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2013 Elder in Residence

Senora Lynch (Haliwa-Saponi) – Native Artist

Tuesday, March 26 – Thursday, 28, 2013

Elder in Residence Program. Every spring, the UNC American Indian Center hosts a well-respected nationally known American Indian elder on campus for one week as part of its Elder in Residence (EIR) Program. While on campus, the EIR meets with classes, students, faculty and various other campus community groups to share Indigenous knowledge, validate Indigenous practices and ways of knowing, reinforce and affirm Indian identity, raise the awareness of Native culture, and foster relationships between Indian communities and the University.

This year, we are pleased to announce that Senora Lynch has agreed to serve as the Center’s 2013 Elder in Residence. Mrs. Lynch is a nationally known and well-respected Haliwa-Saponi potter. She has work on permanent display at the Museum of History in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is also in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. She builds her pots using the traditional coiling method and decorates her work with Native American symbols and motifs of her childhood. In 2004, Mrs. Lynch created the public art “The Gift” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a mosaic walkway of light colored brick; it is the Campus’s first monument to Native Americans. The gift can be found on the courtyard between the old and new Student Union buildings.

The Elder in Residence program will take place on campus March 26-28. Please contact Amy Hertel at the UNC American Indian Center (amy_hertel@unc.edu) if you would like to meet with Mrs. Lynch or have her visit your class during her residence on campus. She may speak to any of the following topics: Native art, history, identify, culture, and ceremony.

The Elder in Residence program is sponsored by the American Indian Center and the Frank Porter Graham Student Union.

Public Elder in Residence Events

Please join us for A Conversation with Senora Lynch, where Mrs. Lynch will discuss the development and her vision for The Gift and the influence of culture in her American Indian artwork. The Conversation will be held at 6:00pm on Tuesday, March 26 at the Nelson Mandela Auditorium in the FedEx Building at UNC Chapel Hill. A reception will follow. Public parking is available in the McCauley Parking Deck.

Also, don’t miss your opportunity to tour The Gift with artist, Senora Lynch. Mrs. Lynch will be giving a walking tour of her work, which serves as a permanent monument to American Indians at UNC. The tour will take place on the south east corner of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union on Wednesday, March 27 at 10:00 am.

Public Elder in Residence Events

Please join us for A Conversation with Senora Lynch, where Mrs. Lynch will discuss the development and her vision for The Gift and the influence of culture in her American Indian artwork. The Conversation will be held at 6:00pm on Tuesday, March 26 at the Nelson Mandela Auditorium in the FedEx Building at UNC Chapel Hill. A reception will follow. Public parking is available in the McCauley Parking Deck.

Also, don’t miss your opportunity to tour The Gift with artist, Senora Lynch. Mrs. Lynch will be giving a walking tour of her work, which serves as a permanent monument to American Indians at UNC. The tour will take place on the south east corner of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union on Wednesday, March 27 at 10:00 am.

Sponsors for this year’s Program include:

Carolina Union
LEARN NC

Elder in Residence Program

Every spring the Elder in Residence (EIR) Program brings to campus a well-respected nationally prominent American Indian to foster cultural, academic, social, and spiritual support for Carolina students as well as to enrich the campus community. Selected elders have come from all parts of the country and are chosen for their deep cultural knowledge and their leadership in Native causes.

During their time on campus, the EIR will spend much of his/her time meeting with students, speaking in classrooms, and meeting with other campus faculty and staff.

The EIR Program is designed to:

Celebrate Indigenous knowledge,
Validate Indigenous practices and ways of knowing,
Reinforce American Indian identity and affirm American Indian students,
Raise the awareness of Native culture with University staff and faculty, and
Foster relationships between American Indian communities and the University.

This year, nominations were solicited from American Indian students and American Indian Studies faculty and staff. Criteria for selection include national prominence and expertise in a field.

Please join us as we celebrate our seventh year of the EIR program. We realize there are many individuals worthy of this honor. It is difficult to identify a single person every year given that nationally there are many leaders we would like to honor.