Tim Knox, a Gamilaraay ecologist from Queensland, Austrailia, right, laughs with Jimmy Manning, an Inuit artist from Cape Dorset, Nunavut, as they take questions from the audience on Tuesday at the RCAH Theatre in Snyder and Phillips halls.
Students in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, or RCAH, program at MSU listened to indigenous music and speakers from afar as a part of the Indigenous People’s Day Celebration.
The celebration was held Tuesday evening at the RCAH Theatre in Snyder and Phillips halls. About 30 people gathered to listen to music, speakers and discussion about indigenous cultures and art.
Speakers included Jimmy Manning, an artist, photographer and retired print studio manager of Kinngait Studios in Cape Dorset, Nunavut.
RCAH professor Dylan Miner, who coordinated the event, said it was a great chance for MSU students to experience a culture different from their own.
“Yesterday, we celebrated the holiday known as Columbus Day,” Miner said. “We’re starting to rethink what Columbus Day truly means.”
Don Lyons was the lead singer of the group that played indigenous music for the audience. He said he helped organize the event with speaker and Australian native Tim Knox’s trip around the Great Lakes, including his stop in East Lansing.
Lyons said first and foremost, he played music at events, such as this one, to remind people indigenous cultures still are here.
“We’re all indigenous to this planet,” Lyons said. “Any way we can share our stories is good. … For some who have never been exposed to culture, it’s important.”
Manning said in his native culture, it is important to spread knowledge about his heritage, to keep the language and traditions alive.
Brenda Tule, a packaging and Residential College in the Arts and Humanities junior, said students should be more aware of various cultures and expose themselves to them whenever they get a chance.
“I think it’s a good step to introduce MSU students to indigenous culture, but I don’t think it should be the only source,” Tule said.
She said an article she read in the New York Times on Tuesday was about indigenous language, specifically a statistic that said one of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages becomes extinct, on average, every two weeks.
Knox, who specializes in Gamilaraay ecology, is one of the few people who speaks Gamilaraay, a native Australian language. The culture still exists, but the language is dying, he said.
Tule said this statistic could connect to indigenous culture.
“If someone loses language, they lose culture,” Tule said. “There is more to indigenous culture than we think … the best way to learn about it is to learn about their culture and language.”
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