The banks may be closed Monday, but University student Rachel Cushman doesn’t see Columbus Day as something worth celebrating.
Instead, Cushman, a Chinook native, will be celebrating Indigenous Solidarity Day, an anti-Columbus Day event organized by the Native American Student Union and the Multicultural Center.
“Indigenous Solidarity Day is taking back the day for ourselves,” Cushman said. “Basically, it’s anti-colonialism. We come together with people of the world who had been colonized to celebrate our indigenousness, and embrace our heritage, where we come from and our geography of resistance.”
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the EMU Amphitheater will be filled with tabling, music, poetry and several speakers, including University professors, activist Shandiin Garcia, and students from NASU, the MCC, the Survival Center, the Black Student Union and MEChA.
Indigenous Solidarity Day is about celebrating culture, but also increasing awareness.
Hailing from Warm Springs – a reservation in north central Oregon that’s home to nearly 4,000 members of the Warm Springs, Paiute and Wasco tribes – NASU Co-director Carina Miller, a junior anthropology major, still experiences people asking if she rides horses and lives in a teepee.
“I think that a lot of people aren’t aware of a lot of indigenous issues or aware that we’re even around,” Miller said.
Miller pointed out that while the event was put together by NASU, it’s about all indigenous people, not just Native Americans.
“It’s certainly great for different groups with all kinds of indigenous roots for solidarity,” said University senior Oscar Guerra, who is triple-majoring in ethnic studies, political science and Spanish.
Guerra, MEChA’s program director and the publicity co-director for the MCC, said thinking of Christopher Columbus as the hero who discovered America romanticizes genocide.
Chuck Hunt, an adjunct sociology professor who is speaking Monday, has been involved with Indigenous Solidarity Day for several years and will speak about Columbus.
“Columbus is just a stunningly bad figure to be celebrating,” he said. “He was personally responsible for the deaths of thousands of indigenous people and he was indirectly responsible for 500 years of catastrophe.”
Hunt will also speak of the “fundamental racism” regarding Nike’s recent release of the N7 Air Native, a sneaker specifically designed for Native Americans.
“I think it’s kind of amazing Nike thinks there’s some kind of special foot for Native Americans,” he said. “I think (the topic is) appropriate, given the ties between the University and Nike.”
Monday night at 6:30 p.m., the Multicultural Center will also host Indigenous Film Night, featuring the Australian aboriginal comedy “Babakiueria,” as well as a documentary on the plight of Mount Shasta, Calif.’s Winnemem Wintu tribe.
“I think it’s really cool we can have a big event,” Miller said. “I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
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