 Thank you for coming to this Unity Week event so my name is Cynthia and I'm part of the Unity Week committee member. I'm also a student leader in the ICC, the Intercultural Center. I'm here to introduce Tracy Rekker. Tracy Rekker is the executive director and co-founder of Longhouse Media. In the past 11 years she has facilitated work with over 3,000 youth and has made 360 short films and is currently in production of her third featured documentary. Ms. Rekker earned her master's in education from Antioch University's first people program. She specializes in Native American studies, traditional plant medicine and documentary film. So give it up for Tracy Rekker. Good morning. It's really good to be here. I've heard so much about this campus and this community so thanks for welcoming me. My name is Tracy Rekker and I'm an independent filmmaker and an educator and a major part of my life is the Native community working within, supporting, educating around, creating stories with. I love being Native. I love being mixed race. I love doing this work so I'm just here to share that with you. I start off normally by acknowledging the first people of this land that this is Indigenous territory we're on so I just want to give it up for that for a moment. Do many of you know who's traditionally on these lands in Highline and Des Moines? I'm guessing maybe Muckleshoot. It's the traditional Indigenous people so I encourage you to learn more about Muckleshoot and all the tribes that reside within this region. All right so I'm just going to tell you a little bit about my life experience and how I came to be a filmmaker and I'm really hoping that we can dialogue and that I can learn from you and you can ask me questions and that we can go back and forth. I'll talk a little bit and also show you some of the films that I've worked on. I am going to start though with the film. My very first love is the environment, the earth, plant medicine. That's where my heart is and so the first film is a story that I do with the Snoqualmie tribe and the Seattle Indian Health Board and it's trying to work with young people to learn plant medicine and it's intergenerational so I'll start that up. Montreal and today we are over in the Cabin Creek Zone which is just beyond Snoqualmie Pass gathering blue elderberries for medicine. So I had no idea how to collect elderberries, what they were, what they were used for. Now I know how to harvest them and I know that they were traditionally used to heal infections, viral infections. I get to learn new stuff that I don't really get to learn in school like learning about what berries you can eat. They haven't been fully produced yet and the blue ones mean they have been produced all the way and they're ripe. They learned quickly and have a good eye for what's ripe and what's not. This is a brown blackish one, such green. Well you have such a good eye, you're right. Take that one off and I'll put that in. And just got better and better as they started to harvest and got used to the tools and have been sampling what they're eating and did a great job returning the unripe seeds back to the land so that we'll see more elderberries here someday. Like I'm just rubbing, I just rub them, I go rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub. And there they go. The leaves go to compost but not in the garbage and the greens, the green berries go for seeds to make new elderberry trees. Where would you like to see more of these trees? By the sand a little bit. A little bit by the sand? Do you think they're going to like the sunny spot or the shady spot the most? I think you're right. They're naturally curious about it and that's the way that it should be. It's really really cool because you know you have that connection with your ancestors in your past and it's something that you don't get to experience in your everyday life and so now when we're just out here with the earth, with the air, you know it really lets you realize how lucky you are to be in touch with all this information that's been passed down through the ages. As tribal people we identify with being the people of land. We really learn from the land, I think is vital. These medicines have been here since the beginning of time. These medicines have been gifted to us as Indigenous people. We have stories and songs and prayers related to this, how we gather this and we have used it for our health and wellness. I think that's how our people survived is by transmitting this knowledge from ourselves or what we learned from our parents, our grandparents, even our great grandparents. Obviously all this new information that I have, it's something that I'll take with me and something that I can pass on to my children in the future, all the generations that come after me. I appreciate the diligence of the people of Snoqualmie tribe to keep some of these traditions alive. They really believe in this way of life. That way is still a viable way. It's still okay to be able to use our traditional medicines and so I'm especially grateful to them. Well I just appreciate the class for holding their reign so it doesn't rain and we have to work in the rain picking berries and helping everyone else pick berries. Just get out there and really see what your ancestors lived, what they ate, what they experienced because it can really show you how to make your life better and how to experience your life in a more natural way. Alright so I was on an 18 hour film shoot yesterday so I'm going to sit. I was on my feet all day. So I'm a do-it-yourself filmmaker. I'm completely self-taught. My work is absolutely community driven and I just jumped in and was lucky enough to have a ton of mentors. How I came to this work was I will go back a little bit and share with you kind of my upbringing and just my history as a person. I mixed race. I grew up in a household full of dysfunction, alcoholism, abuse and for me the main way to just check out and escape from that reality was into TV. And I