to the decolonization of Chamorro lands and lives, we are pleased to announce in cooperation with Chamorro Hands in Education Links Unity (CHELU) Inc.:

Guma’Famoksaiyan
Gathering our Strength for the Journey Ahead

Day 1 Friday, May 23, 2008 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Famoksaiyan Sustainability Meeting
CHELU Inc. Office
334 Willie James Jones Ave
San Diego, CA 92102

Day 2 May 24, 2008 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
I Salud i Taotao yan i Tano’
Joyce Beers Community Center
1220 Cleveland Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103

Day 3 May 25, 2008 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Ma’cho’cho’cho’ para i Mamamaila
Sons and Daughters of Guam Club
334 Willie James Jones Ave
San Diego, CA 92102

In times past, knowledge, skills, family and village histories were passed down to the younger generations through different guma’ or houses, such as the guma’saga’ or the family home, or the guma’ulitao, the bachelor’s house. In these spaces young Chamorros, would be given the crucial knowledge of their family, clan and village genealogy, and also be imparted the necessary skills for tasks such as planting, fishing, navigation, debate and weaving. Through this inter-generational sharing, young Chamorros would be prepared to be productive, respectful and active members of both their clan and their village.

As Chamorros and their islands face uncertain futures due to various economic, health, environmental, military and social concerns, it is crucial that we come together to work towards developing progressive solutions to these problems. This year’s gathering hopes to continue the spirit of our ancestors by creating a guma’famoksaiyan, or a house where we can nurture each other, grow and strategize ways to continue paddling forward. We will do this by first, providing presentations and facilitating discussions about fundamental issues that are affecting our people and our islands, whether it be health and diet issues, the impending military buildup, the reality of Guam’s physical environment, the decolonization of Guam and the plight of the Chamorro language. Second, in the hopes of building a more progressive and critical Chamorro / Guam community, we will also convene working groups to discuss different projects and strategies to creatively and effectively confront the existing problems that face our island.

Attending the gathering is free, however donations will be taken throughout the weekend. Please contact Michael Lujan Bevacqua (mlbasquiat@hotmail.com) or Leiana San Agustin Naholowaa (leiana@gmail.com) or visit the Guma’Famoksaiyan website at http://famoksaiyan.blogspot.com for more information.

Chamorro Hands in Education Links Unity, Inc. (CHE’LU) is the official fiscal sponsor of Famoksaiyan and the Guma’Famoksaiyan gathering in May 2008 in San Diego, California. CHE’LU is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all donations made to Famoksaiyan are eligible for tax deduction. Neither CHE’LU nor Famoksaiyan support any political candidate, party or affiliation in compliance with the laws governing nonprofit institutions.

Airport Transportation

2008-02-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

A Blue Shuttle
1-800-719-3499

Access Shuttle
619.282.1515 / 800.690.9090

Airport Shuttle
619.234.4403

Cloud 9 Shuttle
800.9.SHUTTLE (800.974.8885)

Coronado Livery
619.435.6310

EZ Ride
800.777.0585

Seatop Shuttle
619.222.2744

Sea Breeze Shuttle
619.297.7463

Xpress Shuttle
800.900.RIDE (7433)

The Flyer
800.COMMUTE (266.6883)

Directions to SSB from Sheraton La Jolla - Campus Shuttle

2008-02-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

1. Take UCSD Nobel Shuttle from La Jolla Village Center (Villa La Jolla Drive) to Mandeville Auditorium on UCSD campus. (Please see map below or ask hotel for directions to UCSD Shuttle stop.)

2. From Mandeville Auditorium walk straight north to Social Science Building. Please see campus map for more detailed directions: http://maps.ucsd.edu/Default.htm

For additional UCSD shuttle and city bus routes, please visit: http://blink.ucsd.edu/Blink/External/Topics/Policy/0,1162,11788,00.html

Directions to UCSD from Sheraton La Jolla - Driving

2008-02-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

Sheraton La Jolla to Pangea Parking Structure
1: Start out going WEST on HOLIDAY CT toward VILLA LA JOLLA DR.
2: Turn RIGHT onto VILLA LA JOLLA DR.
3: Turn LEFT onto LA JOLLA VILLAGE DR.
4: LA JOLLA VILLAGE DR becomes N TORREY PINES RD.
5: Turn RIGHT onto PANGEA DR.
6: Turn RIGHT onto SCHOLARS DRIVE NORTH
7: Turn LEFT into Parking Structure

Pangea Parking Structure to Social Sciences Bldg (SSB)
1: Walk on Scholars Drive North towards PANGEA DRIVE
2: Turn LEFT onto Pangea Drive
3: Walk uphill on Pangea Drive.
4: End at SSB

Pangea Parking Structure to Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS)
1: Walk on Scholars Drive North towards PANGEA DRIVE
2: Turn LEFT onto Pangea Drive
3: Walk uphill on Pangea Drive past first Stop Sign.
4: Take your next left (a small road/fire lane). Go to the end.
5: End at CILAS (on the left-hand side).

