Native American writer Simon Ortiz read his poetry and discussed his Native American heritage last night for the seventh annual Native American Speakers Series sponsored by both the A&S Diversity Fund and the Elizabeth Toupin Fund.
Brianna Burke, the event's organizer, remarked that although the Native American community at Tufts is very small and there are no Native American faculty members, "there are a lot of things to talk about."
An assortment of graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and local descendants of a Wampanoag tribe filled the lecture hall of Pearson 104 as Ortiz shared his views on land, culture, and community, all deeply influenced by his spirituality.
"Religion is so much a part of the indigenous way of being," he said. "There is no separation of Church and State, it is all one whole."
Later, he commented that one does not have to be religious to understand that respecting land, culture, and community is "a practical reality, it is a practical way of being."
Ortiz was born in Acoma Pueblo, N.M., where he first learned the Native American language of Acoma from his community before being taught English in school. The government had a significant role in opposing the values he was taught, particularly when large corporations came to New Mexico to mine for uranium.
"The struggle will go on," he said. "There is no question about that." Descriptive and accessible, his poetry reflects a need for change and a reverence of community. "I will always try to focus on community... because that's who we are; that's what we are," Ortiz said.
Most recently, Ortiz wrote the PBS documentary "Surviving Columbus" and is a professor at the University of Toronto. The focus of his poetry and teaching are land, culture, and community.
"For indigenous peoples, this is what comprises us," he said. "This is what we are sustained by."
Not without a sense of humor, Ortiz shared recent experiences of prejudice as well as memories from boyhood, when he first rebelled against capitalism by freeing trout that had been caught by the nets of local fisheries. Recently, he refused to be put on a float in a frontier-themed parade.
"We laughed because it is good to laugh with story; it is good to laugh with memory," he said.
"We are not without purpose. We have ... responsibilities: one to another."
Ortiz playfully flipped through the pages of his own book while being introduced by Elizabeth Ammons, a Native American Writers professor in the English Department at Tufts, and nodded gravely while listening to the plight of the Native American peoples as told by Joan Lester, an American Studies professor.
Freshman Joseph Nasser believed that although Ortiz fulfilled some of his views of Native American stereotypes, "I didn't really know that much about it. It was impressive."
Nahahnack, whose English name is Jonathan Perry, is a program manager of the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plymouth Plantation and also attended Ortiz's lecture. He remarked that although he and Ortiz have different backgrounds and different ways of looking at creation, they do agree that "it is important and deserves respect. We all deserve respect."
Applause filled the lecture hall when Ortiz combined his English poetry with song verses in his native Acoma tongue. "I am of the Acoma people. There is no other way I can regard myself," he said, spiritually associating his identity with that of his community.
Dedicated to giving a voice to the small but significant Native American community at Tufts and beyond, the Native American Speakers Series has been host to lectures by fiction writers, installation artists, and other activists such as Ward Churchill and Susan Power who support the issues of American Indian peoples.