watched so much TV. I woke up. I got myself ready for school. I went to school. I came home and watched TV and I was just, that was my relief. And interestingly enough that education kind of essentially brought me to be able to critically analyze story and to understand what media was about. And interestingly enough in the 70s there weren't people on TV that looked like me. So, and I remember being a kid and realizing this and I ended up just loving characters like Wonder Woman or Doctor Spot because they were the only mixed race people on TV at that time. And so, but they're not real. That wasn't reality. So kind of fast forward. I was working in a domestic violence shelter and really trying to do that work to heal myself with helping other people. And it was really hard work. For six years I worked with women and children essentially who were in the same situations that I grew up in. And through that process I decided to change my path of healing and I started working in an apothecary in an herbal medicine shop. And I came to understand that it's really important to get a formal education especially around that work. And so I went to the Evergreen State College. And there I was working in the garden of a traditional elder named Bruce Miller. And while I was in the garden PBS came to do a story about him. And he said to them, I'll only let you do a story with me if you have one of our people work with you as an intern because our people need to learn the tools to tell our own stories. So he told me to work with them. I was like, I know nothing about TV. I'm just here in the compost working in the dirt. And he's like, you have a connection with young people. You're a natural teacher. And film and media is just the contemporary modern way of sharing oral history. So that's the way to connect with the young people. So as I was taught when your elders ask you to do something, you do it. So I said yes. And that was 14 years ago and I'm still a filmmaker. Really fortunate that he helped open that door for me and shine that light. So here I am. I'm making films that combine young people, combine healing, combine the earth. And that's really exciting. I love my job. Like I said, I spent 18 hours on my feet yesterday at the Squaxin Island Reservation and I feel just so fed and healed doing this work. So I found my path. Any questions? Any of you interested in media or film? Back there? Yeah. Are there any specific aspects that you're interested in that storytelling? And I don't know if there's a mic to pass around. Okay. All right. If you want to. Otherwise, yeah. So I was just wondering while I was in here listening to you. As a filmmaker, are you independent or do you actually get subcontracted out or do you work for let's say like PBS or something like that? Great. Good questions. So breaking into this media field, it's highly dominated by wealthy white men. That's just the honest truth. 26% of the people in film and media are white men. So for me as a woman of color, wow, it's so hard to break into this industry. And I had to just be persistent, stubborn, working two times, three times as hard as anyone else. So a lot of my early years, I don't know if I slept more than four hours a night for maybe the first seven or eight years. I just worked, worked, worked, worked, worked. And the results of that were my pieces were seen on PBS, National Geographic. I got to go to Sundance and the Cannes Film Festival and all these really big, high level kind of high credential spaces that filmmakers really try to work towards. And I had to do that hard work just to get basic acceptance. And it always remind me, I don't know if you ever listen to Chris Rock's Stand Up Routines, but he talks about the area where he lives in New Jersey. He says, you know, I'm the top of my game. I'm this comedian that's known world over. My neighbor, I forget who his name was, like St. Jay-Z or something. My neighbor top of his game, a billionaire. He's like, who lives down the street? It was another amazing person. It was the top of their game, African American in the industry. He's like, who's my neighbor? A dentist. And he said, in order for us to even just get our foot in the door, we have to be at the top of our game, just to be considered equals. So that's the work I initially did. I pushed hard, worked hard, did my own stuff, produced, produced, produced. And then I got to the place where I started just calling the shots for myself. I stopped accepting any sort of corporate money because I did not want to have that control or that influence over my storytelling and have just learned the power of collaboration. Oh my gosh, community is so generous. And when you learn to collaborate to tell stories and understand that filmmaking is a team effort, it could make magic. It's amazing. And so now I'm just driven by rewriting history, telling our own stories. I'm an independent filmmaker. I work under some grants, but usually I will do some small contract jobs like this for native nonprofits or tribes. And then that helps me to pay for other projects that I want to do. Thank you. I would call that exceptionalism. We have to be exceptional as people with color to rise above that. Truly. It's awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And you know, that's part of my philosophy, too, is that, wow, I've worked really hard for the position I have today and the opportunities I have today. And I did not do that alone. I had so much support along the way. And so I see as my responsibility today is anytime I have an opportunity, I try to bring at least one person along with me and try to scaffold, you know, once I see those doors open, I know it's critical to bring other people through that door with me because we need all the support we can generate within ourselves especially. Other questions? Okay, so I want to show you another film. This is for, it was a work for hire for the Samish Nation. And we went on canoe journey with them for three weeks. We paddled