Communications

Students from the Lawrence University ETST 336 “Decolonization, Activism, & Hope” course will be sharing their interdisciplinary final research projects with a goal of actively engaging with our community. In addition to exploring the damaging effects of colonial patterns of representation on Native American culture throughout history, this course also highlights four main themes: Remembrance, Resistance, Redemption, and Reconciliation. Free and open to the public. Please swing by the WCC gallery anytime between 12:30-2:30pm Thursday, May 30 to join us!

Titles of Research:

“Daughters of the Land: The Effects of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women on Traditionally Matriarchal Indigenous Communities” (Taneya Garcia)

“Afro-Native Allyship: How To Be An Ally When You Need An Ally” (Jordyn Plieseis)

“Colonization and the Creation of Borders: Vietnam’s Indigenous Khmer Krom and Remembering What It Means To Be Khmer” (Charlie Burns-Bahruth)

“The Indigenous Caribbean: Perspectives of Historical Erasure in Contemporary Society” 
(Ann Pyram)

“Examining the Issue of Indian Mascots in America: Ending the Era” (Jeanette Adams)

“Forgotten Voices: A True Narrative of Standing Rock” 
(Harry Rivas)

“Bursting the Stereotypes: Contemporary Effects of Colonization of Native American Women” (Ayomide Akinyosoye)

“Historical Amnesia: Exploring the Effects of How Native American Culture Is Often Overlooked In School Curriculum” (Promise Addy)

After two years serving as videographer for his alma mater, Christopher Gore-Gammon ’17 is starting a new phase of his life in a few short weeks. Chris is moving to to Tampa, Florida, and his last day at Lawrence will be June 11. 

Chris first joined the Office of Communication as an intern and transitioned to a full-time position immediately upon his graduation in 2017. His experience in Film Studies, as well as his work as a tech crew manager in the Warch Campus Center, brought expertise to our video team. He helped us to streamline campus recording services and coverage of events and bolstered our recruitment of and work with student videographers. Chris also assisted in the capture and creation of the university’s 360 virtual tour and provided invaluable day-to-day support for our video team, from project logistics to assisting staff with quick solutions. As a member of the Class of 2017, Chris provided insight into the campus community, helping to increase our offices’s awareness of upcoming projects.

Needless to say, Chris will be missed. 

To celebrate his contributions to Lawrence and his bright future, we will gather in the VR next Wednesday, June 5, at 4:30 p.m. Please join the  in wishing Chris best wishes as he embarks on new adventures in the Sunshine State. 

-Office of Communications

The Honors Day Convocation will be held at 11:10 on Tuesday morning, May 21. Our speaker will be David Burrows, Professor of Psychology and Director of Inclusive Pedagogy. His talk is entitled “Education for Effective Action.”

Weather permitting, the customary academic procession will assemble in front of the Music-Drama Center beginning at 11:00, with the head of the procession facing College Avenue. In poor weather, we will assemble in the Music-Drama Center lobby. We suggest that emeriti assemble near the head of the procession. Anyone who feels unable to march is invited to take a seat in the Chapel around 11:00 in row O (letter oh), on either side.  As we did last year, we’ll be marching down the outside aisles of the Chapel, and you’re encouraged to acknowledge the student honorees as we pass in front and beside them.

Instructors of Tuesday morning classes and labs are asked to dismiss students promptly so that both faculty and students may be ready on time.

May 24-June 30, 2019

An exhibition of selected works by Lawrence University’s senior studio art majors.

Opening reception with refreshments

Friday, May 24, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Wriston Art Center

All are welcome!

Artists: 

Alexis V. Clodfelter

Ann Connolly

Cassie Gitkin

Elsie A. Tenpas

Emma Fredrickson

Lee Donlon

Madison Whitehead

Miranda Salazar 

Morgan Shapiro

Rachel Cole

Sarah Luepker

Siyu Liu

Tess Bourbeau

Yifan Zhang

Gallery Hours

Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Saturday–Sunday, noon–4 p.m.

You are invited to a celebration for Wayne Krueger, Biology Lab Supervisor, and Cindy Duckert, Biology Senior Experience Coordinator, both of whom will be retiring this spring.  We will be hosting a reception on Friday May 24, from 3-5pm, in the Pusey Room at the Warch Campus Center to honor both of them and the amazing contributions they have made to Lawrence over the years.

For 37 years, Wayne has provided continuity and a stable foundation for the Biology Department and generations of Lawrence students. Over the past 10 years Cindy has helped us develop a signature senior experience program, featuring our annual BioFest celebration of student projects. They have both enabled students to flourish at Lawrence and IN THEIR LIVES AFTER LAWRENCE. Please join us for refreshments and some time together with them.

This Thursday, starting at 4:30pm, Visiting Costume Textile Artist, Tessa Armstrong, will be talking about her craft and her experiences as someone who gives life to the wondrous worlds portrayed on film or Television. Her talk will take place in the Wriston Auditorium.

Spring Convocation

What: Convocation featuring Matika Wilbur, creator and director of Project 562, Changing the Way We See Native America

When: 11:10 a.m. April 11; unveiling of mural on campus to follow.

Where: Lawrence Memorial Chapel

Brigetta Miller calls it a historic moment for Lawrence University, a big step forward in the understanding of Native communities and the need to embrace and value the knowledge, history and contributions of indigenous people.

When Matika Wilbur, creator and director of Project 562, arrives on campus on Friday, April 5 for a week-long artist-in-residency — including the creation of a contemporary mural celebrating area tribal communities — and an April 11 convocation address at Memorial Chapel, it will be significant.

Significant for Native students and alumni. Significant for the 11 federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin. And significant for the university.

