Sneak Up: Statement of Purpose

Dopamine Regresssion by Melissa Cody

This Monday 24 October 2011 @ 11 AM in 242 César Chávez our Sneak Up will be lead by Student Learning Center Assistant Director Luisa Giulianetti.

Writing a Statement of Purpose is an art form and the time is at hand for statements:  graduate school applications, fellowships, research opportunities and grants.  Ms. Giulianetti will guide you through the ins and outs of crafting your best statement of self.  Writing these singular documents require vision, patience and creativity.  Join us as we take it one word and one line at a time.

 

Ohlone Indigenous Delegation at Occupy Oakland

Hearing Radmilla: What You Do and What You Don't

WHAT YOU DO and WHAT YOU DON'T 

A Conversation by and about

Black and American Indian Women 

Images and Voices 

African American Studies Conference Room

652 Barrows Hall, UC Berkeley 

Oct. 21st, from 2:30 - 4:30 pm.  

Join us for an afternoon conversation with several scholars

and artists from African Diaspora, African American and 

American Indians Studies.

Christina Bush

African Diaspora Studies Ph.D Student, UC Berkeley
Areas of research include: black masculine performance, 

“authenticity,” and sneakers 

Kim McNair

African Diaspora Studies, Doctoral Student, UC Berkeley
Areas of research include: commodification of Black Protest Culture, 

Remix Theory, performance of race, and t-shirt culture

Ianna Hawkins Owen

PhD student in African Diaspora Studies 
Areas of research include: the racialization of asexuality, desire and
abolition 

Obiamaka Ude 

African American Studies Recent Graduate, UC Berkeley
Areas of research include: women of African descent, identity, and hair
politics; social justice movements from a feminist perspective 

Radmilla Cody

Miss Navajo Nation 1997-1998, activist, and 

One of NPR's 50 Greatest Voices in Recorded History

Angela Webb

Documentary Film Director

Self Portrait by Niki Lee (Arikara/Caddo) 

Hearing Radmilla: The Voice

A Beautiful Dawn by Radmilla Cody.

Radmilla Cody speaks out about what it takes to continue to make art in our languages and on our terms.  This is how "We make a living." 

See:  Pirates of the Navajo Nation- Part 5

Assistant Prof. Kimberly TallBear-October 12 @ Noon

Joseph A. Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues Speaker Series:

From Blood to DNA, From "Tribe" to "Race": Science, Whiteness & Property


Kimberly TallBear, Assistant Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley

with Troy Duster, Silver Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge, New York University, and Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Berkeley, as respondent

This talk will compare symbolic blood as it has been used in 20th and 21st-century U.S. tribal enrollment with the more recent advent of DNA testing for enrollment. I briefly examine both "Indian blood" and "tribe-specific blood" and compare these concepts with that of the "DNA profile" that is increasingly used in enrollment in concert with existing blood rules. How might DNA testing influence how we understand "Native American" as a racial category? I argue that genetic practices are more likely to "racialize" Native American citizenship than are current blood rules alone, and this is more harmful to tribal sovereignty than are blood concepts of identity.
-Wildavsky Conference Room, 2538 Channing Way, Berkeley
Co-sponsored by the Sociology Department and the Environmental Science and Polcy Management Department.

Hearing Radmilla: Domestic Violence on the Rez

Radmilla Cody and Geraldine Laughter, advocates working to stop domestic violence, discuss domestic violence and the challenges for enforcement and victim support services on the Navajo Nation and other Indian reservations.

"You never know who is listening."

Hearing Radmilla: Domestic Violence on Navajo Nation

Hearing Radmilla features commentary from one of our most important voices, Navajo Times reporter Marley Shebala.  Recently Shebala has written a series of articles about domestic violence for the Times:

PD chief: Domestic violence 'dominant'

By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK, May 5, 2011

"Domestic violence on the Navajo Reservation is "very dominant," acting Navajo Nation Police Chief Harry Sombrero told U.S. attorneys from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah on April 26.

Sombrero emphasized that in the domestic violence cases he's handled, the perpetrators went on to kill their victims about three years after first threatening them with death. The perpetrators in these cases were male - boyfriends, husbands or ex-husbands, he said.
He and the U.S. attorneys met at the Navajo Nation Museum to discuss how they can improve their efforts to make life safer for tribal members.
Last year tribal police responded to 4,851 domestic violence calls, according to the Division of Public Safety statistics. The number was even higher in the previous three years, peaking at over 6,700 in 2007."

Navajo Co. sets up centers to serve victims of domestic violence 

By Marley Shebala

Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK, April 7, 201"he Navajo County attorney's office plans to open two family advocacy centers dedicated to help reduce the trauma suffered by victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and child abuse.
They are the latest in a multi-pronged effort by the office to reduce violence against residents in the county, a long narrow stretch of mostly rural land north of the Mogollon Rim.
The first center will open next month in Show Low and the second one will open in Holbrook in August."

Violence Against Family Act revived

By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK, July 21, 2011
"After it lay dormant for 12 or 14 years, first lady Martha Shelly dusted off the Violence Against Family Act and placed it in the hands of Delegates Katherine Benally and Joshua Butler as part of "Navajo Nation Stop Violence Against Women Day" on Wednesday."

Hallow Promises:  Domestic abuse victim suffers at hands of husband, tribe

Part 1 of 2

By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times

NAGEEZI, N.M., May 12, 2011
"The domestic violence case of 44-year-old Linda Begay began as an appeal to her tribe for protection for herself and her children.  More than two years later, serious lapses in service delivery by tribal agencies mandated to help people like Begay have left her homeless, her children in foster care, and her hopes for rebuilding her life a dim light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel."

Part Two:  Linda's Story:  Alone, afraid and sad

"Linda Begay constantly smiles, even as she describes her tortured 16 years with her estranged husband, Wallace Begay, 50."

Navajo Co. sets up centers to serve victims of domestic violence

By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK, April 7, 2011
 
"The Navajo County attorney's office plans to open two family advocacy centers dedicated to help reduce the trauma suffered by victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and child abuse.
They are the latest in a multi-pronged effort by the office to reduce violence against residents in the county, a long narrow stretch of mostly rural land north of the Mogollon Rim."

Telling her story

Beating victim won't bow to police indifference, lack of action

By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times

GALLUP, March 24, 2011
"After what seemed like a non-stop three-hour beating, 24-year-old Krystal Yazzie's face was a bloody mess.
...
"My 3-year-old son didn't know I was his mother," Yazzie said."

Shebala followed up this story; her follow up piece is available online.  (Navajo Times, WINDOW ROCK, Aapril 14, 2011, System finally responds to beating victim's pleas)

I am not including it here, as the Times chose to run a photo of Ms. Yazzie which feeds the desire to see "proof,"  the erotics and pleasure often derived from seeing images of violence against women, and only serves to turn our attention away from the perpetrators and onto the victims.  


Learn more about Shebala in Dan Kraker's 2006 article in the High Country News:  "How many American journalists can claim that their reporting helped oust two presidents? Navajo Times reporter Marley Shebala can: Her tireless muckraking helped lead to the downfall — and eventual imprisonment — of Navajo Nation Chairman Peter MacDonald in 1989."