Yale senior Meghanlata Gupta joined the sophomore class on Wednesday, Feb. 24 in a webinar enlightening people on the Native experience through a presentation entitled “Spaces of Resistance and Hope: Centering Indigenous Stories and Imagining New Futures.”
Ms. Gupta is the founder and lead editor of Indigenizing the News, which is a digital newspaper that is committed to giving Native voices a platform. She is also a member of the Yale Native American Cultural Center, an organization at Yale devoted to supporting and promoting Indigenous cultures.
In sophomore classes, the past month and a half has been dedicated to the novel There There, by Tommy Orange. The book is an assembly of stories that are told from varying points of view of twelve Native Americans as they navigate life in Oakland, Calif.. “I think reading it gave me another perspective,” sophomore Eli Brandt said. “A bunch more perspectives, because there’s so many people, into what the Indigenous experience is.”
Prior to the unit, the English department sat down and brainstormed ways to give more meaning to the novel. “We wanted to have someone come and speak to the school, or just to the sophomore class, about Native American narratives, but maybe in a more local context,” English teacher Cameron Biondi said. As an alum of Yale, Mr. Biondi was the one to reach out to Ms. Gupta.
The webinar opened with Ms. Gupta explaining her connection to her tribe, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, as well as giving a land acknowledgement to the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghtioke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, Quinnipiac tribes, whose lands are presently occupied by the Yale campus.
Mr. Biondi suggested that Kingswood Oxford could do a land acknowledgment as well. “It’s important to remind ourselves that the land really belongs to the Native tribes,” he said.
Ms. Gupta then shared a video by Teen Vogue about some of the common fallacies surrounding Native Americans, including the notion that they get government handouts and don’t have to pay taxes. “It starts to introduce thinking about the problematic narratives and misconceptions and stereotypes that face Indigenous peoples every day here in the United States,” Ms. Gupta said.
Ms. Gupta displayed a presentation that explained more unfamiliar topics such as tribal sovereignty and tribal diversity. It also tackled the current erasure and false narratives that are spread in the media and current political climate.
The webinar opened up to a panel of students who asked questions submitted by their peers. “I asked for volunteers in my classes for anyone who wants to help out, and one of my students was one of the panelists on camera last night,” English teacher Ron Monroe said, referring to sophomore Alyssa Temkin. The questions ranged from more personal topics like Indigenizing the News to the impact she foresees newly elected and appointed Native American politicians like Deb Haaland having on Indigenous communities.
Alyssa said that the webinar was a really good learning experience. “I thought I knew a lot about Native Americans prior to the webinar, but I further realized how much I truly didn’t know,” she said.
Mr. Monroe said that he hopes the webinar was an enlightening experience for his classes, adding that he loves teaching because it gives him a platform in which to continue to learn alongside his students. Now, Mr. Monroe said he approaches teaching with new insight. “I am certainly going to be much more aware and conscious of the opportunities that I have in front of me as a teacher to put Native writers, Native speakers, and Native people in front of my students,” he said.
While it is unclear when in-person speakers will be able to visit the KO campus again, the webinar appeared to be nothing short of a success. “Meghan was just so prepared and so articulate and so passionate about what she does and who she is and how that affects her life,” Mr. Monroe said. Both Mr. Monroe and Mr. Biondi are excited about the new opportunities webinars present for the English department and KO students.
