#ndn academia

[qhariwarmi]

screw it, NDN* academia

welcome to my blog, here I'm gonna blog about dark academia stuff but with a Native American twist. Stuff that may or may not include:

book/movie/show recommendations revolving around NDN actors/stories/issues

reblogging posts about NDN issues and activism, big and small

posts about academic/historical/anthropological topics revolving around NDN culture (both reblogs and original posts)

general dark academia stuff

honestly just anything that involves dark academia and/or NDN stuff, it's my blog I make the rules

also will include occult/witchcraft/pagan stuff

Feel free to suggest/tag me in stuff, trying to start an NDN academia movement

*NDN (not dead Native) = the original peoples of North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean

More about me and some boundaries under the cut if you wanna read that

About HYENA:

22 y/o

he/him mostly

mixed Quechua and 2spirit (qhariwarmi)

aspiring Grass Dancer

current undergrad history major with Native American studies and archaeology minors

future archivist and (hopefully) academic

attending school/living on Haudenosaunee land

speaker of English (fluent), Quechua (conversational), and learning Spanish

interested in all things NDN, but especially NDN spirituality/religion

gonna try my best to balance this blog, my other blogs/socials, school, work, and a semi-active social life, with time for hobbies

BOUNDARIES:

You don't have to be Native to follow/interact, just don't speak over NDN voices about important issues

any age can follow/interact, I just would rather minors not DM me

Speaking of DMs, I'm open to them, I'm always done to talk to people about whatever

No real specific DNI, just don't be gross/rude (some people are an automatic block, i.e maps, terfs, any bigot honestly)

With all that said, you can follow if I don't like you, I can't control who interacts with me, but I do block liberally

CURRENTLY READING:

Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie David

The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture by Walter L. Williams

Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness by Rachel Pollack

Needful Things by Stephen King

The Walking Dead Compendium #1 by Robert Kirkman

CURRENTLY WATCHING/LISTENING:

Welcome to Night Vale

Fear the Walking Dead

Carol & the End of the World

[ladyimaginarium]

wigwamcore & longhousecore....

[olowan-waphiya]

So for my final semester before I get my BA, I am doing an unofficial study!! If you have any kind of knowledge or experience with eagles, eagle feathers or just have an opinion on them, please consider filling out my questionnaire. I would be so, so thankful for any insight. I am interested in the power and meaning given to the eagle and their feathers---especially by Indigenous peoples but I am also open to responses from non-natives if you feel compelled to respond.

Please share this if you're not able to respond! I would so so appreciate it!

[witchofthewild]

Also! Ndn tumblr - if anyone wants help finding language resources, feel free to reach out. I've spent five years in academia digging through indigenous language resources, and I know it's a common experience to feel like there isn't anything out there, especially with smaller languages. There's often so much out there that's buried or esoteric or locked behind paywalls! Always always always happy to help connect relatives with them <3

[mamaangiwine]

I can't speak for Hoodoo, but I can tell you from my experience as an Ndn- it's not about skin color. It's about community.

One of the reasons talking about "closed practices" with people is so frustrating is because it seems to trigger an immediate defensiveness, which often leads to a break down of communication when poc are simply trying to be informative. People are allowed to learn about closed practices in a respectful way. People are allowed to be, and are urged to be, curious and ask questions. I personally wouldn't call that being "exclusive"; it simply means that, depending on the practice, your role is that of an observer and not a participant.

Tbh, there are many people who participate in closed practices who are not of the closed practice's culture or heritage- but they were invited. They were taught. It was consensually shared.

I've met many white people who had a better understanding of my Native heritage than I did, because they grew up in close proximity to the reservation and I did not. When I lived in Wyoming I met white people who knew Shoshone and Lakota stories by heart. Who knew how to skin and cure a buffalo hide. Who knew how to sing and dance in a circle because they were taught by a tribal elder. I've met white people who were, in a sense, considered "honorary" tribal members. Granted, this didn't give them legal tribal membership, but it did mean that they were loved and respected by the tribe.

But they also understood what that meant.

They understood that, if they were taught anything of spiritual value, it was a gift. A tool they had been given out of respect and friendship, and that it wasn't their's to share with others without permission. That it didn't entitle them to be a teacher, or to play the part of the sage.

