The Wrap: Reclaiming the culture through women's voices
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Athena Cloud, for more than a decade, has been teaching young girls and women on backup singing, or women’s Zhaabowe, which means she or he sings an accompaniment of women. The Red Lake Nation citizen estimates she has taught about 50 women through different cultural camps in communities and schools.
“It’s all about exposing the youth and community to different cultural customs and traditional ways of life that not everyone has access to if we were at home, at a reservation, for example,” she said.
Backup singers usually stand behind sitting drum singers during a powwow. Male singers are often the main group of singers.
In her perspective, women’s backup singing is a way to reclaim the culture and to spotlight minority women, especially Native women, in modern society.
“Taking back that power that we have and showing that power to everyone in that being through the power of singing,” Cloud, 27, said. READ MORE — Kalle Benallie, ICT
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Many who grew up in the Pacific Northwest recognize Ed Edmo by his expressive hands and face as he tells stories, breathing life into characters like Nasho, a monster woman, and cultural tricksters like the Coyote and Spider Woman. He changes his voice, making it high for the women’s parts and low for the men’s. Sometimes he incorporates puppets or asks the audience to help him, urging them to repeat after him.
Ed Edmo, Shoshone-Bannock, is a traditional storyteller, poet, playwright, published author, actor, performer, instructor and tour guide who lectures on cultural issues at cultural sites in the Pacific Northwest, such as the flooding of Celilo Falls, as well as drug and alcohol abuse and mental health for Native peoples. He has also served as a consultant to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
He tells a story of a monster with “long hair, claws for fingers, snaggly teeth, snot down to here, and bad breath,” asking the audience to repeat those descriptions with him every time he mentions the monster, utilizing hand motions and facial expressions to fully immerse his audience in the story. As his hands wave through the air, the light catches on his silver and turquoise rings—one on almost every finger. Edmo says this is an audience favorite.
“Stories were told to teach children how to act,” shares Edmo. “…how to treat their elders, how to interact with nature and the world.” READ MORE — Underscore News
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The bustling Arizona Indian Festival showcases Native singing, dancing and art to promote tourism and awareness of Arizona’s tribal communities. Visitors can learn about Indigenous culture and history through vendors, art and demonstrations.
To ensure that visitors to the festival, which was in early February, interact with real Native art, an Arizona Indian Festival committee vets all festival vendors for authenticity. Vendors are also required to show a certificate of degree of Indian or Alaska Native blood.
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Silversmith Steve LaRance from the Hopi Tribe said people visiting the Southwest find Native American culture interesting and want an authentic experience. “Our artwork carries a lot of that beauty and culture when we create it.”
LaRance said the authenticity of Native American arts and crafts is important because there are knockoffs from Indonesia, China, Japan and other countries that take away from the income of Native people and their families.
“It’s all about the money because Native American arts and crafts is a multibillion-dollar industry annually,” LaRance said. READ MORE — Cronkite News
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SAN FRANCISCO — A judge has thrown out a lawsuit that sought to block the University of California from renaming the former Hastings College of the Law because its namesake was linked to the slaughter of Native people.
Descendants of Serranus Hastings filed the $1.7 billion breach of contract lawsuit over the decision to change the name to the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, which took effect last year.
Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer ruled Tuesday that an 1878 law that said the school “shall forever be known” by Hastings' name wasn't a binding contract and could be amended or repealed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Ulmer also rejected a claim that the change violated the state Constitution's requirement that the University of California remain “free of all political or sectarian influence,” the Chronicle said.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Gregory Michael, said the ruling will be appealed.
“We remain undeterred in our pursuit of justice for the family of Serranus Hastings," he told the Chronicle on Wednesday. READ MORE — Associated Press
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