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Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA) recently announced the appointment of Ted Wright as its new Executive Director.
Wright has brought over 25 years of extensive leadership experience within Tribal organizations and educational institutions, and has previously held numerous executive roles, including his service as the Executive Director for the Native Village of Eyak, Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and Spokane Tribe of Indians among others.
In a statement, Daniel Cornelius, chair of NAFSA’s leadership council, said: “Ted is uniquely qualified to lead NAFSA at this pivotal time. His deep understanding of Tribal Sovereignty and his proactive approach to leadership will be invaluable as we move forward with our mission to empower Tribal communities through enhanced food sovereignty.”
Wright’s immediate focus as Executive Director will be to guide NAFSA through its next phase of strategic initiatives, which includes stabilizing and deepening the understanding of its mission and increasing the impact on Tribal communities.
Wright said in a statement: “I am honored to join NAFSA and contribute to an organization that is doing such critical work for food sovereignty. I look forward to working with our communities to fortify our food systems and ensure that our tribal nations can flourish for generations to come.”
Plans for his leadership include significant recruitment efforts for new board members and organizing impactful in-person meetings scheduled for the upcoming summer and fall.
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Connecticut has reopened after construction.
The museum’s organizers say it uses Westernized museum practices and Indigenizes them.
Hannah Bissett from our flagship station KNBA has more.
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum opened its doors on August 11th, 1998.
It’s tribally owned and operated and, according to the museum, the largest Native-owned museum in the world.
The museum covers around 20,000 years of history.
The head of education for the museum is Nakai Clearwater Northup.
He spoke about the new improvements and the mission of the museum.
“Typically the losers of the war don’t get to tell their stories, other people get to write their histories for them, and we get to really combat that.”
Originally, the renovations were architectural.
“We’ve redone seating in our auditoriums, we have a 300-seat auditorium where we’ve run larger programs.”
The museum was also able to improve in other ways.
“Revamped our witness film, which talked about the Pequot war, and if you came and saw it in the past 25 years it was really grainy and it was literally actually running on film, we’ve had it digitized and it’s clear, it looks great.”
Northup says that the museum is also taking the renovations as a time to focus on repatriation and revitalization of language.
“People would donate a lot of things or they would bring them and we’d house them here. And we’re looking at a lot of things now and we are thinking ‘Well we really shouldn’t have this.’ And we have the ability to return or repatriate these items back to these communities.”
Northup says repatriation falls under four values: trust, relationship, balance, and decolonization.
Continuing their mission, Northup says that decolonization within museum science practices is significant for them, from the way visitors can interact with exhibits to other traditions.
“And just how we start the day, we are able to participate in ceremony, we have our family tribal community here and hosting events.”
This decolonization also takes the form of – farmer’s markets, powwows, and other community-led educational programs.
Along with this, Northup says the renovations opened up the pathway for youth to learn more about the museum and what it has to offer.
“To have the next generation here being able to soak up information, and for us to have the awesome opportunity to continue to share our story – our history, so it’s a really exciting time of year.”
The museum offers virtual tours and experiences along with interactive in-person exhibitions, and in the next coming years there are plans to reinvigorate more exhibits.
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