Directions to UCSD from L.A. - Driving

2008-02-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

L.A. to Pangea Parking Structure, UCSD
1: Take I-5 S.
2: Take the GENESEE AVE exit- EXIT
3: Take the GENESEE AVE WEST ramp.
4: Merge onto GENESEE AVE.
5: Turn LEFT onto N TORREY PINES RD.
6: Turn LEFT onto THURGOOD MARSHALL LN.
7: End at [1-9] Pangea Dr,
La Jolla, CA 92037, US

Directions to Sheraton La Jolla from L.A. - Driving

2008-02-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

1: Take I-5 S.
2: Take the LA JOLLA VILLAGE DR exit- EXIT 28.
3: Turn RIGHT onto LA JOLLA VILLAGE DR.
4: Make a U-TURN at LA JOLLA SCENIC WAY onto LA JOLLA VILLAGE DR.
5: Turn RIGHT onto VILLA LA JOLLA DR.
6: Turn LEFT onto HOLIDAY CT.
7: End at Sheraton Hotel La Jolla:
3299 Holiday Ct, La Jolla, CA 92037, US

Press Release

2008-02-07T23:50:00.000-08:00

For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Lujan Bevacqua
futures0308@gmail.com

‘Postcolonial’ Futures in a Not-Yet Postcolonial World:
Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies

Conference Will Look at the Futures of Indigenous, Ethnic and Postcolonial Peoples Across the World

(San Diego, February 10, 2008) On March 5-7, 2008, the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego will be hosting a conference titled “Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies.” This conference will bring together scholars and activists from the United States and from around the world, who are engaged in organizing and scholarly work across ethnic, indigenous and postcolonial communities.

Traditionally, Ethnic Studies deals with minority peoples in first world nations. Postcolonial Studies is about the formerly colonized, now developing world. Indigenous Studies engages with communities that claim ties to land which the modern world rarely respects and they constitute nations, but are not nation states. Each of these disciplines is widely thought to be divided because of the specific segments of the global population they represent.

Yet across the world, these communities are far from divided, but rather exist entangled with each other. Indigenous people, while often numerical minorities are nonetheless fundamentally different than other ethnic minorities around issues of sovereignty, citizenship and immigration. Postcolonial nations, which were born from fiery revolutionary fervor, now assume the violence of their former colonizers, against indigenous peoples. At the same time, in places such as Central and Latin America, a resurgence of Third World Leftist politics is being accompanied by a resurgence of indigenous populism.

The goal of this conference is to bring scholars and practitioners from each of these disciplines, as well as those who work at the intersections of these disciplines, into conversation with each other, in hopes of finding better ways to address the structures and systems of violence which mark the contemporary world.

Our conference will open with a panel of representatives from different local organizations who will discuss the ways in which San Diego, fits into the theme of the conference by addressing issues related to immigration and borders, militarization, and local Native American tribes.

The conference is made possible through support from the following UCSD offices, departments and programs: Dean of Social Sciences, California Cultures in Comparative Perspective, Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor, Graduate Student Association, The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, and the Departments of Ethnic Studies, History, Visual Arts and Literature.

What: “Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies”
Time and Place: Wednesday to Friday, March 5-7, 2008. Social Sciences Building and the Institute of the Americas Complex, University of California, San Diego
Admission: Free and Open to the Public

For more information please contact Michael Lujan Bevacqua at futures0308@gmail.com.

Keynote Speakers:
Angana Chatterji, California Institute of Integral Studies
Denise da Silva, University of California, San Diego
Vicente Diaz, University of Michigan
Jesse Mills, University of San Diego
Renya Ramirez, University of California, Santa Cruz
Chandan Reddy, Washington State University

Local Org. Panel:
Louis Guassac, Kumeyaay Border Task Force
Bernice Paipa, Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee
Andrea Guerrero, American Civil Liberties Union
Mshinda Nyofu, UJIMA Institute for Civic Responsibility

2008-02-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

Published on Monday, February 11, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
Biofuel Demand Leading to Human Rights Abuses, Report Claims
by Jessica Aldred

EU politicians should reject targets for expanding the use of biofuels because the demand for palm oil is leading to human rights abuses in Indonesia, a coalition of international environmental groups claimed today.

A new report, published by Friends of the Earth and indigenous rights groups LifeMosaic and Sawit Watch, said that increasing demands for palm oil for food and biofuels was causing millions of hectares of forests to be cleared for plantations and destroying the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.

The report, Losing Ground, said many of the 60-90 million people in Indonesia who depend on the forests are losing their land to the palm oil companies.

Pollution from pesticides, fertilisers and the pressing process is also leaving some villages without clean water.

“The unsustainable expansion of Indonesia’s palm oil industry is leaving many indigenous communities without land, water or adequate livelihoods. Previously self-sufficient communities find themselves in debt or struggling to afford education and food. Traditional customs and culture are being damaged alongside Indonesia’s forests and wildlife,” the report reads.

