By Blanca Hitchcock and Jolie Asuncion
On Tuesday March 10th, we attended the “Women of Wisdom” event in the BMU, hosted by The Multicultural and Gender Studies Department. This event highlights Native American culture and its importance. Hosted by storyteller Kimberly Cinningham-Summerfield, a Chico State Alumni, she tells stories passed from her ancestors. These stories reflect the folk culture happening within Native American groups, a subject that is barely reflected in the media.
The Nuts and Bolts: An Illustration of What Occurred
The overall atmosphere of the event was so kind, welcoming, and accepting. Upon walking in the door we had discovered that the event in fact housed at least fifty people and many different families of different ethnic backgrounds. The building was bustling with different small booths with Native American artifacts and the Chico state dining association was catering the event and had workers constantly refilling dishes. Before the presinations began, there was food served for those who attended. The food served was traditional Native American dishes including freshly cooked meat, fish, and veggies complemented with spices. The ushers working there were very friendly and helped us to our seats. Then the event began.
When everyone was seated and the lights were turned down low, a woman made her way onto the front of the stage and began telling a traditional Native American tale she was once told as a child. Her husband simultaneously played a traditional flute known to be played by tribes local to Chico. The stories themselves were very captivating.
Cinningham tells stories of a young boy running through the forest and encountering animals that guide him along the way. Each animal was a euphemism for some sort of human fault that we all carry with us.
She relied on engaging the audience by walking around the room and asking for volunteers. It was an extremely immersive experience and had the audience feeling as if they were in the story she was recounting. Her stories were complimented by her brother playing a Native American flute on the stage and the music was used to make certain statements.
Why Is This Important?
We personally believe the concept of this event is to highlight the importance of Native American culture in the media, and to showcase that there are still tribes out there today and they are grossly misrepresented in our society. We do in fact have to come to realize that the land we all inhabit was stolen from them. This isn’t a topic we see often and they promoted activism in a way that is genuine and not condescending.
Connecting to our topic of minority representation in media, this is highly important. We don’t see a lot of this representation often. It is extremely important to start to have that conversation in a more public way because while racism is thankfully talked about more these days, Native American’s are one of the most underrepresented races alive to this day.