 Thank you. Thank you so much. That music just made me stop and listen It just required me to stop and listen and I appreciate that so much We're moving into our first panel. So I want to thank Tiffany Casey Frederico are You in the room excellent and David Are all the microphones up and ready to go? Lovely Good morning Okay. Yes. Yeah, now it is Good morning, and hello everyone and thank you for tuning in to how around TV And thanks to the pro bono ASL for providing ASL interpreters Lavender Signette and Christina monsoon and thanks to the National Captioning Institute for the team of live caption writers We're so excited to have you with us My name is David House and I am a black man wearing a navy jacket and navy spectacles and Thrilled to be here with you today This event is part of the black and indigenous futures convening which brings together artists scholars and Educators and practitioners to unearth history Examine fault lines and imagine new and different futures this gathering produced by arts Emerson is in partnership with how around theater Commons it's one piece of a larger arts Emerson initiative that seeks to activate a liberated future in Boston Through the shared experience of art and public dialogue This convening is supported by the bar foundation the Mellon foundation and the national endowment for the arts and In our conversation today, we will explore visions of activism advocacy co-leadership and Solidarity and Afro-indigenous black and indigenous futures, and I'm so pleased to be joined today by Federico quad laqua Casey Jernigan and Dr. Tiffany let the bow King So we am I did I get it order? Say it again Doctors doctors all the doctors right here today. So so welcome I'll do a brief introduction before we jump into that our conversation Starting with Tiffany Tiffany is the Barbara and John Glenn research associate professor of Democracy and equity at the University of Virginia She is faculty in the Department of women gender and sexuality studies and is the author of the black Scholes Offshore formations of black and native studies and is co-editor of the collection otherwise worlds against settler Colonial colonialism and anti-blackness King is also a co-director at the black and indigenous feminist futures Institute And her research and programmatic work focuses on strengthening existing black and native relations and creating new Possibilities for collaboration a perfect candidate for this conversation welcome We then have Casey dr. Casey Jernigan Casey is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and an assistant professor in the departments of American Studies and anthropology Her work links historical trauma with contemporary experiences of structural violence to make sense of disparate health outcomes among indigenous peoples She teaches courses on Native American indigenous studies and addresses the MMI are MMI are settler colonialism and land-based health. So welcome to Casey and Last but not least Federico is an artist born in Coapan Cholula Puebla Mexico and is currently based in Charlottesville, Virginia and as an assistant professor in the Department of Art at the University of Virginia Federico's work is invested in disseminating topics of Naua indigenous immigration Social art practice and cultural sustainability Building from his own experience of growing up as an undocumented immigrant and previously holding DACA Federico's creative practice centers on the intersectionality of indigeneity and immigration under oppressing Anthropocene at the core of his most recent research in artistic production is the intersection of a trans border Indigeneity migrant indigenous diasporas and Naua futurisms Federico's independent films productions have been screened in national and international film festivals and exhibitions and as founder and a director of the Rockwash round here you go Russ Quache, I practice that by the way artist residency in Puebla, Mexico He actively stays involved in socially engaged works and by national endeavors So please join me in welcoming this esteemed panel So we've had a very full Morning a full day yesterday. We've been talking about past present and here. We're here to talk about Future and so I'm going to jump right in there's so much for us to say But I also just say I'm gonna ask a couple of questions We may not have all the answers, but I love living inside of those questions So we're gonna noodle there a little bit and hopefully have a conversation and not just you talk you talk I talk, but really try to engage each other and I as your Maybe able facilitator will help us try and do that So I want to just start with a question and maybe I'll start with both you Tiffany and Casey given your work at UVA you're already exploring particularly through the feminist lens the Intersectionality and the connection between future So drop some wisdom on us like help us understand how you envision the role of co-leadership and collaboration between black and indigenous communities Shaping a more and inclusive and thriving futures and Federico I'm gonna come back to you so just be noodling on that just if it's I'll turn it over to either one of you to start and just let Me know I know you have a couple of images that you want us to share, but happy to do that as well. Should we I? Just wanted to can people hear me. Okay good perfect bring up an image of our collaborator Marisa Williamson who couldn't join us today? So we love you Marisa. Thank you for introducing us Federico So Casey and I are co-directors at the black and indigenous feminist futures Institute, which to be fully transparent is a grantee of melon and so that formation came together through their Intersectional studies collective