Dear Dominican students, staff, and faculty:
What a busy month it has been and how fast this year has gone by! Already, the paper you’re holding now is the last 2021 print issue of the Star. Looking back on the past year, we are thankful for your readership and forever grateful for the perspectives our community has offered.
This month especially, I would like to bring your mind to learning about Indigenous Heritage Month. In your daily commute or walk across campus, you might have noticed Día de Los Muertos Altars situated in the buildings. Or, you might have marveled as I did at the beautiful expanse of artifacts on the first floor of the library.
All the exhibits have the history, trauma, and indefatigable spirit of Indigenous people embronzed within. And the most refreshing part is the activism of on-campus organizations and people who bridged the distant past with the freshness of now. You can see this in the artist statement of the altars, defining the exhibit as “a way for indigenous communities to include themselves and their narratives in the history of Christianity.” You can search for it in the handiworks laid out in the Native American exhibit in the library, complete with informational indexes. UMinistry, Center for Cultural Liberation and Rebecca Crown Library staff installed them for the general education of our university.
We even had the honor to hear from the Diné scholar Manny Loley who in line with November transgender awareness month, examines the identity, sexual awareness and dual-spirit in Native American literature. So, I will pass along here the invitation to the Presentation on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People on Nov. 16, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. at Parmer 108 or the Two-Spirit Talk and Dinner for Nov. 19, 5-6 p.m. at CCL. Alternatively, read on in our coverage for the people who made this scholarly experience possible.