It is completely possible for an outsider to become a participant in some closed practices- but they have to be invited and understand the nature of their participation. They have to undersatnd that they now have a huge responsibility to be respectful, and a caretaker of what was gifted to them.

It also means that there is one very important step before anyone can learn anything-

One must be an ally. They must care about the issues that these groups face. The problems that they are experiencing on a day to day basis. They must become an advocate- because sometimes that struggle is inherent to the spirituality.

However, even then, people must understand that doesn't entitle them to a culture's spiritual heritage or methods. An individual must be an ally selflessly. They must do it while truly expecting nothing in return.

As a syncretic practicioner, I completely understand that cultures don't live in sealed off vacuums. The march of time effects all things. Academia, intermarriage, friendship, and yes, even violence and hatred, can cause the lines of one faith to blur into another. As a person of mixed heritage, I understand this as a complicated truth of my mere exisistence; one I struggle with daily.

But I am tentatively hoping that we can live in more enlightened times. I'm hoping that if some practices and traditions are to intermingle they can do so through mutual respect and sharing; rather than stealing and violence. That there can finally be agency, education and good faith behind our motivations and intentions as practicioners- but that does mean respecting a community's agency and accepting when you are told 'no'.

"Lol Who cares if it's a closed practice? Who's gonna stop me? Who's gonna know? 🤣😝"

The gods.

The gods will know.

[qhariwarmi]

that NDN academia feel when your school does a land acknowledgement before every event, saying how the school wouldn't be where it's at without the indigenous people of the land, yet enrolls less than ten indigenous students a year, does almost nothing to help the people of that land, and has a very small and non extensive Native American studies program

[qhariwarmi]

Regalia Making Tutorial Videos

As someone who's completely on its own when it comes to making regalia, here are some Youtube videos I think can be helpful for other NDNs in the same boat

Making Regalia (Cheyenne and Araphano Productions) - pretty long playlist of tutorials for different aspects of making regalia

The Grass Dance Chronicles (Chelsey Moon) - this person has lots of NDN craft videos but I've only checked out the Grass Dancer ones so far which have been helpful

These are the only ones I found helpful (so far), but if you have any additions feel free to add them!

[shadeslayer]

@wigwamcore said: Oh goddddd. It really depends for me on who is doing them and what’s the context. I’ve swung back and forth over the years from when they were rare in the US and it was like fuck yes acknowledge us! And then they got institutional and it was like ok ur just saying shit, but now people are talking more about them being bad and while I soooo get it from an ndn perspective I’m worried white ppl will just stop doing ANYTHING rather than actually pivoting to real action

YEAH its definitely something where my feelings on it have shifted a lot over time, i remember when they first became a thing at all and i was like huh thats a really cool thing and then seeing how it became another way to just say words and then do nothing in actuality with that and now that theyre being criticized more and i dont like them really but also they are.. Something. even if its a small something

@mathosapa said: seconding wigwamcore, like sometimes using them for the most random shit feels weird (ive seen them done at bar events which is a weird vibe) but i think it’s worth it in more academic settings or poc focused spaces. what i like is when instead of saying “hello (city) we are on the land of (tribe)” just introducing it as “we are in (ndn place name) unceded land of (tribe), known also as (city)” the other thing is tho so many white dominated spaces start looking for any random ndn to do land acknowledgments, when i was in high school the school district made me come in to do a land acknowledgment for them, even tho i told them i wasnt from here, and im only here bc of the relocation program. and at my last job we constantly had people asking for random employees to come do land acknowledgments for them. they thought we were rent-a-ndn or something and not a social service provider sorry to add another comment but i also find it worrying to see so many white people now making jokes about land acknowledgements and its like the joke to talk about it almost