It claims that oil palm companies often use violent tactics as they move in to convert the land to plantations.

“Human rights - including the right to water, to health, the right to work, cultural rights and the right to be protected from ill-treatment and arbitrary arrest - are being denied in some communities.

“If palm oil is to be produced sustainably, the damaging effects of unjust policies and practices in the Indonesian plantation sector must be addressed,” the report said.

The alleged human rights abuses come after several recent reports have highlighted the environmental problems caused by the conversion of land for farming palm oil.

Last week a study by the University of Minnesota and Nature Conservancy, published in Science, found that the carbon lost through the clearance of forests, peat lands or even grasslands far outweighs the greenhouse gas savings that can come from biofuels.

Conversion of land for corn, sugarcane, palm oil or soybeans released 17 to 420 times more carbon than the annual savings from replacing fossil fuels with bioethanol or biodiesel, the researchers said.

Last month the Commons environmental audit committee called for a moratorium on targets for the use of biofuels until their impact could be better assessed.

The EU currently wants biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel to make up 10% of transport fuel by 2020. Britain has a separate target of 5% of biofuels in petrol and diesel by 2010.

In its energy directive last month, the commission proposed the introduction of sustainability criteria because of fears about the environmental impact of growing fuel crops.

But Friends of the Earth and LifeMosaic said the targets would drive a huge increase in palm oil in Indonesia, adding there were plans for a further 20m hectares of plantations by 2020 - an area the size of England, the Netherlands and Switzerland combined.

Friends of the Earth biofuels campaigner, Hannah Griffiths, said: “As well as being bad for the environment, biofuels from palm oil are a disaster for people.

“MEPs should listen to the evidence and use the forthcoming debate on this in the European parliament to reject the 10% target.

“Instead of introducing targets for more biofuels the EU should insist that all new cars are designed to be super-efficient.

“The UK government must also take a strong position against the 10% target in Europe and do its bit to reduce transport emissions by improving public transport and making it easier for people to walk and cycle,” she added.

© 2008 The Guardian

Invited Speakers

2008-01-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

Right now, we are in the middle of confirming our invited speakers for the panel. So far we've confirmed with the following people:

Anjana Chatterji, California Institute of Integral Studies
Renya Ramirez, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jesse Mills, University of San Diego
Vince Diaz, University of Michigan
Chandan Reddy, Washington State University
Annette Reed, Sacramento State
Denise Da Silva, University of California, San Diego

Another Reason for this Conference

2008-01-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

Kumeyaay Border Task Force

2008-01-17T13:20:00.000-08:00

At present we are looking to put together a local San Diego panel for the conference, which will present the work that different social, community and activist groups are doing in the area, that fits in with the theme of the conference. Here is one of the groups we're interested in inviting.

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Kumeyaay border project brings benefits
Posted: August 28, 2006
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

TUCSON, Ariz. - Kumeyaay in California are reuniting with Kumeyaay in Baja California, Mexico, with exchanges that benefit tribal members on both sides of the border. However, Kumeyaay now face a new threat on the border, since the United States has waived laws to construct the triple-layer border wall, which threatens tribal gravesites in southern California.

Speaking at a border workshop in Tucson, Louis Guassac, executive director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force, said Kumeyaay are opposed to the current plan for construction of the border wall, which would ''plow through'' their ancestors' gravesites.

Guassac pointed out that the United States has done away with environmental and other laws that would protect the region and Kumeyaay ancestors in order to build the wall's third layer.

''They can plow right through there without any consciousness of the human remains there. Would they take their grandmothers' graves and bulldoze over them?'' Guassac asked.

''We are against the mistreatment of human remains and plowing them over with a machine,'' Guassac said, pointing out that Patriot Act laws now ''trump'' all other laws.

In September 2005, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced he was exercising his authority according to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the Real ID Act of 2005, and waived certain legal requirements, including environmental and other laws. Chertoff said it was to ensure completion of the 14-mile Border Infrastructure System near San Diego, according to a statement by Homeland Security.

Kumeyaay, however, have lived in the region now referred to as southern California and northern Baja California, Mexico, since time immemorial.

''It has taken 300 years to suppress, divide and separate us,'' Guassac said of the arrival of Europeans in the 1700s and creation of the international border in 1848.

His comments came while conducting a workshop on border issues for the Tucson-based indigenous advocacy organization Alianza Indigena sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance without Borders at the University of Arizona's Department of Women's Studies. Pascua Yaqui, Tohono O'odham, Pima from Gila River and Yaqui from Mexico were among those who attended Aug. 18.

Guassac said Kumeyaay were taken away to boarding schools and forbidden to speak their language during the 1900s. With the Kumeyaay communities divided by the border, it became increasingly difficult to maintain their language, culture and traditions in the United States.

The reunion of Kumeyaay from north and south of the border is helping to revive the language and culture in the United States and providing some basic food necessities for Kumeyaay in Mexico.