dockets, so they were very interested in this particular moment and having projects that Did innovative intersectional work? Be funded for three years, so we have funding from melon which brought us together, right? And it's Well, I think what's been beautiful is that under within the context of the university For folks who don't work there Often universities try to commodify people and fields like black and indigenous people are the new hot thing And we've been able to build relationships kind of fighting against this impulse to commodify us and what has been Central to that I think is working with Federico and Marisa to have us Dip into our creative vibrations and really connect with each other. I think it's been essential and so that's work we've been doing on the plantation of Thomas Jefferson, which is also the place where The Lewis and Clark expedition was commissioned so a site of various kinds of sexual violences Forced labor torture all the stuff So we a lot of our creative work has come out of Holding space for that our ancestors and doing our own healing work, which has been beautiful and difficult and Honest and real and raw and thank you for the introduction too. I appreciate it Just kind of rip it out Okay, can you hear me? Yeah, okay I think it was really a gift when Tiffany joined us at UVA I had been there for I guess a year maybe before Tiffany arrived and in that year. I had been I was the first Native studies hired faculty a tenure-track faculty member and so I had come in and tried to Build relationships with the local tribes, which is foundational for doing anything indigenous I'm not of monican nation, which is the land where UVA sits and so I met with folks and started to build those relationships and I want to talk a little bit about Something it might sound round about but it's essential to understanding sort of the groundwork for this larger beefy project Has anybody here ever been to the natural bridge in Southwestern, Virginia? Yeah, so it's spectacular it is this huge A Natural bridge right made out of stone you can walk through it you go there and you feel the medicine you feel the spirit and It is profound and when I went there I was given a tour by monican elders and they told me the story the creation story of This bridge and the way that the story goes is that monican folks the warriors were being chased by their enemies and You know they came across they came to this canyon and it was kind of the end of the road so they knelt down and they prayed to creator and Fog lifted and this bridge appeared to connect them to the next cliff and the enemy their enemies came over and saw this happening and were You know shocked and thought well We that won't hold us This is something from creator and they retreated and so in monican language the natural bridge is Called something that translates to the bridge of creator the bridge of God something like that and so if you compare that to Euro-Western Hypotheses of how this bridge came to be which is that there was it was a an underground river Basin that directed water south and through processes of erosion It disappeared and all that was left was this bridge And so I think that that is essential for understanding the ways that monican people relate to the land where we're doing this work with them And so building that and restoring the land to understand What's going on how people are connecting to the land and using this feminist lens as feminist approach to land and Relationality Really is at the heart and and so when Tiffany came over to UVA and and brought this funding It was such an amazing collaboration and we started brainstorming Ways to to do this like she literally said what is your dream? What who do you want to invite? What do you want to do? And I remember that summer Before you came out we we I was just like oh I love this person I would love to bring them out. They're brilliant. We could talk about this and we came up We brainstormed all these ideas about what to do and one of them was creating a Certificate program in black and indigenous Studies and so that's something that we're we're getting started going forward. So I think in part a lot of this is relationship-building right making those connections learning about The land that we're on how people relate to it and as guests on the land What are our responsibilities to the land and to the people that we're working with? beautiful and I Asked the question about how do you envision co-leadership, but you are the vision you're embodying that I wonder if you might talk a little bit about what it means to work together You obviously your collaborative year. What did you have to go through? What did you how did you reconcile? How do you process and how do you think about what comes from the certificate program because again? We're looking at ways to embody and to model and you're you're a very clear example of that Is this okay? Here we are. Yeah, our relationships are rather new right informing and Always joyful for me. So I don't know. I mean we not that I anticipate We're gonna have conflict, but we all have a lot of static right like it's fun and I'm like let it be fun Why probe and look for things and not saying that we don't address? Significant and hard things that are on the table like power. I've certainly been set up as the broker I was the person who had the initial contact with Melon Does a lot of the negotiating with UVA that is a power that I hold and that I hope I've always parent about and I try to also push back on the particular kind of ways that UVA tries to manage antagonisms between black people and indigenous people and white peoples that they think that Black people are the fix if you please them that's you