Upcoming Events
Past Events
National Day of Truth and Reconciliation
for Indian Boarding Schools
(Orange Shirt Day)
We would like to invite you to join us for a free community screening of the film
Sunday September 29th, 3pm at Cinemapolis
And a talk by Annabel Young
Indian Boarding Schools: Legacies, Impacts, and the Mission of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
Monday September 30, 4:30 pm at 102 Mann Library, Cornell
It will also be streamed on Zoom (Meeting ID: 740 3257 8051, Passcode: QG5V0P)
Along with our relatives in Canada, we will be honoring the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (Orange Shirt Day, September 30th) for Indian Boarding Schools, known in Canada as residential schools. On both sides of the border, the intent, in the words of the founder and longtime superintendent of the Carlisle Indian School, Brigadier General Richard Henry Pratt, was to “Kill the Indian and save the man.” Children were forcibly separated from their families and communities and put in these “schools.” They were forbidden to speak their languages or practice their cultural ways and were punished severely for doing so. The traumas they suffered carry on to this day in their descendents. As a direct result of the boarding schools, there are less than twenty first language Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ speakers left in three communities. The existence of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project is also a direct result of the boarding schools as its efforts center on the revival and perpetuation of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ here in the homelands and beyond. Language and culture are healing elements. Towards that end, we invite you to join us not only in remembering our relatives who were stolen, but in supporting the resurgence of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ language and people here in the ancestral homelands.
We hope that you can join us for the free screening of Sugarcane on Sunday September 29th at Cinemapolis, along with any friends or family that you would like to invite. Members of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project will be available to answer questions about our work as well as make available Orange T-shirts designed by our relatives in Canada specifically for this day.
For more information about the schools: https://boardingschoolhealing.org
Short video: members of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project discuss the effects of Indian Boarding Schools
For more information about the schools:
https://boardingschoolhealing.org
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/residential-school-tour-1.6983036
Short video: members of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project discuss the effects of Indian Boarding Schools
The free community screening of Sugarcane is made possible by generous support from The Learning Farm and the American Indian and Indigenous Study Program at Cornell University. Our thanks to Cinemapolis for partnering in this presentation.
About Sugarcane (29 September)
Focusing in particular on St. Joseph’s Mission in Williams Lake, BC, Canada (closed in 1981), the documentary pieces together the testimony of former students and anthropological investigators to unearth the damning details of the violent systematic oppression that was allowed to inflict trauma and death upon a century of generations of their community. What ensues is a devastating bombshell of a reckoning…
…Sugarcane bursts with the acknowledgment that they are most concerned with the emotional and the personal: the preservation and healing of their communities, still standing despite it all.
(RogerEbert.com)
About Annabel Young’s talk at Cornell (30 September)
The talk will be on Monday September 30, 4:30 pm at 102 Mann Library, Cornell.
It will also be streamed on Zoom (Meeting ID: 740 3257 8051, Passcode: QG5V0P).
This presentation will explore the work of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), and our organizational pledge to address this legacy through truth-telling efforts like our oral history project, justice through the passage of S.1723: The Bill to Establish a Truth and Healing Commission on U.S. Indian Boarding School Policies, and, perhaps most importantly, healing. This presentation will also explore the federal policies that created Indian boarding schools within the United States and examine the contemporaneous Morrill Act that established land-grab/land-grant universities like Cornell, situating their intertwined legacies of Indigenous assimilation, genocide, and dispossession.
Annabel Young (she/her) is a Saginaw Chippewa descendant (ajijaak/crane clan) and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 2021, Annabel received her B.A. in English and American Studies with minors in American Indian & Indigenous Studies and Inequality Studies from Cornell. During her time at Cornell, Annabel served as Co-Chair of NAISAC, Managing Editor of Rainy Day Literary Magazine, and worked at Temple of Zeus café. She is a descendant of boarding school survivors who attended Carlilse Indian Industrial School and Mount Pleasant Boarding School.
Annabel worked as a Communications Coordinator for the Haudenosaunee Nationals before transferring to a role at AIISP as an Administrative Assistant, where she worked primarily in Akwe:kon and with Akwe:kon students. She currently serves as the Digital Content Manager for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), a nonprofit that seeks truth, justice, and healing for survivors of the Indian boarding school system.
Annabel enjoys beading, reading, and playing video games in her free time, and lives with her bestie and former NAISAC Co-Chair Madison and their dog, Potato.
