The boundary between indigenous communities and settler society will be explored during a symposium this Thursday and Friday presented by the Oregon Humanities Center’s Indigenous Philosophies Research Interest Group.

The symposium, “Colonial and Decolonial Connections,” takes place April 30 and May 1 at several campus locations. All events are free and open to the public.

The boundary between indigenous people and settlers is a contested site of social and political conflict, cultural revitalization, identity formation and resistance. The symposium will explore gendered and national identity in Hawaii, contestations of settler “domesticity” in Native American writing, and climate justice at the intersection of indigenous communities and settler society.

Three visiting scholars will give presentations as part of the symposium. Ty P. Kawika Tengan, professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, will participate in a “staged conversation” on “Native Men Remade: Gender and Nation in Contemporary Hawaii” at 3 p.m. Thursday in the Knight Library Browsing Room.

On Thursday at 7 p.m. Beth Piatote, associate professor of ethnic studies and Native American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, will give a reading at the Many Nations Longhouse. Then on Friday at 1 p.m. in Room 145 Straub Hall, Piatote will participate in a staged conversation titled “Contested Domesticities: Love, Literature, and the Legal Imaginary.” 

Also on Friday from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Kyle Powys Whyte, professor of philosophy at Michigan State University and a faculty member of the environmental philosophy and ethics graduate concentration, will participate in a final staged conversation, “Structures of Settler Colonialism, Climate Justice, and Indigenous Planning.” 

For more information, see the symposium website or contact ohc@uoregon.edu or 541-346-3934.