know Doing their reparative work if they address the issue of slavery But our project is always surfacing indigenous genocide and the fact that this beautiful and important and necessary Memorial to enslave labors has been developed, but it's been Constructed on monik and lands and so I think one of your Desires that I really want to have come into fruition is doing the powwow with the Native American Student Union And the Black Student Union together on that space, right? And so always putting pressure on the university to acknowledge. No, you are dealing with your ongoing theft and genocide of indigenous people and ongoing anti-black violence every single day Right, and you're not gonna be able to use me to get around that. So that is that could be a space of potential conflict Just the way that things are set up institutionally through funding, but I think being creative and playful not making assumptions and Talking about your desires up front What you want what you need like operating from a place of desire is really important and freeing And I think allows the other kinds of stickiness to come up to Trying to see each other I know and by both my and Ronnie's experience and I'm continue to be struck by that The comment yesterday we must Meet each other softly and I know it takes a lot of time and Ronnie I try to spend a lot of time just together just talking about different things because we don't agree on everything And we have to work through that and make space and so I it's always interesting to hear other kind of co-leadership Co-leadership models Federico you mentioned something on our in an earlier conversation You shared a phrase a thought a quote that said, you know Something the effect of build a future world in which many futures belong and I know in your work in thinking about Transborders and thinking about you know, both black ingenuity and in this country that we call this country, right? How are you thinking about? Those futures and tell us a little bit about that statement and what it means to you and what it then how it informs Our future as we think about black and indigeneity. I'm working more closely together Yeah, well first of all it's a pleasure to be here. It's an honor to be among these amazing scholars I'm just an artist also part of these larger conversations and a Lot of this thinkiness is borrowing from The indigenous uprising in Mexico in 1994 The sapatistas, you know as they were formulating and put their putting together their ethos for that uprising They were very conscious of celebrating our differences as indigenous marginalized communities And they were very much in tune already that we need to build a vision for our futures In which all of us are already thriving With that being said They were also very conscious that we must be careful and not creating a future that becomes monolith and In a way really Amplifying that many worlds many communities are represented in this larger world that we're trying to build So it's it's really Pushing this notion that we have to be like one but really there are multiple multiple worlds And it's how we actually navigate in that space is what's really Interesting to me and how is that showing up in your in your work? You know, how do we actually amplify because you say just an artist? I think anyone in this room is there's no such thing as just an artist Let's just claim your rightful position in this future in this dialogue. That's really important But how do you think these ideals of kinship and really expanding how we think about our future? How are we using that to transform narratives and incorporate in that and into your work in particular? Yeah, so so for me it was always very clear that my community's narrative My personal experience is unique and different from other migrant diasporas, right? And so I think politically what has happened in this country is that migration issues becomes this monolith, right? all of them are Mexican and Mexico is all one thing, right and We forget that these other places are so diverse and that's what makes these communities so resilient, right? And so for me it was Pushing that into the work, right? This is my community's narrative. This is their experience This is what we've gone through. This is what we continue to endure How can I amplify that visually? Through these productions, right? So what you're seeing in the background here is some still images of Experimental short films that are filmed on both sides of the border. So I'm going back to Mexico and Filming in specific sites like in my community or near the volcano where We're very much connected to and I'm also filming in the southern deserts of New Mexico and thinking about brothers and sisters Who have lost their lives who have left traumatic Memories and experiences on those territories when they first step on this side of the border and so it's really like remembering all of these collective experiences and memories and And making sure that that's not forgotten through the work And Casey, how are you thinking about you know, we have both scholars and artists? We're all working together. How are you thinking about narrative work as you're thinking about also even educating this next group of Students who are coming through the the program and Thank you for that question. Um, I think Federico really said it super eloquently that We're not monolithic, right? And that any kind of work that you do with indigenous people using indigenous methodologies is highly localized It's particularistic and so often the the Push right now particularly with Climate crisis is to take indigenous knowledge and just kind of blend it with Western knowledge, right? That doesn't really work. It's not meant