There is, however, no quick fix for reviving language and culture, he said.

''We have to think long-term. There is no short-term fix. We are looking at eight generations down the road.''

Kumeyaay are now seeing more Kumeyaay at ceremonies than they have seen in 25 to 30 years because of the ongoing cross-border efforts.

Describing border passage problems for Kumeyaay, Guassac said since the beginning of Operation Gatekeeper in the 1990s, crossing the southern border has been more difficult. After Sept. 11, 2001, security measures at the border made passage even more difficult.

The Kumeyaay Border Task Force was entrusted with government-to-government consultations in an effort to obtain short-term border crossing visas for Kumeyaay in Mexico.

After years of efforts, the task force developed an informal agreement for Kumeyaay in Mexico to receive cultural visas, known as Laser Visas B1 and B2. The visa regulations include passage for cultural purposes. The visas are now are being used by the Yuman-speaking Kumeyaay and neighboring Pai Pai of Baja, Mexico, relatives of Yavapai in Arizona.

Currently, 680 Kumeyaay and Pai Pai have U.S. visas because of this effort. Guassac said the visas are restricted to the issue of ''pass and re-pass,'' a term used for those entering the United States for short periods for family, ceremonial and cultural purposes.

Once the government-to-government informal agreement was in place, the first hurdle was for Kumeyaay in Mexico to obtain Mexican passports. The task force transported 50 tribal members from Mexico to San Diego per trip. Kumeyaay chose the border port of entry at Tecate, Calif., for passage, known to be less violent than some ports of entry.

Meanwhile, Kumeyaay presented the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico, with an orientation on the history and culture of the Kumeyaay. Still, there were many complications. For instance, non-Indian spouses of Kumeyaay in Mexico were not given U.S. visas. However, the United States requires that both parents must accompany children entering the United States or a lone parent must present a written affidavit from the other parent. This issue is resolved between individual parents and border agents.

There are parameters as well. ''If there is a smuggling issue or a drug issue, we don't get involved,'' Guassac said.

The Laser visas have proven to be secure against counterfeiting. Further, the visa effort resulted in a baseline census that has provided demographic benefits, he said.

Each Kumeyaay community in Mexico, where traditions remain intact, decides whether a person is Kumeyaay based on ancestry, traditions and cultural considerations. There is no blood quantum requirement.

Now, each Christmas, Kumeyaay in the United States deliver bundles of food staples in a semitrailer to their Kumeyaay relatives and Pai Pai neighbors in villages in northern Mexico. Local Kumeyaay coordinators in Mexico select food items.

The month of December was selected because the slowest time for Kumeyaay to obtain work is between November and March.

''It just happens to be Christmas,'' Guassac said. ''The food carries them through April.''

Guassac said the goal is not simply to deliver material goods to their relatives in Mexico. ''We don't want to be fishermen bringing them fish. We want to bring them tools.''

During the border workshop, Fidelia Flores, Yaqui from Bacum Pueblo in Sonora, Mexico, praised Kumeyaay efforts.

''I'm happy for what you have accomplished; it happened because of the good will of the Kumeyaay in the north.''

Flores said most Indians in Mexico whose communities are divided by the international border are not receiving assistance from their relatives in the north. ''The main obstacles are the tribal councils on this side,'' Flores said.

Flores, a retired village schoolteacher, said Yaqui in Sonora, Mexico, numbering 25,000 to 30,000, have not had the backing of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in the United States.

Flores said Yaqui in Sonora have relied on Yaqui ceremonial leader Jose Matus in Tucson, director of the Alianza Indigena sin Fronteras/ Indigenous Alliance without Borders, to assist with border passage for ceremonies.

Deadline Extended

2008-01-16T23:33:00.000-08:00

The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to Wednesday, January 16th. We look forward to receiving more exciting abstracts and thank all those who have already submitted theirs. The review process will be completed by the end of the month and all applicants will be notified then.

Call for Papers

2008-01-07T03:03:00.000-08:00

(NOTE THE NEW DATE!)

CALL FOR PAPERS

"POSTCOLONIAL" FUTURES IN A NOT-YET POSTCOLONIAL WORLD:
Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous, and Postcolonial Studies

March 5-7, 2008
Ethnic Studies Department
University of California, San Diego

In September 2007, after twenty years of debate, the United Nations finally passed the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – a huge symbolic victory for indigenous peoples around the world who struggle under predatory and exploitative relationships with(in) existing nation-states. At the same moment, the UN was lumbering along in the 18th year of its impossible attempts to eradicate colonialism, with groups from around the world flocking to it to petition for the decolonization of their territories or to demand that their situations at least be recognized as "colonial."

