Symposium: Indigenous Perspectives on Monuments

Tuesday, November 14, 2017
5:30pm | Brooks Hall Commons

 

In this "Monumental Meanings" symposium, scholars and artists from various fields and interests will discuss their perspectives on monuments and memorials that include, reference, feature or honor Indigenous people. No reservations are needed. Parking is available on the Corner or at Central Grounds Garage.

Directions to Brooks Hall Commons.


Speakers:

Karenne Wood, member of Monacan Indian Nation and director of Virginia Indian Programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. She has worked at the National Museum of the American Indian as a researcher and at the Association on American Indian Affairs as a repatriation specialist.

Julie Gough, Indigenous Tasmanian artist whose work is held in major public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia. Her work explores the lack of monuments and interpretation to Indigenous Tasmanians who were massacred during invasion. Her art practice raises awareness about these histories and various forms of ‘national amnesia’ in Australia.

Jeffrey Hantman, Professor of Anthropology at UVA. He partnered with Wood (above) to rewrite state signage referencing native Virginians. His recent research engages in the practices of Indigenous and collaborative archaeology, framing new questions of the archaeological record that are rooted in native concepts of power, landscape, history and hierarchy. 

Benaiah Walters, UVA student and Vice President of the Native American Student Union (NASU). After August 11 and 12, NASU students held a purification ceremony at the Jefferson Statue on the Lawn and he will speak from a student perspective about the two statues in Charlottesville featuring Indigenous people.

Moderator:

Kasey Keeler, Native American Studies Postdoctoral Fellow, American Studies Program at UVA. Her research is largely informed by place making, public memory and public history. In particular her work demonstrates the continuous residency of American Indian people in suburbs, disrupting narratives of suburbs as primarily white places that developed from the post-WWII housing boom.