from, well, the total journey, we paddled from Olympia all the way through the channel around the coast and down the ocean side to the Quinalt Tribe. It was a huge adventure. And as part of that adventure, the Samish Nation, they are located right by Anna Cordes. We did a little story about their experience on canoe journey. And thank you for letting me run through the media finding the pieces for you. Okay, it's the next page. And this is the Samish canoe family. You carry strong teachings from our ancestors. Strong discipline to be here. As well as shawalakwa. We're strong. We believe in our spirit. We endure. We've all endured strong teachings from our ancestors. I marked each and every one of you with a strong prayer. I'm not marking you for a shawl. I marked you for your voice, your breath, your eyesight. We're teaching our younger ones how to sing, how to speak. They're our future leaders. We can't show any disrespect to what's going on. We can't be teaching them the wrong way. Because they're going to be leading their children, teaching their children. Questions? Yeah. Because they come in out of the ground, or on off the ground or something, like off the trees or something. It's like when they pick up berries, they are just coming off the trees. And then some of the people from any culture in a place that's there in the ocean and outside where people are in their hands. I never have a choice not to eat berries. I never eat those kinds of things. But I see those kinds of words are showing outdoors or being outside or stuff. And what was the film all about? What was it about? Yeah. The second or both? Both. Sure. Well, so interestingly enough, so Elderberry, the first film, that's a story about those blue, purplish berries that you saw that they harvested from the tall trees. So Elderberry's aren't even indigenous or native to North America. They come from Europe. But they're a great example of native adaptation to survive. Those trees came over with the birds that the colonizers brought and the boats and everything else and quickly spread across North America. But indigenous people came to know that those berries had powerful medicine and they're one of the most popular plant medicines in Europe, actually. And so it's a really cool example, actually, to see how native people were able to say, all right, this is here, what can we do with this? And make powerful medicine for the people. So that's what the doctor was teaching those students there that day. She was letting them know this is not North American plant medicine, but it's here and it's powerful. So I'm going to teach you how to harvest it and learn how to use it. So that's what that was about. And then the second film was about actually language and about cultural revitalization that canoe family was committed to practicing their culture and their language. I don't know if many of you know how strong the restrictions and rules were for the native people here for many, many years. So it was illegal to practice culture. It was illegal to speak language. Many native people were taken out of their families and their homes and forcibly placed into boarding schools. Some estimates are about 80% of all children were taken from their homes and put into boarding schools. So much of the training in those places were, cut your hair off immediately, wear these settler clothes, learn how to cook so, do agriculture so you can be productive in society, assimilate, assimilate, assimilate, and above all, do not speak your language. And so that effectively really severed many people's tie with the language. So a huge component of canoe journey actually is cultural revitalization and practices and bringing back the songs, but it's also a time to cherish and honor and speak in the language and teach one another the language. So that was what that was about. That's a layers. Thank you for your questions. Other questions? Did any of you know about the boarding school experience? It's a huge part of American history and honestly not many people know about, unless, yeah, not a lot of people know about it. So this was in, gosh, about 1890, all the way up through the 60s, and then Canada, the 70s, where people were taken from their families and placed in these schools. And it was an actual federal government policy and above the schools. This was, can you imagine coming to school and seeing this as you walk through the doors every morning, kill the Indians, save the man. That was the motto of the time period. Yeah, and it was a federal government policy. So the healing is still happening. I'm working with students whose grandparents were in the schools, whose parents were in the schools, so we're not far out from the trauma of those experiences. And a lot of my work actually is kind of like the compost work that I was doing in the garden. It's taking these pieces and these discarded components and putting them in the ground and composting them and changing it to something fertile, something that can be utilized and transforming what has been done to us as Native peoples into now a strength and a positive to draw from. So my question is kind of complicated and I'm going to try to state it clearly. I'm thinking, sorry, a lot about assimilation and concerned about the amount of people in various areas that are assimilating more and people who are not continuing to teach about their cultures and languages, whatever it is. And I'm wondering if your work is more concerned with and if you have ideas about just providing methods for cultural education for people who are already seeking it or if there's a component that seeks to validate retaining cultural practices? Yes. And can you explain or describe that? Yes to all that. So my personal thoughts on that and my hopes for this work is that when I started doing this 14 years ago and working with young people it wasn't necessarily validated within people's peer groups and circles, young people's peer groups and circles speaking the language. A