Across all continents, indigenous and stateless peoples are struggling for and demanding various forms of sovereignty, as the recently decolonized world is sobering up from the learning of its limits and pratfalls. Postcolonial societies that were born of sometimes radical anti-colonial spirits, now appear to be taking on the role of the colonizer, often against the indigenous peoples that reside within their borders. In places such as Central and Latin America, a resurgence of Third World Leftist politics is being accompanied by a resurgence of indigenous populism. Meanwhile the recent arrests of sovereignty/environmental activists in New Zealand represents another instance where those from the 3rd and 4th worlds who dare to challenge the current make up of today's "postcolonial world" are branded as terrorists.

As scholars involved in critical ethnic studies engage with these ever more complex worlds, they are increasingly resorting to the lenses provided by postcolonial and indigenous studies. This engagement however is not without its limits or problems. As ethnic studies scholars seek to make their vision and scholarship more transnational and global, this push is nonetheless accompanied by gestures that, at the expense of indigenous and postcolonial frameworks, re-center the United States and reaffirm the solvency of its nation-state. In addition, despite their various commonalities, indigenous and postcolonial studies represent intellectual bodies of knowledge that are fundamentally divided over issues such as hybridity, sovereignty, nation, citizenship and subjectivity.

The purpose of this conference, then, is to create a space where scholars and activists engaged in these various projects, in various forms, can congregate to share ideas, hash out differences and move beyond caricatured understandings of each of these intellectual projects. It seeks to ask how, by putting ethnic, indigenous and postcolonial studies in conversation with each other, we may theorize new epistemologies that may better address the violences and injustices of the contemporary world.

To this end we solicit papers that address questions including, but in no way limited to, the following:

- What are the epistemological frameworks that inform postcolonial, ethnic and indigenous studies? What is their relationship to modernity and how do they challenge and/or complement each other?

- What constitutes the subject of postcolonial and ethnic studies? How does the construction of these subjectivities limit possible conversations with indigenous studies?

- What are the limitations and pitfalls of sovereignty as popularly envisioned? How do postcolonial and indigenous communities reaffirm or rearticulate sovereignty within their respective contexts?

- What are the different theories and strategies of decolonization as laid out by postcolonial and indigenous studies, and how do they inform each other?

- How does the political status of indigenous peoples complicate dominant discourses on immigration and citizenship? Moreover, with regards to settler nation-states such as the U.S., how does the "nations-within-nations" status of indigenous communities complicate the project of ethnic and transnational studies?

Abstracts must be submitted to: futures0308@gmail.com

Requirements:
250-word abstract, specifying if the proposal is for individual or roundtable presentations
Information including name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address

Deadline for Submission: January 7th, 2008

For more information please contact: Michael Lujan Bevacqua at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com or Rashné Limki at rashne.limki@gmail.com

Sovereign Indian Nations

2008-01-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

Another reason for the importance of this conference is sites like this, of the Morongo Reservation just east of Riverside, California.

Across the United States, there are literally hundreds of points like this. For most people in the United States they appear to be little more than casinos run by poor destitute Native Americans, or money grubbing Indians. For many others, such as in San Diego county they are simply invisible. Yet despite this inability to see any political meaning behind these sites, they nonetheless do constitute different nations, different sovereign groups. Their existence in a very fundamental way challenges the existence of the United States, challenges its own claims to sovereignty.

Take for instance this exchange from an episode of NYPD Blue.

A Russian Woman: Marina. Strangled and raped. What is wrong with this country?

Detective Andy Sipowicz: What's wrong with this country? I'll tell you what's wrong; it's all these foreigners coming over here.

Detective Bobby Simone: Detective Sipowicz here is one of the few Native American Poles.

Lakota Sioux Secede from the US

2007-12-22T07:16:00.000-08:00

It is probable that most people in the United States will have no idea that such an act as the one described in the article below, where members of the Lakota Sioux nation declared their independence from the United States. This action however is a perfect point of discussion for the "Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World" conference.

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Published on Friday, December 21, 2007 by Rapid City Journal (South Dakota)
Lakota Sioux Secede From US, Declare Independence
by Bill Harlan

Political activist Russell Means, a founder of the American Indian Movement, says he and other members of Lakota tribes have renounced treaties and are withdrawing from the United States.
“We are now a free country and independent of the United States of America,” Means said in a telephone interview. “This is all completely legal.”

Means said a Lakota delegation on Monday delivered a statement of “unilateral withdrawal” from the United States to the U.S. State Department in Washington.

The State Department did not respond. “That’ll take some time,” Means said.

Meanwhile, the delegation has delivered copies of the letter to the embassies of Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and South Africa. “We’re asking for recognition,” Means said, adding that Ireland and East Timor are “very interested” in the declaration.

Other countries will get copies of the same declaration, which Means said also would be delivered to the United Nations and to state and county governments covered by treaties, including treaties signed in 1851 and 1868. “We’re willing to negotiate with any American political entity,” Means said.

The United States could face international pressure if it doesn’t agree to negotiate, Means said. “The United State of America is an outlaw nation, we now know. We’ve understood that as a people for 155 years.”

Means also said his group would file liens on property in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming that were illegally homesteaded.