This presentation is by The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at Cornell University
Director Erica Tremblay’s
Fancy Dance at Cinemapolis
June 24, 2024
@ Cinemapolis
120 East Green Street, Ithaca, NY
Filmmaker Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga of Oklahoma) directed, produced, and co-wrote film festival fave Fancy Dance (2023). Tremblay’s characters in Fancy Dance, including Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Lily Gladstone’s Jax, speak Gayogohó:nǫˀ and honor cultural practices.
The film’s run at Cinemapolis, in collaboration with the GLP celebrates the language in the Gayogohó:nǫˀ homelands where it arose. The film underscores the survival of Gayogohó:nǫˀ language and culture
Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ Seeds
The seeds that left the Cayuga Lake region over 250 years ago are home again. Learn how Michelle Seneca, along with her partner Stephen Henhawk, has worked to help this happen. Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ (Cayuga) people have a rich history of over ten thousand years living in and stewarding lands of the Finger Lakes region. The Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ people are part of the Six Nations of the Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih (Haudenosaunee), sometimes referred to as the “Iroquois.”
WHEN: Tuesday, May 21, 2024, 6:00-7:00 PM
WHERE: Kendal Auditorium, 230 N. Triphammer Rd., Ithaca, NY
We will have available for sale at the event The Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ People in the Cayuga Lake Region: A Brief History, by Kurt A. Jordan, published by the Tompkins County Historical Commission in 2022. Professor Jordan’s 80-page history of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ begins at the end of the last ice age 13,000 years ago and traces the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ people to the reoccupation of their traditional territory in 2003, to the events in 2021. The book is also available from The History Center’s online bookstore and at the Cornell Bookstore. Checks for the $10.80 payment (includes tax) are the preferred form of payment at the event.
Better Together Ithaca
Better Together
Embrace Mental Health Wellness at Stewart Park on Saturday, May 11, from 11am to 3pm
FREE EVENT! This uplifting day of FREE activities for all ages is designed to help you prioritize your mental health every day. Participate in mindful movement, dance, live music, street performances, workshops, indulge in free food offerings and much more.
Stewart Park will be abuzz with community organizations, including the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ Learning Project, mental health providers, instructors, and entertainers, creating a vibrant atmosphere for learning, laughter and connection. Explore and learn about mental health, discover ways to support yourself, and connect with others facing similar mental health challenges. Let's make mental health a collective priority, because we are truly “Better Together."
For more information, visit the Better Together Ithaca website.
"Common Ground" Screening
The Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ Learning Project (GLP) will be on hand at the free screening of the food justice documentary Common Ground (2023), hosted by the Tompkins County Food Policy Council (FPC). The film has won multiple awards, including the Tribeca Film Festival Human/Nature Award and the tve Global Sustainability Film Award.
Please drop by at our table and say hello and learn more about how the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ Learning Project has been involved in local food justice issues.
WHAT: Common Ground Screening
WHEN: Wednesday, May 8, 2024, 6:30-9:00 PM
WHERE: Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street, Ithaca, NY
The free event is co-sponsored by Cinemapolis, Mothers Out Front, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), and Sustainable Finger Lakes.
Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ: Who We Are
Join members of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ Learning Project—Stephen Henhawk (Wolf Clan Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ), Michelle Seneca (Turtle Clan Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ), and Jim Wikel (Wolf Clan Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ)— and Ithaca College’s Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity for a panel discussion, “Gayogo̱hó:nǫʔ: Who We Are.” Refreshments will be served.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 3, 2024, at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Ithaca College’s Clark Lounge in the Campus Center (See the Ithaca College interactive campus map for location.)
ACCOMMODATIONS: Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Sean Eversley Bradwell at seversley@ithaca.edu or 607-274-1411. Requests for accommodations should be made as soon as possible.
The Storied Maple: A Storytelling Event at a Community Sap Boil
GLP language teacher Stephen Henhawk and GLP Co-Leader Michelle Seneca will be telling stories about maple at “The Storied Maple,” a collective maple sugaring project. Join in on this afternoon of free, family-friendly storytelling as you learn about the maple while making syrup. Presented by the Soil Factory.
NOTE: The event date has changed from Saturday, March 23, to Sunday, March 24, due to inclement weather conditions.
Location: The Soil Factory, 142 Ithaca Beer Drive, Ithaca, NY 14850.
For more details, visit The Storied Maple event page.