number of the students we worked with were kind of actually embarrassed to be Native and I think Sherman Alexi said, you know you're really Native when there's a point in your life you wish you weren't. And I think often times as people of color we understand that feeling of being pushed out or just wanting to belong. And so we noticed this in many, many of our young students and so we purposefully started drawing from the language but then also drawing from pop culture and their reality and so for instance bringing on hip-hop artists who could incorporate their language within this art form. And so that actually, you know, the students told us that made them feel respected in their culture and in their interest but then once those films started getting out there on TV and people were recognizing them at powwows or other community gatherings they started feeling really excited. I mean they were getting immediate validation from their peers and started taking more and more interest. So that's part of some of the education that we've advocated for was meet students where they're at. It's really critical that youth and young people and disenfranchised people feel that they are met and accepted at where they're at in the moment. With that though, I also in my program Scaffold Opportunities where I don't make exceptions because often as a woman, woman of color, filmmaker, people are like oh, we'll just let her do a half-assed job just because she probably needs the help. I don't want that. I want to be pushed to be my best self. And so some of our students we know this in school, they're kind of able to escape by and not do the work they really can do. So in some of our programs that's culturally appropriate, we really set the bar high. And we let our students know you can do this work. You have the capability. And in nine years of our youth programs no one's ever dropped out. Everybody's been able to do their work at various levels and with peer support it's always been amazing. So that's part of the push in terms of working against assimilation and just really helping the individual recognize that within them, themselves, they have the power and they have full potential to be anything they want to be. But always circling that with community. I hope that answered a little bit. Other questions? As anyone, oh yes. I just want to commend you for talking story because it's really important in today's society to really talk story. And it's becoming a phenomenal thing now that people are acknowledging the importance of talking story. Because as a little girl I was talked story to from my grandfather. He was citizen of circle and he would play the guitar and he would talk story to us. So I know the importance of that. And today a lot of parents are not teaching their children their language. They talk among their friends and they talk among their family members. So I would encourage everybody to learn your language and be proud of your culture. Every piece and every inch of you honor it. Because without your ancestors and the people that came before you you wouldn't have the liberties that you have today. So I commend you and there's a lot of work that needs to be done so that we don't feel the pressure as people of color and no matter what the color of your skin is to assimilate but to own who you are and be authentic self and honor yourself and others. Suspend judgment ego and leave it at the door. I got to speak at this pretty amazing conference. I had no idea what it was. It's called We Women Empowering is it? Oh, Why We? Young Women Empowered? Anyways, amazing. It was my first time being exposed to it. Y-W-E on social media. And in the room, oh my gosh there were aroma speakers, check speakers, Spanish speakers, Pigeon speakers, Native Hawaiian. So much diversity and it was one of the most amazing circle times that I've been in the last year. Just women sharing story talking about their cultural lens, the way they see the world and how their experience is completely unique and individual. It was so incredibly powerful. And I'm a firm believer. Let's be in community. Let's get together in person like this. Let's talk because I think that is a powerful act of rebellion. Especially in this day and age where we're just being pushed apart and separated and commodified. Let's remember to get together and remember our humanity as people. Any other questions? Yes? I have two questions. One is could you talk a little bit about the challenges or barriers for Native Americans to achieve higher education? And the second one is what would be your advice for students of color that face racism and oppression in college campuses? So opinions and perspective on Native American education challenges? Okay. So you've heard of the dropout rate in general. Okay, that term. So in Native American Indigenous communities we don't call our students or refer to them as dropouts. We talk about the push-out rate. That there is just not enough support and true understanding, culturally appropriate understanding to ensure that those kids are succeeding. Native Americans have the highest push-out rate of any cultural group in this country. Estimates are that about 64% of all students are pushed out by the end of high school. It's really sad and scary. And again, thinking about the boarding school experience, many of those students' parents were incredibly traumatized in boarding schools. And there is a way that they are disengaged from the school process and there is not that immediate support in the home or that positive connection to a school or academic experience. But also just the assumptions and stereotypes about our students is pretty profound and runs deep. One of our students, Travis, on the Swinomish Reservation we worked with for a long time, he was in our program, I think it was about the third year and for his health class project, he decided to do a film. And he wanted to do a film about peer pressure and drinking. And so we asked him, what kind