The Web site for the declaration, “Lakota Freedom,” briefly crashed Thursday as wire services picked up the story and the server was overwhelmed, Means said.

Delegation member Phyllis Young said in an online statement: “We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren.” Young was an organizer of Women of All Red Nations.

Other members of the delegation include Rapid City-area activist Duane Martin Sr. and Gary Rowland, a leader of the Chief Big Foot Riders.

Means said anyone could live in the Lakota Nation, tax free, as long as they renounced their U.S. citizenship. The nation would issue drivers licenses and passports, but each community would be independent. “It will be the epitome of individual liberty, with community control,” Means said.

To make his case, Means cited several articles of the U.S. Constitution, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and a recent nonbinding U.N. resolution on the rights of indigenous people.

He thinks there will be international pressure. “If the U.S. violates the law, the whole world will know it,” Means said.

Means’ group is based in Porcupine on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

It is not an agency or branch of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Means ran unsuccessfully for president of the tribe in 2006.

Lakota tribes have long claimed that the U.S. government stole land guaranteed by treaties — especially in western South Dakota. “The Missouri River is ours, and so are the Black Hills,” Means said.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1980 awarded the tribes $122 million as compensation, but the court did not award land. The Lakota have refused the settlement. (As interest accrues, the unclaimed award is approaching $1 billion.)

In the late 1980s, then-Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey introduced legislation to return federal land to the tribes, and California millionaire Phil Stevens also tried to win support for a proposal to return the Black Hills to the Lakota.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com

© 2007 The Rapid City Journal

Date Change for Conference

2007-12-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

Due to unexpected and unavoidable scheduling conflicts, the conference has been rescheduled for MARCH 5-7, 2007. If you have linked to us or posted our information on your blogs, website, listservs, could you please make the necessary changes.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please email futures0308@gmail.com if you have further questions.

Indigenous Peoples Shut Out of Climate Talks

2007-12-15T06:19:00.000-08:00

The Fourth and Third Worlds are not the same. The modern world has shifted to such a point, where pieces of the formerly savage not-Europe, have been gifted seats at the table of world affairs and the deliberation of its order. At this table, sit all those who do play a role in the course of History. Sadly, true power in the world of today is not by those who play a "role" in History, but rather is found with those nations who have the power to "end it."

There is something peculiar and frustrating about the position of indigenous peoples, as not even meriting that token seat at the table, but instead continuing to be a collective group which numbers close to 400 million, which can be quietly and unproblematically left out of the deliberations of the world which they are still very much a part of. I've posted an article below, in which we can see this dynamic through the exclusion of indigenous peoples from the recent discussions on global climate change.

***************

Published on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 by One World.net
Indigenous Peoples Shut Out of Climate Talks, Plans
by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS - Global initiatives to reduce carbon emissions are bound to fail if the interests of indigenous communities are not taken into account, leaders of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples are warning.

“The success of efforts to lower carbon emissions from deforestation hinges primarily on whether indigenous peoples will throw their support behind proposed mechanisms,” said indigenous leader Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chair of the UN Permanent Forum.

Tauli-Corpuz told the UN Summit on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia, this week that indigenous communities are increasingly worried about plans by governments and international financial institutions to control forest degradation.

The indigenous communities, according to her, are particularly concerned about the World Bank’s Carbon Partnership Facility, which is likely to provide large-scale incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

The tropical and subtropical forest, the subject of the Facility, is home to 160 million indigenous peoples who are seen by many scientists as custodians and managers of forest biodiversity.

“While the Facility can be a good thing, we are very apprehensive on how this will work,” Tauli-Corpuz continued, “because of our negative historical and present experiences with similar initiatives.”

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes native groups’ right to control their lands and resources, including forests, but many governments and corporations continue to abuse the rights of forest communities.

“We remain in a very vulnerable situation,” said Tauli Corpuz, “because most states do not recognize our rights to these forests and resources found therein.”

Last week, a report released by an international advocacy group raised similar concerns about the role of governments and corporations.

In its report, London-based Survival International named and shamed countries where the violations of tribal peoples’ rights are most egregious, including Botswana, Brazil, New Zealand, Malaysia, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States.

The report entitled, “The Terrible Ten: Key Abusers of Tribal Peoples’ Rights in 2007″ says tribal people in West Papua are facing appalling violence at the hands of Indonesia’s army, including killing, torture and rape. The natives’ lands are often exploited by the government and foreign companies.

In Botswana, the government continues to prevent Bushmen from returning to their home in the country’s diamond-producing area, despite a landmark court ruling that declared their 2002 eviction ‘unlawful and unconstitutional.’

According to Survival, cattle ranchers occupying Guarani Indian land in Paraguay are committing armed violence against the natives. This year they killed two Guarani leaders and raped two Guarani women. Fear of rape has led many women to commit suicide.

In Peru, which is home to an estimated 15 of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, the government has opened up the indigenous peoples’ territories to oil companies and illegal loggers. Paraguay’s Ayoreo-Totobiegosode people face a similar situation.