“I see this spring convocation as history unfolding before our eyes since it’s the first Native American woman who has been chosen as a university convocation speaker since the opening of the institution in 1847,” said Miller, an associate professor of music in the Lawrence Conservatory of Music and a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee (Mohican) Nation.

“Given the fact that our campus is on sacred Menominee ancestral homelands, I believe our ancestors are truly smiling down on this event. It’s a very big deal for us to be visibly represented in this way.”

Stories to tell

Wilbur, a visual storyteller from the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington, has been traveling the country as part of Project 562, using photography and art installations to connect with tribal communities and help redirect the narrative of their history, their present and their future. The 562 is a reference to the number of federally recognized tribes in the United States at the time the project launched in 2012.

Wilbur sold most of her belongings, loaded her cameras into an RV and set out to document lives in tribal communities across all 50 states. Connecting to college campuses along the way has been a big part of her journey.

“We are in a very critical time that requires educators, administrators and college communities to create a more inclusive environment for Native American students,” Wilbur says in her Project 562 plan. “By engaging in this social art project, students will have the opportunity to, a) organize, b) have their voices heard on campus, and c) elevate the consciousness and encourage the social paradigm shift to acknowledge the contemporary indigenous reality.”

That’s music to the ears of Miller, a 1989 Lawrence graduate who teaches ethnic studies courses in Native identity, history, and culture and works with Native American students on campus as a faculty advisor to the LUNA (Lawrence University Native Americans) student organization.

This community — on campus and beyond — needs to know that Native culture is alive, vibrant, intelligent, resilient, and moving forward, she said.

“I learned of her work a few years ago,” Miller said of Wilbur. “I saw her mission. I’ve been an educator for many years, and when I saw the beauty of what she was doing, substituting the historical distortions and fixed images of the past for the truth about our people, raising visibility for the historic erasure that has happened, sharing the many parts of our culture that often don’t make it into the history books, that inspired me.

“Her message is that we are resilient and we are strong and that we’re reclaiming our own narrative. She’s really aiming to share that part of our story, as opposed to one that popular American culture often believes is dead or invisible. As indigenous people, we are interrupting the settler narrative of the past, embracing our present and ensuring the future for our children. We are moving, we are shaking, we are scholars, we are artists — the sky is the limit for us.”

Wilbur recently teamed with Adrienne Keene, a member of the Cherokee Nation, to launch a new podcast, All My Relations, now live on iTunes, Spotify and Googleplay. It’s an extension of Project 562 in many ways, aimed at exploring relationships and issues important to Native people.

“I see her as a change agent,” Miller said. “Heads are turning.”

A reflection of who we are

At Lawrence, in the week leading up to the convocation address, Wilbur will work closely with Native students and allies to bring the outdoor mural to fruition. They’ll start with a workshop on photography and the important role of art in social justice, focused on how they can document the lives of indigenous people ethically and respectfully.

A group of students will then join Wilbur on visits to nearby reservation lands, where they’ll meet with tribal members, take photos, and participate in a seasonal longhouse ceremony. They’ll use the photos in the creation of a collage that will form the core of a mural to be installed using wheat paste on the outside north wall of the Buchanan Kiewit Wellness Center.

The mural, a non-permanent installation expected to remain visible for two to five years, will be unveiled following the 11:10 a.m. convocation on April 11.

“It means a lot to me that this convocation and art installation will show the beauty and forward-thinking of our culture,” Miller said. “It means more than one can imagine for our current Native students. It’ll be the first time we’ve had contemporary Native American artwork on the side of one of our buildings. Our indigenous students will see themselves reflected back for the first time ever.”

In her convocation address, Wilbur will discuss Project 562 and takeaways from her interactions with Lawrence students, the visits to area tribal lands and the creation of the mural.

Beth Zinsli, an assistant professor of art history who chaired this year’s Public Events Committee, said the invitation to Wilbur is part of a rethinking of convocation.

“In addition to our excitement about bringing an indigenous woman to campus for this honor, the Public Events Committee was interested in expanding what Lawrence’s convocation series could be — does a convo have to be a single, stand-alone lecture, or can its significance extend beyond the speaker’s visit and have a more lasting and visible impact?” she said. “I think Matika’s residency and the mural will be an excellent example of this.” 

The convocation will include a traditional Menominee flutist and an Oneida drum/dance group. There also will be an opening invocation spoken in the Menominee language by Dennis Kenote, chairman of the Menominee Nation Language and Culture Commission. That, too, is hopeful, a reflection of understanding and acceptance that hasn’t always been felt by Native communities on college campuses, Miller said.

“I hope this entire experience opens up the door to further meaningful conversations between cultures,” Miller said. “And I hope it attracts more Native students, faculty, and staff to our campus. I hope it raises visibility about the importance of the deeper cultural knowledge that indigenous people inherently bring to a college campus.

“I want Lawrence to be perceived as a welcoming place for Native students, families, and communities. We do welcome an indigenous presence here — students, faculty, local tribal members. Our doors are open to you. I want our people to know that.”

Cross-posted from the Lawrence University News Blog.

Please join us for the Spring 2019 exhibition opening in the Wriston Art Galleries!

Thursday, March 28

Artist talk by Mary Griep at 6 PM 

Reception with refreshments to follow

Wriston Art Center 

Mary Griep is a Professor Emerita of Art and Art History at St. Olaf College. This exhibition will feature work from her Anastylosis Project, a series of large-scale drawings of sacred spaces around the world. The drawings are the visual manifestations of her exploration into how to represent the experience of being present in these special spaces. 

See our Facebook page for additional spring term events in the galleries.