THE FOURTH ANNUAL STORYTELLERS OF THE AMERICAS CONFERENCE
Honoring The Life and Work of John C. Mohawk
28-30 March 2008 / State University of New York at Buffalo
The Fourth Annual Storytellers of the Americas Conference will honor the life and work of John C. Mohawk through storytelling and through academic papers relating to the many and varied fields in which Dr. Mohawk worked throughout his life.
John Mohawk told stories. Whether in a classroom, a board meeting, or a deposition, John Mohawk told a story to help his listeners see the shape of the issue at hand. John Mohawk laughed at his own stories, often at unexpected moments. His infectious laughter helped break down resistance to the difficulty of the fact patterns he built up for his audiences.
• As a journalist for several decades, he told stories of contemporary indigenous struggles that shaped public understanding of Indian country.
• As a professor and lecturer, he easily moved through the broad flow of world history as well as the details of modernity, helping students connect their realities to the larger stories.
• As a teacher, he led students to active discussions about and further digging through history and culture not for the self-indulgent collection of knowledge but for practical application in their own projects.
• As a cultural spokesperson, he connected the dots between indigenous technologies and knowledges; food, farming, and nutrition; contemporary and historical politics; and development and resistance projects around the world.
• As a traditional storyteller, he participated in the ceremonies of his own people, telling the ancient stories that continue to shape worldviews.
• As a friend, he was more likely to tell a story about a recent meal than anything else.
Are you a storyteller? As this is a Storytellers Conference, we invite you to tell stories. Stories will be told in a special session, wrapping up the conference, on Sunday, March 30, 2008.
Are you a scholar? We also seek proposals for academic papers related to John Mohawk, his life, and work. Panels include but are not limited to:
• Iroquois White Corn Project, including issues of slow food, contemporary cuisine, farming, and native nutrition.
• Indigenous Stories within their own culture, including creation stories, ceremonies, and histories.
• Environmental concerns, including historical climate change, contemporary global warming, the effects on indigenous peoples, and survival advice offered by indigenous prophecies.
• Indigenous History, including government, law, resistance, land rights, and development.
• Modernity and the West, including the European projects of white supremacy, colonization, and domination by the sword, by the pen, and by any means available.
The deadline for submission is 1 November 1 2007. Presenters will be notified by January 20, 2008. Send a one-page proposal of no more than 250 words for a 15-20 minute presentation to: Storytellers of Americas Conference Organizing Committee c/o Nikki Dragone (n_dragone@yahoo.com), Amber Adams (ambermeadowadams@verizon.net), and Ula Piasta (ulapiasta@yahoo.com).