of messages are you getting around drinking, underage drinking, peer pressure, and are they working? So we always hear, don't do it, but we're going to do it. And we always hear, oh, it's not fun, you shouldn't do this, it's going to, you know, lots of scare tactics, but much of it was just, don't do it. He said, the truth is, is that you want to belong, it can be fun, and we're at a stage in our life where we're rebellious, we're going to do it and we'll not do it. And also the influence of family. He said, the first time I was asked if I wanted to drink at 10 years old, it was my uncle. And so we're like, all right, so let's work with this. So the film, it's such a tear-jerker, and it was really controversial, actually, when we put it out in the world, but it's these two best friends, they're driving off to just kind of a field and the one friend's like, come on, drink. It's fun, just do it. And the other kid was like, nah, I'm just going to stick with my tea. He's like, oh, you know, don't be a wuss. Real men drink. You know, all of those typical peer pressure tactics. So finally he relents, they drink. There's this whole scene, they're having fun, they're tripping in the field and laughing, throwing up. And so he started introducing these components that are kind of gross, that in a way binge drinking, it's not really sexy. It's not really pretty. So he's like throwing up all over each other and falling down. And finally at the end of the movie, it was time to go home and the one friend said, well, I'll drive you home. And Travis's character, he's like, no, I'm not going to go home with you in a car, we've been drinking. So his friend drove off and was killed in a car accident. He's like, that's the reality of my life. He says, I go to 10 or 20 funerals a year because of this exact situation. And that's the film that we made. And man, so we got, he got so many accolades and so much just, you know, ups about telling the truth, speaking the truth and how powerful that helped people rethink their decisions. So anyway, so he took this film into his health class as his final project. He talked about why he made the film and the inspiration being watching his sister get hit by a drunk driver and dying, showed the film and then talked afterwards. His teacher started crying because she said she had no idea he could even speak more than two sentences. She thought he was so developmentally delayed that he just was not able to communicate well. And so she was just always giving him passes. So that's an example of that chasm of understanding that impacts our young people in school. It wasn't that he couldn't talk. He was severely depressed. Both of his parents were dead. He saw his sister die. Did anybody take time to ask him what his reality is like at home? No. So I think that's a huge issue in Native American education today for our young people is cultural appropriate education and influences real stories, authentic stories, and adequate support and community support as well. And your second question was about racism on college campuses. Wow. I mean, I can only speak from my personal experience, obviously, and maybe my personal observations. And I'd actually like to hear from some of you, if possible, because I graduated school in 2004, so I'm sure the campuses are very, very different. I went to Seattle Central for two years, and that was an incredible experience because community college in the heart of Seattle just brought together so many people. And Seattle's very, very white, and it was almost like we were this kind of little island, this heavenly island of everybody together, and it was very supportive. So I came from that experience, and then I went into Evergreen. My first year at Evergreen was at the Tacoma Evergreen Campus, which is a historically black campus, and my dad's half black, so I wanted to really be in touch with that part of my family and ancestral history. So it was cool to be in this campus where that was affirmed, black history was affirmed, black beauty, black culture, just, wow, that was amazing. So that was my second experience, and then going to Evergreen where I got to write my own curriculum, make my own path, and I chose Native American and communications, so I just worked with the Native communities there. So I kind of called the shots, but I think I'm stubborn that way and made sure that I was in those positions, but that's not everyone's experience, obviously. I advocate for speaking your truth. I advocate always for not relenting. I advocate for authenticity and camaraderie and solidarity. I show up at marches in Seattle for Filipino community issues or Asian community issues. I show up for your fellow peers on campus, be in solidarity, because that's how we can move forward and move that needle, because that helps all of us. My son's experience is interesting, so I'm curious about college campuses. My son, being mixed race, he had long hair all of his life, and he recently cut his hair and he got into a new high school, and nobody there recognizes him as a person of color. He was just telling me this the other day. It's a really strange experience because never in my life have people made comments about people of color around me, and now I'm around people and they actually make racist comments all the time. Like, no way. You're basically passing. They have no idea you're a person of color. They're like, nope. Only people of color at my school, and there's only 5% for people of color, actually see that he has a rich cultural history. So that's fascinating, too, that there's another reality that happens outside of our experiences of people of color. I would like to hear about your experiences if anybody wants to share, though. Is there work happening on this campus to address those issues? I mean, it's hot in the media right now on so many levels, especially in terms of equity. Nice. Yes. It's me again. Excuse me. So, Highline College here is 74% people of color. Wow. So, and we have Center