Find Your Path to Help Your People: A Conversation with Dr. Marty Richardson

Find Your Path to Help Your People: A Conversation with Dr. Marty Richardson

Monday, Nov. 25, 6:00-7:30pm

222 Greenlaw Hall

Contact info: qual@email.unc.edu

http://americanindiancenter.unc.edu

Sponsor: American Indian Center

“Find Your Path to Help Your People”

Since before contact with non-Natives, American indigenous peoples have changed and adapted their culture and social organization in order to maintain their peoplehood and communities.  Though the “two worlds” concept of interacting with Native and non-Native worlds has long been a framework to describe the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous ways of thinking, acting, and living, perhaps this concept does not adequately express the complicated reality Native peoples face as modern ever-changing peoples. We explore a possible paradigm shift to say that Native peoples have always lived in “one world,” but the fight is between individualism and tribalism. In order for Native communities to thrive, Native peoples must maintain traditional values of a connection to traditional territories, kinship, religion/spirituality, and reciprocity. We look to the values, experiences, and struggles of our elders and ancestors to find a path to help our people in order to maintain viable Native communities. College-educated and successful indigenous peoples must keep their tribes and communities in their hearts and minds in order to effect positive change for future generations.