to be done like that Indigenous knowledge is is localized. It's contextualized. It has stories. It has land It has people and those relationships and I I really value the way that your art Comes to fruition or it comes to the point to the fore right like your your connections and your your specificity come to the fore and remind us that indigenous peoples are diverse and Definitely not monolithic How do you how do you balance the narrative? So we're talking and looking at you of Tiffany How to think about narrative work in you know, thinking about kinship and empowerment of these communities How do you think about it from your vantage point in collaboration with with your work with Casey and in the institute? I mean as I'm thinking about your question about narrative and thinking about what Casey just shared like what are the narratives that we tell about ourselves that sometimes box us in because I've been Thinking about one I've met some of your students Federico who's master master teacher my stroke Federico So like the artist's pedagogue and like thinking about Yesterday what I as someone who does that identify as an artist has relied on the artist to do for me Particularly to show up in an embodied way. I always joke with Casey like please don't let me have to lead a grounding session Cuz it's gonna be corny It's gonna be cringe, but to lean into that and like stop Relying on the artist to do it and jump in and that's something that Marisa certainly as a site-based artist who's multi-disciplinary who makes you walk the land and encounter Ancestors and so we brought alms and flowers and did making of Secret bundles and medicine bundles and our first encounter and just thinking about How I had to get in touch with like secret art making and like make sure that my fingers cut the rhythm and practice it and do it And I know I was talking to Amber is Amber is an incredible Art maker and artist and we were just trying to think about leaning into that in June when we had our first summer gathering For beefy and like our conversation yesterday about Having to show up as an artist and be an artist and stretch yourself and get the training that you need and be humble and Re-educate yourself and do that throughout your life to show up particularly for the solidarity work. So also Being able to re-narrate yourself right and re-narrate the story and Think about the story that story that you told of the natural bridge. I had not heard that and just the way that helps me relate to the space that I am and the monik and nation monik and people is It's about story stories that you encounter. So narrative is powerful We're always living and reshaping them. I think in the work that we do for sure And are you finding in your in your work that? Beyond the Academy be into community did that Communities are embracing this notion of a shared future and interdependent future How is that moving out and what and you've talked a little about the role that art plays in in the practice But I'm also thinking about how then we not only demonstrate with the art But then invite people into the conversation around what that future could be in your work And I know it's relatively early. What are you learning about the interest in this notion of an independent future between these communities? I think that we are very much in the relationship building phase, which Nobody gives credit enough to right is that it is a long process years and years and years of Building relationships with communities with with activists artists That are invisible right that's an invisible labor of building those relationships and maintaining them and Building that trust and so that's what we're really working on Charlottesville UVA in particular has a really dark history and Especially of erasing indigenous people right eugenics project and the paper genocide of indigenous people is still very much felt in that space and so it's a conversation that the community and the indigenous peoples and Communities of the enslaved laborers are still grappling with and trying to figure out themselves And so our work is is just budding right now and I think that Invitations like these are essential. So I want to say thank you again Ronnie and David how Ralph for the invitation because we're still building community and so please reach out to us We have resources for the next years and any All collaborations has been magic so far and just we're in a sweet spot So, you know get in when it's good and we're not in chaos and like ride that out You know like take advantage of that the window that opens up sometimes beautifully and that's kismet and I Think that something about what Marisa brings is there are really really dark patches on the landscape that I Avoid I know that my body naturally avoids it and I know that we took a tour of the space of the former anatomical theater right where literally the remains of enslaved people who had deceased perhaps sometimes alive were experimented on and we think that there are some remains on at least one of the University buildings campuses that we know and Marisa's healing way of addressing that through her artistic practice is Phenomenal and it can be in the face of the University and confront it at the same time But also be a space of connection. It doesn't devastate you and a place to talk about it and I Intend to address it in my classroom and make a project around it so What art does to have Create multiple vocabularies and effective spaces to enter something for multiple peoples who may be antagonists is brilliant and amazing so what the artist does is deliberate and Philosophical and beautiful and multi modality in a way that I'm in awe and I have to stretch myself and in skill up