Native Lights is a weekly, half-hour radio program hosted by Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members and siblings, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo. Native Lights is a space for people in Native communities around Mni Sota Mkoce — a.k.a. Minnesota — to tell their stories about finding their gifts and sharing them with the community.
Today Leah and Cole chat with Rita Walaszek Arndt (White Earth Nation). Rita is the program and outreach manager of the Native American Initiatives department at the Minnesota Historical Society. She’s also the curator of the Our Home: Native Minnesota exhibit at the historical society.
Through her work, Rita is focused on Indigenous representation in the historical society and encourages people to think differently about the land now known as Minnesota. She tells Leah and Cole about the challenges of cataloging MHS’s Indigenous object archive, examining the history of this land beyond statehood, and how Indigenous art is inseparable from culture and Indigenous ways of living.
Chi Miigwech to Rita for sharing her story and work with us today!
–
Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is produced by Minnesota Native News and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund. Online at https://minnesotanativenews.org/
Subscribe to Native Lights wherever you get your podcasts
More from Native Lights
- Brandon Baity: Executive Director of the Indigenous AssociationBrandon Baity is Anishinaabe and a descendant of the White Earth Nation. He grew up in Brooklyn Park, MN and currently lives in Moorhead, MN with his 3 children, partner, and mother-in-law. He graduated with a degree in social work from the College of Saint Scholastica in 2013. After graduation he worked as a youth …
- Bryce Premo: Exploring Social Work FrontiersBryce Premo is a Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe citizen and brother of Native Lights hosts Leah Lemm and Cole Premo. Bryce on the cusp of an exciting transition in his career. With a bachelor’s degree in social work almost under his belt and poised to pursue a master’s degree in the same field, Bryce …
- Ruth Buffalo: Empowering Indigenous Communities as the new CEO of MIWRCRuth Buffalo is a citizen of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation and a descendant of the Chiricahua Apache. She has served on advisory councils focused on women’s health, women’s leadership development and local food systems. She is board President for the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition. She is also the former board president of …