In Malaysia, land has been taken from the Sarawak tribe to make way for logging, dam construction, and oil palm plantations. The government has told the nomadic, hunter-gatherer Penan people that they have no land rights until they ’settle down’ and start farming.

Meanwhile at the UN Summit in Bali, many indigenous groups protested against their exclusion from the climate change negotiations. They wore symbolic gags that read UNFCCC, the acronym of the United UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Last week, an indigenous delegation charged that despite having received an invitation, it was forcibly barred from entering the meeting between the UNFCCC executive secretary and civil society representatives.

“There is no seat or name plate for indigenous peoples in the plenary,” stated Hubertus Samangun, the representative for English-speaking Indigenous Peoples of the Global Forest Coalition.

“Indigenous peoples are not only marginalized from the discussion, but there is virtually no mention of indigenous peoples in the more that 5 million words of UNFCCC documents,” argued Alfred Ilenre of the Edo People of Nigeria.

“This is occurring despite the fact that indigenous peoples are suffering the most from climate change and climate change mitigation projects that directly impact their lands,” IIenre added in a statement.

UN Permanent Forum’s Tauli-Corpuz demanded the governments and corporations must obtain the “free and prior” consent of indigenous peoples before taking any initiative on forest protections.

“I imagine that donors and the private sector would not like to put their resources in high-risk projects which will not genuinely involve indigenous and other forest-dwellers,” she said. “If there is an acceptance of the Facility, indigenous peoples must have a representation in [its] governance.”

© 2007 One World.net

Sites that are Getting the Word Out About the Conference

2007-12-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

the maile vine
Asian Australian Studies News Blog
Kimberley Christen
pass the roti
No Rest for the Awake - Minagahet Chamorro
Decolonize Guam
Voicing Indigeneity
Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures
archive : s0metim3s
Australian Public Intellectual Network
CILAS - UCSD
Indigenous Issues Today
Hyperdesi
South Asian Forum
Chamorro.com
La Chola
Critical Bloggers.org
Cyber Chapina
H-Net.org
Native Studies List
Minagahet Zine
Polylog
Postcolonial Iraq

If you are also linked to us or helping spread the word about the conference, let us know and we'll add you to the list.

Sovereignty Activists as "Terrorists" in New Zealand

2007-12-01T05:08:00.000-08:00

One of the recent events which led to the questions and conversations that this conference is invested in.

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New Zealand activists held in 'anti-terrorism' raids
Oct 15, 2007

WELLINGTON (AFP) — New Zealand police arrested 17 people in a series of 'anti-terrorist' raids across the North Island Monday, with Maori and environmental activists the main target, media reports said.

In the first operation under New Zealand's Terrorism Suppression Act, police said they had information that a number of people had taken part in military-style training camps involving the use of firearms and other weapons.

"It was military-style activities they were training for," Police Commissioner Howard Broad told a media conference.

"Based on the information and the activity known to have taken place, I decided it was prudent that action should be taken in the interests of public safety."

Television Three said it had been told a napalm bomb had been tested.

Broad released few details of information obtained by police but said it was "the first time that the Terrorism Suppression Act has been considered in terms of an operation" and Prime Minister Helen Clark was kept informed of events.

He said several firearms were seized and 17 arrests made in connection with the training camps, which involved people harbouring "a range of motivations" and from various ethnicities.

Media reports said campaigners from Maori sovereignty, environmental and "peace" groups were implicated.

Among those arrested was the heavily tattooed Tame Iti, New Zealand's most prominent Maori rights campaigner.

Iti was most recently in the headlines last month when he went to Fiji to offer support to coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama.

Prime Minister Clark said she was briefed on the planned police raids last week, but she would not comment on whether she was personally at risk.

"Senior ministers have been briefed as a courtesy but this is a police decision to proceed on the basis of information they have," she said.

Asked if she was surprised by the police information, Clark said: "Yes and no, surprised at the scale and numbers of people involved".

Fairfax Media said the arrests were the culmination of months of work by a police anti-terror unit which had hundreds of hours of recordings from bugged conversations, video surveillance, and tapped cellphone calls and texts.

It understood police had video of military-style training with live ammunition in camps deep in mountain ranges and expected to find machine guns and grenades during their raids.

"These guys are serious. They are talking of killing people," a source was quoted as telling Fairfax.

The Fairfax report said investigators believed that the various groups were planning to hit targets related to their own interests but with all the hits "coordinated to cause maximum chaos and stretching police resources across the country."

Voicing Indigeneity

2007-11-29T21:55:00.000-08:00

There have been a number of developments and projects in the Ethnic Studies Department at UCSD over the past few years that have made this conference possible and inevitable. One of the primary projects was the Voicing Indigeneity podcast. The podcast began in October of 2006 as a conversation between Madelsar Tmetuchl Ngiraingas (from Belau), Angela Morrill (Modoc-Klamath) and myself, Michael Lujan Bevacqua (Chamorro from Guam) about the precarious place of indigenous people, their histories, struggles and dreams in Ethnic Studies. Over the next year, we completed a total of 18 podcasts, on a variety of issues and even with some special guests from our department. For a list of all the podcasts, please click here.