For real just to be in space with creators and artists. So I think also the discourse of futures Make space for us to not be so doom and gloom right and that's something that our communities taught us we're all survivors of the apocalypse right and so We've been there and we know how to get out of it And so I think that that is an essential quality of our communities and a point where we can come together and and move forward I just want to lift up two things that you are you're both saying one is you know And someone maybe you say that said this yesterday, but the patience is power Right and the notion that it does take time to build right Relationships with each other with community before we just like jump off and it's still very urgent so trying to balance the both the urgency and the patience to actually Develop those Meaningful relationships so that when we fail or make a mistake We have something to fall back on and then the other piece that you're mentioning is you know We don't have the privilege of pessimism right? We don't have the privilege of saying that's doom and gloom and so how we think about that future is as a rightful place That we own and move it forward and I wonder Federico You know we I think in this room know that arts are a powerful connector really hope Open our eyes to see worlds and interrogate conversations and see things anew for ourselves and in others And so as you think about that work How are you continuing to evolve and really help us as you know loaded? Big question for a single person, but thinking about your practice as a way to in view vision future for our communities Yeah, I mean We have to remember in order not to forget what happened to to our ancestors and That allows us to continue building this resiliency right to envision a better future and I am always thinking like Shit I was smuggled into this country and I don't want that to happen to other kids and How can my work? amplify a Vision of the future that is more celebratory that is vibrant and who we are but at the same time remembering what has happened to us right and I keep going back to these These words from yesterday of strength and weakness and it's like this collision of these two embodiments that we have to embrace Simultaneously right and I think and that's resiliency right and And I think that's what my work in a way tries to really push is holding Mexico accountable For what they've done for more than 500 years Holding the US accountable for imperialistic ongoing practices That forces self-displacements But at the same time giving and allowing my community to see themselves celebrated That's that's that's incredible, and I think you're the work that we're seeing certainly moves us in that In that direction, so I thank you for for sharing that I'm curious about Lessons right if you could project I in the article I'm just gonna make a plug for the How around series on this particular convening and I think it was something that both amber and kai or talking about like what? That future could look like and one was name the the the barbecue pow wow or something like that Which I think we talked about yesterday, which I love that vision right how are you seeing that collective if you could look into a The future like what are the where what world are we living in and what might it look like for us? And what kind of leadership? Helps us to get there If just imagine for a while Thinking of some of the things that we planned Want to happen. I appreciate your silliness Paisley is hilarious, and I'm like we need to do comedy sets Like black and into just comedians because we need to laugh we do we do absolutely as a People and people so you need to laugh, but it's it's something you said about the We've been patient and we haven't rushed we have have had to negotiate some other kinds of projects on campus that are kind of moving in the commodifying impulse and They haven't come to fruition, which is grateful which leaves open the opportunity for new collaborations. So we are in a space where interestingly enough I'm gonna act like we're rich With money, but we're you know in a situation This is a real constraint and an opportunity that we don't have a center like we Is after all these years we don't have a native an indigenous studies center, which is Horrific and terrible and needs to be addressed. We don't have a center for beefy Right, so we don't have Administrative staff that we should be paying that should be helping us. So we're kind of at low capacity and have the The opportunity then to also give resources to other projects, right? so literally money to collaborate to Cosponsor and that allows us to do things that we never would have imagined right now So that's a way that we're kind of flexible and malleable and we've seen that as a gift, right that we're not institutionalized and we can be in a lot of different spaces that are not in Charlottesville, so It has a freedom to move right to something we talked about at our first gathering, right since we're not an Institution and we have to make a decision about that right do you want it to be or do we want to be? Flexible and continue to move and and that might be something to think about for organizing Are we trying to build long-standing institutions? Are we trying to have? Our work be moving and not capturable right as maroon communities right and so We're in a space. I think of incredible creative expansion. We can be a lot of places and not rooted here, which is It gives us a lot of creative range. I think so one laughter, but also connecting in a real liquidy fluid way I think also something that we talked about definitely the humor and Tiffany's hilarious But we envision also that this is the academic