for Leadership and Service slash Multicultural Affairs, which is all student leadership and stuff, but it's all based on, well, I could speak for Multicultural Affairs. I work in the Intercultural Center and all our programming is some of the wellness stuff, but it's based around social justice issues and stuff. So this college is all about social justice, this particular college. I believe Doris, maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but we're like the fifth most diverse college in the country. Wow. As far as that, top five, I'm not sure about that. It seems like I've heard that, but no. We have to double. But I mean, you know, at 74% students of color, it's got to be up there. So I would say, you know, and so like, I'm sorry, she was saying we have all these programs like the Diversity Week and, you know, we're just really big on that, on the equity and everything. So I'm a student here and I love this college because of that. And it's really, being here has sparked my social consciousness. Like we just got back from a students of color conference and Highline, I believe has the biggest contingent that goes to that. Heavily involved. We're all over, you know, up in there. Doris Martinez is on the committee, right? For that. So, you know, she's the director of Multicultural Affairs here and Highline. So yeah, we're big on it here. It's a great school. So something to know, there might be a wave coming your direction. Seattle is the fourth widest major metropolitan city in the country and getting wider every year. And I was talking with a Black Lives Matter activist just two weeks ago. She's one of the biggest activists in Seattle organizing people. She said, it's getting to the point because so many people of color cannot afford to live in Seattle anymore. So many artists cannot afford to live in Seattle anymore. They're all moving south or north. She's like, it's hard to organize because just the sheer masses are no longer in the city. And she's like, people can't take buses for two hours all the time and show up and, you know, people have jobs and kids and she said, that's something that's just drastically changed within the year of her organizing. So that's something to keep in mind the work that's happening here, the people who are moving this way, that those voices still need to be active and heard and it's happening less and less in Seattle because our powers are being dispersed. There's no longer that center space. So I hope that work can happen at least, at the very least, within the county and their surrounding counties and institutions like this. Yes. Hi. I came from a small town just south of here, and I went to a high school that was predominantly white and we had a very, very small color community. And so it was really interesting to come here and to have so much diversity and everyone from everywhere and it was just really cool to see how and there's, at my school, there was no bullying probably because we all were just so chill. There was no really huge issues about bullying and from what I've seen here, I haven't been on campus a whole lot this is only my first year here but I don't have never seen any bullying or any large issues here with all the diversity and so it's just really cool to see everybody all getting along from everywhere and it's just really cool to see that. Hi. Okay, I gotta clarify something. So I'm a Highland alumni and I'm very proud of that. And yes, Highland, it's all about diversity and social justice but I recently transferred to UDAP Tacoma and that's a different story. So I feel like so it's a struggle for the students of color and actually the dropout rate for transfer students and especially students of color it's really high. So it's a lot of like hit or key and if you don't have a title your voice don't matter. So it's really hard to be part of where the decisions are being made in behalf of the students and they don't have a student's voice or students are not allowed to be part of that. It's real in academia. For sure, thank you for sharing that. So I am wondering a lot about what experiences students have that aren't really actively involved in the intercultural center and coming to events and thinking of like when I teach a diversity and globalism studies class world literature that some students share wouldn't say something offensive in class but sometimes the things they're writing reveal a lot of their biases and sometimes they just say like really incredibly offensive things about cultures that we're learning in the class and in a diversity and globalism class where that's what we're trying to break down and so I just wonder about like what is going on beneath the surface and how in a place that's very diverse it's an unfriendly environment for someone to have and to speak out of their offensive views but I think that there are sometimes maybe other ways that we're judged and wondering like having experience as somebody starts passing how they may be treated differently or what experiences people have that are less involved in the campus culture and you know when we come to these events like the whole class comes sometimes when we're leaving or outside of the hallway in my classroom some of the conversations I hear students having just hurt just hurt and so I guess I wonder about those experiences too and if there's ways we can kind of share the other views so we can deconstruct it again just my own perspectives and opinions I commend you coming from a primarily Caucasian world view and experience and being surrounded by this rich community full of so many diversities people of color and immigrant populations and I'm a huge believer in nurturing and teaching and educating potential allies and allies because we need that as part of change I'm also lately I've been kind of fierce about this it's been fun so there's so much talk I am a Seattle Arts Commissioner often in these kind of political meetings on that kind of level there's so much talk in authentic