Below is the "declaration" through which we articulated why we were doing the podcast and what our hopes were.

*******************

Alii, el mor kemiu el rokui,
Hafa adai, mañelu-hu yan mañainå-hu,
Hello, friends and family,

Indigenous peoples and their struggles are often diminished or dismissed today as being either racist, parochial, essentialist or just too plain particular. As the majority of the world’s population is brought together in more and more tangible ways through ”international” and “transnational” narratives, it might be expected then that indigenous peoples, most of whom exist “intra-nationally,” or as nations within nations, might be dismissed as inconsequential or kind of distracting from the big picture and more universal concerns. In the United States today, terms such as sovereignty, decolonization and self-determination, which are common in the politics of indigenous peoples, are either completely foreign, or distasteful in the way they echo broken promises of failed revolutions and the dangers of modern utopianism.

In most academic disciplines we find a difficulty in seeing the importance of reckoning with indigenous struggles or epistemologies, except as just another ethnic group to be incorporated, an anachronism to be collected and catalogued, or colorful exceptions, footnotes on modernity’s journey forward.

We, the three “voices” of the Voicing Indigeneity podcast and blog are all graduate students in the Ethnic Studies department at the University of California, San Diego, and in different ways, both in and outside of our department often find ourselves entangled in the limits and resistances mentioned above. Over the past year, the three of us have had intense, inspiring and occasionally productive conversations about the difficulties and possibilities for articulating concepts such as sovereignty or decolonization in an Ethnic Studies framework.

Our decision to start to record and disseminate these conversations stems from our belief that indigenous studies and epistemological work, far from being racist, limited or essentialist, is in fact very global and holds important potential for reshaping academic disciplines such as Ethnic Studies. In our short time here at UCSD, we have already begun to see important of shifts of vision, and so we voice our critiques, precisely because we believe in the critical potential for the Ethnic Studies project. We feel that it is unfortunate that most potential indigenous scholars today do not see our Ethnic Studies department or the larger discipline as places where they can produce work which is relevant to issues of decolonization and sovereignty, and want to change this perception.

We therefore invite you to visit our website http://voicingindigeneity.blogspot.com, and download our podcasts, which range from serious to silly, frustrating to therapeutic. We also welcome you to leave comments, or join our conversation by emailing us with critiques, questions, suggestions and support at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com.

Struggles for sovereignty and acts of decolonization are taking place all the time, at multiple levels attached to different dreams and nightmares. Both with these conversations and within these conversations you will find a number of ours.

Ko meral mesulang
Si Yu’us Ma’ase para i tiempon-miyu
Thank you

Madelsar Tmetuchl Ngiraingas (Belauan – Beliliou, Orreor, Irrai)
Angela Morrill (Modoc-Klamath)
Michael Lujan Bevacqua (Chamorro, familian Kabesa/Bittot)

The Committee At Work

2007-11-24T10:49:00.001-08:00

Conference Mission Statement

2007-11-20T23:42:00.000-08:00

Conference Mission Statement:

As scholars engaged in critical social justice work, we are constantly engaged in conversations about how to push the limits of the Ethnic Studies project so that it may be used more productively in addressing the wide and varied number of student and faculty interests within the department. Although the growing interest in postcolonial and indigenous studies is exciting and holds great potential, we feel that there is an urgent need to learn beyond the caricatured and narrow perceptions that have cast these emerging disciplines as specialized fields of knowledge.

It is our contention that in addressing issues of violence, oppression and justice - whether they be local, global or transnational - ethnic studies, indigenous studies and postcolonial studies have a lot to offer each other. While the historical subjects of these disciplines might appear varied and distinct, the central issues at hand in all cases include issues of power, violence, imperialism and sovereignty. Moreover, we believe that by talking in disciplinary conjunction we may be able to think through identities and issues that yet lie at the margins of ethnic, postcolonial and indigenous studies - such as those related to statelessness, refugees, language, etc.

In organizing this conference, it is our hope to bring together faculty, students and activists involved in critical political-intellectual work to think through new and radical strategies that address contemporary issues of justice in less isolated, more collaborative, ways.

Conference Committee

2007-11-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

Maile Arvin - 1st Year
Michael Lujan Bevacqua - 4th Year
Long Bui - 3rd Year
Rashne Limki - 2nd Year
Angela Morrill - 3rd Year
Stevie Ruiz - 1st Year
Ayako Sahara - 2nd Year
Trangdai Tranguyen - 1st Year
Ma Vang - 3rd Year

Test

2007-11-18T02:22:00.000-08:00

Just a test to get this blog/website started.

This will eventually be the website for the conference "Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies" which will be held at the University of California, San Diego on March 7-9, 2008.