in me. We envision a Program that brings young people together with elders this intergenerational Certificate program courses that are land-based Where students are out paddling on the canoes in the rivers nearby? learning canoe songs learning how to relate to the land These courses are taught not by PhDs, but by people like in you in this room knowledge holders people with Lived experience and stories to share and so that's kind of the vision that I have for a different kind of Academia for a different kind of solidarity within those institutional spaces Yeah, and that's what also then puts pressure on our universities to be like we actually Absolutely need native and indigenous studies center and faculty. So right all of that works together dialectically. Yeah, folks showing up Creating that groundswell support Yeah, so like one I'm on research leave this year and one of the issues that we're dealing with right now Is who's gonna teach the intro to native studies class? There's nobody there to teach it So these are the real Institutional constraints that we're working with in and in the the piece that you're naming is it Education is so important, right that understanding we talked about sort of shared memory shared knowledge And the what you're doing is actually trying to teach the next generation because we don't have those Share shared shared stories there. We talk a lot and it's convening about black and indigenous futures Who else is in this future like who you're talking about institutions? That are not built for us but need to be in partnership with those institutions to actually make the way forward How do we make space? Do we make space? What is the role that we're all playing together in this collective future? Of course black and indigenous leadership will be leading the way But there are more people in the future than just black and how are you thinking about that in your work in your practice in your scholarship? I think young people are the future and I think that learning Learning in community learning collectively is essential so including young people and elders But also including Other than humans right including the land the land with agency including ways that we relate to and it not not relations of rights right but relationships of of Responsibility and so it's not just the people it's definitely not the institutions although maybe we can make some change I don't know that's another conversation, but it's definitely Inclusive of people and more than people more than humans right Yeah, I love that I love that I I'm always thinking of a future absolutely where We need we're we're dependent of the land right we don't need to be doing space exploration and wasteful Resources on those fronts the way we envision futures is where our ecosystems are thriving so that we have a healthy future And it is thinking about future generations It is thinking about how climate change is threatening the most vulnerable communities and every pocket of this world now, right? and those vulnerable communities a lot of them are indigenous and We are noticing how these communities are being affected by that right so Yes thinking about our our ecosystems But also allies right there has to be solidarity there has to be ways that We embrace those allies who share and support some of these visions of the future and certainly Just showed us your incredible artwork made me think about Technologies and what the digital can do and in my class my capacity as a teacher. We're reading Max LeBron's work pollution is colonialism Who's a matey scholar from a treaty six who? Yeah, it's amazing. It's thinking about rethinking plastics certainly as a pollutant But also as a space of life interestingly enough so thinking about our technology in the future is perhaps Helping us connect instead of getting on a plane, right? I've just the way that Whoever shared about every 90 minutes like a football field disappears. I had to get up and move because literally The level of destruction moment by moment using technology technology is an inventive space for black and indigenous people to connect So we don't always have to meet and folks don't always have to come to Charlotte So but we can use resources to connect wherever we are around the world if we want to collaborate so The innovative use of technologies, I appreciate how round we're how round TV That's dope to have a television station to reach out to folks If I can I if I can add to that like I'm always also thinking about ancestral technologies, right? The past is the future. That's that's a certainty, right? I'm always thinking about Mexico City Was this floating city that had developed agricultural technologies on a lake That to me is the future to build these beautiful sustainable models, right I Am as we kind of closed this session I'm I'm just appreciating the fact that our future is not just about humans, but it's about technology It's also about the land it's about the past that we're bringing into the future and I would have to say that you know if This gathering is any semblance of what might be possible in the future It's quite hopeful and I just want to thank each one of you for the work that you're doing to help us think about What that future can be and to help us think about what it means to think critically about it to think very humanistically about it, but also to think about our responsibility to the whole Future so I'm pleased joining me in thanking Tiffany and Casey and Federico for your time and for your wisdom and expertise and look forward to continue this Conversation with you whether it be in Virginia or Boston or the Mississippi Delta wherever we go May we continue this conversation. Thank you so much