Alex Turmey/Staff

UC Berkeley students and faculty gathered Monday to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, a daylong event focused on the culture, dance and history of native people.

A collaboration between the UC Berkeley department of theater, dance and performance studies and the American Indian Graduate Student Association, the celebration of Indigenous People’s Day featured speakers and performers at the Bancroft Dance Studio, on the corner of Bancroft Avenue and Dana Street.

Performing-arts students made up the bulk of the audience members for many of the presentations, which included a talk by graduate student Peter Nelson on the study of archaeology and anthropology’s effect on native cultures. Edwardo Madril, a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and a professional dancer, performed the hoop dance and other traditional Native American dances.

“It’s not magical; it’s not mystical. It may be profound — I don’t know,” Madril said. “The image of an American Indian has been around for a couple hundred years, but we still seem to be a spectacle.”

Indigenous People’s Day is a movement to counter Columbus Day, the federal holiday falling on the second Monday of October each year that celebrates Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492. According to Timothy Molino, a UC Berkeley graduate student in the department of ethnic studies and a member of the American Indian Graduate Student Association, Columbus Day fails to acknowledge the flourishing Native American culture that exists today.

“Rather than Columbus Day, this is a movement to recognize indigenous people,” Molino said. “It’s about recognizing these cultures rather than the defeat of these cultures.”

Indigenous People’s Day celebrated its second year on campus. The event was prompted when a UC Berkeley production resulted in outcry from the Native American community in the spring of 2012. The play, “Ishi: The Last of the Yahi,” elicited negative reactions from the American Indian Graduate Student Association and other groups for what some claimed to be an inaccurate and harmful depiction of Native American culture.

Lisa Wymore, a UC Berkeley associate professor of dance whose students took part in the event, said the department decided to start Indigenous People’s Day as a way to address the tension left over from the production.

The program received funding from the Office of Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri, the American Indian Graduate Program and the department of ethnic studies, according to Olivia Chilcote, chair of the American Indian Graduate Student Association.

“This day is about sharing culture, but it’s also about remembering history,” Chilcote said. “It would be really great if UC Berkeley were to make this a campuswide event.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

The post UC Berkeley’s 2nd annual Indigenous People’s Day recognizes Native American history and culture appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The all-day celebrations on Oct. 13 will be held at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park and will feature an American Indian foods and crafts market and an intertribal dance event known as a Pow-wow.

John Curl, a founding member of the Indigenous Peoples Day Committee, said that though the day is a celebration, it also is a testament to the survival and cultural resurgence of indigenous people in the face of past European-based colonialism and cultural dominance.

“Part of the way into a better future in America is involved with coming to terms with our history, and part of that is coming to a deeper understanding and getting to know native people,” he said.

Berkeley City Council declared Oct. 12 a “Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People” in 1992, following an Ecuadorian conference attended by indigenous groups two years prior to discuss the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to the Americas.

“The event is a very important part of recognizing and celebrating our culture and our diversity,” said City Councilmember Jesse Arreguin.

Curl estimates that there are about 20,000 American Indians in the Bay Area from many different tribes from when the government relocated them from their reservations to work in shipyards in the bay during World War II. Many cities around the Bay Area also have their own Pow-wows and similar versions of celebratory indigenous events.

“The larger message is that Western culture needs to listen to indigenous philosophy and learn how to live in a sustainable way with other people and the environment,” Curl said.

Contact Caroline Murphy at cmurphy@dailycal.org