CJ Younger: This is Minnesota Native News. I’m CJ. Younger. This week, we’ll hear from the organizers of an Indigenous Writers Series in Duluth.
In May, community members gathered at the Dr. Robert Powell Cultural Center at the University of Minnesota-Duluth for The American Indian Housing Community Housing Organization, or AICHO’s fourth Indigenous Writers Series. Featured were two prominent local writers, Gwen Westerman and Linda LeGarde Grover. AICHO director Ivy Vainio, a Grand Portage Ojibwe direct descendant, helped organize the event.
Ivy Vainio: It values our Native voice, Native lived experience of our cultural knowledge holders, our culture bearers, and our creatives. Spreading that joy and that love and sometimes that trauma with our community to make us stronger.
CJ: Westerman was named Minnesota’s Poet Laureate in 2021, and is the first Native American to hold the position . Her work has won a Minnesota Book Award, and a 2014 Hognander Minnesota History Award. She is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate and is Cherokee.
LeGarde Grover is a professor emeritus of American Indian Studies Department at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She is an award-winning writer who has authored fiction, poetry, essays, and more, and is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe.
For two hours, the writers discussed their writing process, read passages from their books, and took audience questions. Hannah Smith, the new Arts and Cultural Director at AICHO and a White Earth Ojibwe tribal member, said the event was very impactful.
Hannah Smith: The highlight for me was Gwen reading some of her poetry and then singing some of the songs that are in one of her books. Getting to hear that in the author’s voice was really impactful and I was inspired. I was actually in the middle of an art project, so it gave me new energy to be like, okay, I should be doing this, this is what I’m seeing my role models doing, is like flexing out their skillset and their lived experiences.
CJ: This Writers Series uplifts Indigenous voices like Westerman and LeGarde Grover. Through their words, many Indigenous community members get to hear their own experiences represented and sometimes, even reflected. Ivy Viano:
Ivy: You read something from Linda, it’s like you’re reading about your own family, your own family history. Like, the names are different, but I could put my uncle Mally in there, and you know, all these things just connect us so fiercely.
CJ: And for LeGarde Grover, the experience went both ways.
Linda LeGarde Grover: That’s what writing is all about, too, that, you know, connecting of things. Getting that perspective from people in the audience, Native and non-Native people, is illuminating, I guess. I was watching as Gwen was reading and watching the faces of the people, the audience, and seeing that their faces were turned towards us, you know, they were like flowers to the sun.
CJ: During the reading, Westerman and LeGarde Grover spoke in both English and their own Indigenous languages. Westerman believes that’s essential.
Gwen Westerman: Linda includes Ojibwe and I include Dakota language in what I write. Having that sound of those languages is important for people to hear and to make a connection, rather than just seeing it print. And it also lets our listeners, our audiences, our readers know that Dakota and Ojibwe people are here and they’re doing all kinds of things.
CJ: A big part of AICHO’s mission is increasing access to and understanding of Indigenous culture. The Indigenous Writers Series and other events like it are working towards that goal, one afternoon at a time. Hannah Smith, the new Arts and Cultural Director at AICHO:
Hannah: “I hope that what we’re doing here, between me and Ivy and the rest of the staff at AICHO and in our community members, gets to bring other forms of art—Native art, original art—to people who might not have access to it.”
CJ: The series will continue on August 24th with Marcie Rendon and Denise Sweet in Duluth. The event is free and open to the public—find more information at aicho.org. For Minnesota Native News, I’m CJ Younger.
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