2nd Event Write-up: Conversations with Ms. Winona LaDuke

Where: Kagin Commons

When: November 7, 2008

As one of very few Native students on campus, I find it extremely unlikely to find someone who understands me as a rising Native scholar.  However, when Ms. Winona LaDuke came to Macalester, she puzzled English words together like I could, like I do.  And for an hour or two through out our private breakfast and session, I felt extremely at home for the first time in two and a half years.

Walking in from the cold November day, Ms. Winona LaDuke walked up to me and said, “How are you?”  Stunned by the celebrity and by the friendliness of her elder status, I stood silent as my lips slowly progressed into a smile.   Several seconds later, my hand was shaking hers as I made small talk about her trip to Macalester.  Having to prepare for her evening discussion with the campus, I walked her to the Lealtad-Suzuki Center in Kagin Commons.

My first impression of Ms. LaDuke was extreme relief simply because she could tell the campus about the world from a Native woman perspective, from my perspective.  I was glad to have her voice express the frustrations Native people feel. And the great things is, there were some references to the differences that exist between Native men and Native women, but that is not all that existed in her speech.  I believe she understood feminism from a very, what I would all as traditional peoples’ perspective. (And by “traditional” I mean the ways in which Native people identity in terms of the culture and religion of their ancestors.) 

In her discussion with Karin Aguilar-San Juan and the audience of students and community members, Ms. LaDuke allowed the space for real conversation.  Her thoughts were not censored, she English was not used sparingly.  She provided the audience with perspective and honesty by delivering a comical message about her life as a Native woman.  She broke into stories about her experiences, which were full of (but not limited to) racism, sexism, and classism.  One story included her being pregnant while running for the national office.  She said proudly that she was maybe the first woman to be running for office while breast-feeding.  Although that was more of a side comment along side other about the environment (her main topic for discussion), she made me think about what her having pride in that means and why it means so much to begin with.  I do not believe that her talk was exclusive to the topic of environmentalism because she did not want it to be, but because that is simply how she makes sense of the world.  Her ways of thinking encompass a host of things that range from breast-feeding to founding coalitions to protect the environment and her respective community.

The next morning at the breakfast Ms. LaDuke proceeded to pose questions to the students about the climate of Macalester’s student body activism.  It was interesting to listen to the responses of fellow peers as no one could give the dramatic responses that I suppose she was looking for.  There are no take-overs of buildings or protest across the lawn.  Instead, we are all, in our own quiet ways, trying to deliver a message to the community.  For this reason, she continued to give an inspiring jump of energy through aged words.  At one point, she says that there is no plan to share when trying to be an activist. “You just have to have courage and do it.”  For other questions, she sometimes responds with and I do not know.  I think it says a lot when someone who has been involved in years of activist work tells you that she dose not know how or what to do.  And sometimes that is what I need to hear.

Just after the breakfast, other three other Native people and I spent more time with Ms. LaDuke and her son.  She asked about the number of Native people on campus.  We told her the truth about the numbers, but more importantly about the connectedness we feel or do not feel with each other.  Most of the time, though, was spent listening to the conversation that had taken place between her son and her.  And it is with this conversation that I got the most happiness from.  Their conversation consisted of memories; so, there were several short stories that spoke more to their personality and ways of learning than anything she told us about. 

So in my several personal encounters with Ms. LaDuke, a very missed and needed way of talking and listening were re-introduced after months of being away from home. A different and more familiar, a natural way of learning came back if only for a few hours.