sincere talk about equity and diversity and so often times I'm called in as the person of color and I'm often the one person of color all the time well Tracy's here so we've done our job and often times the questions ask what can we do to bring more diversity to our organization our committee or institution our panel etc so I've been really fierce about turning that back on them and I've been very vocal by saying alright I'm not going to do the work for you you need to do the work so I give that homework to these grown people and say our next meeting I want you to come back with some solutions and that has been really effective and I feel very much in power and it's been driving more dialogue interestingly enough and often times these people who often times haven't had to have those discussions or have not been feeling safe often times or feeling like they'll mess up or say something wrong bring some interesting ideas back about it those have just been personal experiences really fostering allies and I have to say compassion I've been lucky to be surrounded by so many elders and time and time again the truly wise ones talk about compassion and through that compassion and just radiating that love and following through the gritty that often times that really brings people around or softens them up so you can at least start addressing so maybe uncomfortable ideas that they're holding have been exposed to so I've been fiercely compassionate and speaking the truth other questions yes I like the color of your shirt by the way so I transfer from the really white dominant community college and when I go to Europe Tacoma I see a lot of people of color and have been known, it has been one of the most diverse college or university in this country however the people who in power of the constitution is still matured, is white and the way they do things is still as the way they present the whole student body and one thing I feel bad about it because when I go to university I don't think there is much diversity class or program required for students at all which I think they should be educated before they get out of school and go to the real world so we have something, have chance more students of color go to school but the diversity course haven't been as a requirement for people to take so some students they just keep it and they have no understanding about people and they just become a real future so that's kind of bad so I don't know how can we change that in the future, that's my thing so the lack of role models I would love to see that I mean I I would love to see those sorts of requirements there is some at the Seattle arts commission there is some work happening where there is 44 commissions in Seattle and we are the first and to my knowledge maybe only one of two that have taken diversity training so I think it's really interesting that the arts commission is embracing and wanting to learn the tools of diversity so some of the work we are doing is we are requiring any contractors to have a certain percentage of people locally do the work within certain neighborhoods and areas we are also requiring the organizations that we work with have some sort of diversity plan or social justice plan and I think that would be a great idea for academic institutions and schools is to either have a required class as a base knowledge of just understanding the shifting populations and social justice and equity because it's all really about education and planning the seeds maybe it's not going to take right now but it's at least having the access to that seed I think it's greatly important I always advocate for starting locally so if you feel safe that you have a community to make those requests I would say act locally be stubborn just it's hard hard work but I just really strongly encourage you to persevere because it will make change even though it doesn't feel like it's going to make change in the moment it will make change so I want to share with you one or two of the student made films and also I want to share with you just some information potentially if you are interested in becoming a filmmaker or just interested in learning some technology yesterday was my very first time working on a virtual reality film project and have any of you been aware of virtual reality a little bit with Google Cardboard okay virtual reality is it's going to be the next huge gold rush and I really want to just state this here because this information is not getting out to the first communities virtual reality is going to be the way our whole future is shaped and the technology is happening now so I really want to encourage you at the very least to go home and Google virtual reality stories go to riot r y o t check out their virtual reality films will give you a sense of what I'm talking about basically these cameras are 360 so it's a complete global view of the space and when you create the film or the story you put these goggles on and it's as if you're standing in that space so it can transport you to Brooklyn or Nigeria or this classroom and you feel like you're standing there and you can look all around yesterday the work we were doing is going to be the very first Native American indigenous virtual reality film ever and the only reason that's happening is I just happen to be friends with someone and he just happens to believe in the work that I do and he's followed that for a while so he taught myself and one of the Native filmmakers that I work with yesterday how to do this technology it's it the so I said at the beginning of today 66% of people in film and media in control really of our reality and what stories are told are white men this virtual reality this new media is going to probably turn that to 98% white men it's so incredibly expensive so powerful the technology is incredibly fast it's just not coming to us so I feel really lucky so I just want to be a witness right here right now just shout it out to people please go research virtual reality