ok thats like so wild to see it at bar events, in my memory ive only encountered them irl (1) in oklahoma at the conference about repatriation legislation, (2) in a syllabus or two of mine in NAS classes taught by native teachers, so while i didnt really get it personally i liked that they did it bc it was important to them and it makes sense with the class context too, (3) in illinois at an art performance night themed around roots/land/ancestry. so even while the IL one i found a bit eye-rolling in how it was done, its definitely an event that sort of calls for something like that. academic spaces as a whole is interesting to bring up bc i think its an important place to talk abt that stuff, it also dredges up how often in academia ive felt that theres a lot of praising of decolonialism as an idea but only when it stays in its lane and no one ever tries to apply decolonial ideas/perspective/approach to anything not explicitly about nativeness (bc when ive tried to do that in multiple philosophy classes, ive gotten pretty soundly shut down no matter how nice the professor was). academia really frustrates me with its love of saying a lot of nice words about progressiveness and then pretty soundly making sure theres no room for you and that you have to fight tooth and nail for all your breathing room if you want to challenge its colonial imperial foundations

ooo yes though, i definitely prefer the second style of doing it. they are definitely something that depends So much on the minutia of how its done and by who, which is why it gives me such mixed feelings.

that is so utterly fucked that people were trying to use you as a fuckin rent-a-ndn. ive never encountered that before personally since OK never really did them/if they did, there were much more popular and involved ppl to ask than me, but now im in IL which is more into them + i really dont see many ntvs around, and if i start doing more academic work and work with the art and cultural orgs i have my eye on, i wonder if ill end up like that. it must be such a bitch bc i know if that happens to me itll be like. well i dont really *like* land acknowledgements & i dont want to encourage this tokenization so i want to say no, but if theyre done i want them to be done *right* so i would probably say yes in the end :(

YEAH OK REALLL THOUGH. YEAH. like i thought of it too with what wigwamcore said, but its just. ugh. theres this element to being native (and im sure other poc feel it too w their cultures, and it happens w marginalized ppl in general but i digress) where our internal arguments over things become like. public spectacle. and not even in a way where people know theres a big argument about it and theres different sides, but that they see a ntv or two post something about the situation and then go "ok thats the true fact of the situation and now i know that i completely understand this and can speak on it and can start fights with people to fight for this perspective ^_^" and its like. fuck off lol? like these discussions are not for white people but bc they involve things that happen in 'mixed company' as it were white people are aware of the fringes of it and then get all on their high horses about it. and its just. angering but also, idk, heartbreaking? it hurts that you cant just disagree about and talk abt this stuff without having to be aware of all these eyes on you that are going to assume so much and take so much and you have to watch yourself and watch everything you do and say so intensely for fear someone Completely Fucking Uninvolved will take it as something else

like just. UGH! like the woman i met who did the acknowledgement wasnt native but she was an immigrant whos very involved one of the only local native orgs which is itself native run and she talked abt being taught by native elders and while that itself can be a suspect phrase im taking her on good faith with it - and it just kind of hurts. that i disagree with how it was done but she learned from ppl who are native so i dont want to embroil her in this disagreement bc its a disagreement between me and those teachers she had about internal community stuff. and its so frustrating bc outsiders want to just know what the "right answer" is but there is no right answer, its an ongoing exploration, and theres no way to be involved that wont give mixed messages bc we dont even know where we stand with it and everyone has their own opinion and some ppl get that but a lot of people Dont

and then you get white people thinking theyre being great allies and super helpful by making jokes abt our internal politics that from us would be amusing but from them just end up being straight up racist . -_-

but this is great bc this is very much how i feel on it - mixed feelings changed over time with the political landscape, and from my exp of not having dealt w them much i prefer not having them but i also understand why theyre important to people and i do Not like the cavalier attitude not ntvs have started taking against them bc its not their fucking place to talk like that abt smth that oftentimes is being done by or was implemented by natives

ive seen arguments for and against them so im curious what the vibe is for yall bc i know My thoughts but im curious what mutuals/followers think. feel free to reply/inbox me further thoughts. no neutral option i want the bitchy opinion u have in ur heart of hearts

[ladyimaginarium]

on plains indigenous sign language / hand talk.

[qhariwarmi]

oh btw, if you're interested in stories by and for indigenous people consider checking out my OC stuff! It's very much in line with this blog (as in NDN academia stuff). There's very little posted online atm but if you want you can follow @hyenalore (or if you wanna see more art of the characters look at @hyena-draws)