learn about it understand it and if you are even compelled or interested do it or I brought cards today email me if you're interested in learning I just I want to send this information out to the people so with that this friend who taught me yesterday he's running a workshop June 2nd through 5th at the Seattle International Film Festival and any student who comes to those workshops with your student ID will be able to give them free yeah and it's if you have the time to do this do it I mean we're talking about Star Trek stuff it's we're talking about teleportation we're talking about I mean it's billions of dollars going into this who's getting this money not me not me but I just I'm lucky enough to know someone who's compassionate and believes in the work who says you have to get this out to the world to the people so with that I hope any one of you any of you who's up June 2nd through 5th Seattle International Film Festival bring your student ID and you can learn you can have free workshops about virtual reality look up Riot the films are super cool R-Y-O-T any questions isn't that crazy to think about teleportation and lenses in your eyes you're like these kind it's I worked on this for a first time yesterday okay so when I pull up some of our student films because that's a huge part of my work is bringing student voices to the forefront and another component is breaking stereotypes and not always appearing as the stoic Indian I'll talk a little bit while it's warming up so some of the stereotypes often that as native people is either you're a drunk you're in poverty you're really serious or you talk to raccoons and the stories we try to encourage our students to tell are stories from their lives but also their imagination and their interests and so one year we were working with a group of students and a number of them were really interested in musicals I think this is during the Glee years did they have you watch Glee yeah so they were really interested in musicals so they wanted to make a native musical so they wrote all the lines they on site made all the music made the the costumes the sets and our writer her name is Sierra Ornela she came up from L.A. she's one of three three TV writers in the Hollywood who's native so she helped us yeah it's super fun up more a little further a little further up to the left a little to the right up more a little further a little further up to the left a little to the right my arm is getting tired just put it up it's perfect don't even think about it it's for the party I didn't get one last time it was my birthday party still will be here in five minutes you can wait scrunchies don't just whisper slowly as native filmmakers do we hear oh that's not a native story but this is totally a native story and it's about just having fun too with the art and using your imagination taking it to those really weird places you dream of taking it any questions nope okay I want to show you one other film and then leave you're out of here at 12.3 okay so I'll show one other short film and then leave any time for me Q&A okay this is going way back it's 2007 and again these last two are absolutely 100% youth made ages 11 to 19 I love painting it everywhere I go the only place that I haven't been in a while is the country maybe that's where I need to be milk some cows but I don't know anyone in the country I used to but they're all dead my only friend here is Marcus at first I didn't like him he tried pretty hard to be my friend finally I gave in I thought he was Mexican but he's an Indian too why don't you go back home you always talk about it why don't you go back home I don't really know I guess I just always try and make a home somewhere else that sounds like a country song what do you want to do tonight or did you have plans with that fish I guess you do have plans where are you going so to explain that a little bit we worked with a group of urban Indian youth indigenous young people living in Seattle and oftentimes a number of these young people told us that they had never been to their parents' reservation or they had never been home before and felt disconnectics the language or the culture or even family or touching the land and they also said as native people in Seattle were often invisible and we feel invisible and more often than not too people think that they're Spanish speaking or Hawaiian those are the two, Mexican or Hawaiian and they're just they want to be seen they want to be known and there's many of us in Seattle 75% of all Native Americans live in big cities so this was about home the feeling of disconnection the feeling of being invisible but also home being connected to the earth so we gave them a few I don't know what you call them we gave them a few hard fast rules for the film we gave them a country song from Oklahoma they had to use the dialogue in that and creating this script we gave them a fish and we gave them the line in the streets like run with it but you have to have those three things so that's how this story came to be all right we have just under five minutes left any questions also if you need time I have cards so maybe just having some, yeah well thank you everyone it was great being here today everyone can we please give it up one more time for Tracy Rector it's amazing oh Tracy I do have a question for you do you have any films that we should be on a lookout coming up in the next year or so any projects that you're working on yes well how about this so I'm working on a bunch different films but the big thing that I do monthly it's called Indigenous Showcase it's a film form in Seattle and once a month I show you a native made film and any of you in this room if you email me or let me know that you're coming I'm happy to provide you with a free ticket to see the films so just let me know and it's all native made films because most people think there's just smoke signals out there but there's many things that you can do for yourself thank you thank you so much Tracy