Episode 33: Native American Series 3 | Tips for Teaching Native American Art Projects Without Cultural Appropriation | Brenda Beyal

Brenda Beyal and members of the Native American Curriculum Initiative team answer teachers questions about Native content in the classroom. In this episode, the question is "I want to teach Native American art projects but don’t want to appropriate. Any tips on this? Also, do you know of any Native Americans near Utah county that would be willing to come to my classroom?"

Episode Resources:

BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures Culture Cases
Native American Teaching Artist Roster
Online Professional Development Course: Amplify Native Voices in the Classroom
Connor Chee Music

Native American Curriculum Initiative Website
www.advancingartsleadership.com/naci

Native American Lesson Plans
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons

About the BYU ARTS Partnership
https://advancingartsleadership.com/node/66

Tips for Teaching Native American Art Projects Without Cultural Appropriation

We're excited to address some questions that teachers have submitted online about Native American content in the classroom.

Brenda Beyal
I hope that we can answer them in a true, authentic manner. I am not an expert, but I do have experience and a passion for teaching accurate and authentic information so that our teachers feel confident in the classroom.

Cally Flox
Even last night, Brenda presented at the Springville Museum of Art. The teachers gathered around her and had so many questions for her. She has a lot of wisdom that she's sharing on sensitive subjects, where people need more confidence to move forward.

Brenda Beyal
I have to say that it has taken many, many years to maybe have some understanding. I don't feel like I am the go-to for every question. But I have had much experience in the classroom. And with our Native American Curriculum Initiative, going out and visiting with tribes has really helped me to be able to just possibly give some answers that other people may need.

I am going to ask Emily to help me with some of these questions because Emily and I work side-by-side together for the Native American Curriculum Initiative. I want you to hear her expertise and the knowledge that she has garnered during this time working with an ACI.

"I want to teach Native American art projects, but I don't want to appropriate, do you have any tips?

Cally Flox
Here is the first question that we selected from our social media survey. This teacher says, “I want to teach Native American art projects, but I don't want to appropriate, do you have any tips on this? And also, do you know of any Native Americans near Utah County that would be willing to come to my classroom?”

Brenda Beyal
I have to say to this teacher—this is fantastic. Because engaging your students in art, any kind of art, is fantastic. The fact that you are being conscientious and bringing art into your classroom should be applauded, because art in general is already embedded in an indigenous pedagogy. When you do art, you are being more culturally responsive in your classroom–any kind of art that you do. Art has elements of cooperation and collaboration. Art also has an underlying story that every artist wants to share with whomever their audience will be. Story definitely is a part of indigenous pedagogy, as is collaboration and cooperation. There's side-by-side coaching and art, which is also an indigenous practice. There's intergenerational work together. And my favorite is that mistakes are to be learned from, not to be graded on. I applaud you for doing art. Now, when it comes to Native American projects, I think you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. The number one question that I would think you would need to ask yourself is, “Will this enrich my students' understanding of a culture of the people and, specifically, a certain tribe, or a certain way of doing things? Another question you might want to ask is, “Does it reinforce stereotypes? Or does it homogenize culture?” And last but not least, I would ask the question, “Will it inspire Native children in my classroom and their identity and in their confidence as students in the classroom?” With those questions, I feel like you will be able to come to know if you should be doing a specific project. Some specifics: I would discourage replicating or copying Native American art. I think you can learn from Native American art and I think you can learn about it. What tribe it's from, maybe specific designs, and there is so much to learn about the way that it is made, why it was made, and how it was, as well as how it is used. After you have learned those things, then I would think the next step would be asking, “How can children be inspired by this art? What are the things that are coming out?” How can you as a teacher incorporate it into their lives? Or how can they incorporate those elements into their own creative art project?

Emily Soderborg
Some of the things that we've talked about is that if you're looking at a specific type of Native American art, if you approach it from a different art form, then you can't copy or replicate it because the artwork is being inspired by the original. Making meaning for the students in their own lives: if they can understand a concept that they can take from the art form, and then apply it in a way that makes meaning in their own lives. Then students are being inspired by rather than copying or replicating a specific artwork.

Brenda Beyal
A good example that we can give you is maybe bringing in culture cases from your district. Ask to see if your district has culture cases or artifacts that you can check out. Or, you can go to the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures and check out their culture cases.

What Are Culture Cases?

A culture case is a box of artifacts. The Museum of Peoples and Cultures has culture cases. We've been partnering with them, helping them to update and reframe the culture cases, so the way the artifacts are being used is more accurate and authentic.

Brenda Beyal
My example is rug weaving. If you wanted to share about Navajo weaving, there are places on the internet, there are culture cases that may have a rug, and you may have students in your classroom who have rugs in their home that they'd be willing to bring in. Let's say that you're using that to learn more about the Diné, which are the Navajo. You can learn math through those rugs, you can learn about different regions of the Navajo Nation, and how they weave their rugs. There are so many intersections with other ideas and themes with rug weaving. Integrating into another art form, like using dance to show the parallel lines that are in rugs, or even the angles that are in rugs, or even some of the feelings that can be brought out through the rug weaving.

Emily Soderborg
Yes. Using dance to do rug weaving; or, if you're looking at hoop dance, using music to tell the story of the hoop dance, rather than recreating and replicating the hoop dance. So as you move to a different art form, you can't copy or replicate it because you can't do it the same way. And so it's taking inspiration from it.

Brenda Beyal
I think it's important to note that we need to broaden our view of Native American arts. So many times we hyperfocus on feathers and leather vests. There is more to Native American people than just those things which may reinforce stereotypes and homogenize culture. There are overgeneralizations of Native American art. Going broad and looking at different Native American art totem poles are also one that are used quite frequently in classrooms. Let's say that you want to take a look at Native American feathers, or feathers, in general. Throughout all Native American, feathers are very significant and sacred. There, people receive feathers for accomplishments, and for deeds that they may have performed for the community or for their family. My daughter received an eagle feather when she graduated from college. There was a ceremony that went with it. Sometimes, when we trivialize an eagle feather and have our students make feathers, it diminishes the sacredness, or the importance, of eagle feathers in a community. So, instead of having students draw or cut out eagle feathers, how about having students think about important and significant things within their life; when they have accomplished something; when they have performed a deed; or, maybe they want to create something on their own, that they would like to share with someone that they feel like has accomplished something wonderful and great.

Heather Francis
This reminds me in my culture of cords that we wear for graduation or banners that we write on and give to professors who really influenced us, or the leis, or maybe it's candy, or maybe it's money—the things that we dress ourselves in when we graduate. Those are other cultural expressions that represent a choice someone has made to honor that event in their life.

Brenda Beyal
It's not a novel idea to give someone something for their accomplishment. Seeing the similarities between cultures is valuable for students. If you make a place for seeing Native American culture or other cultures, you are also building a bridge to connections and similarities between peoples in the world.

"Are there artists in Utah County that I could bring to my classroom?"

Heather Francis
The second part of this teacher's question was, “Are there artists in Utah County that I could bring to my classroom?” I like that this question came with, “I don't want to appropriate but I want to have Native American arts in my classroom.” I think this teacher knows that bringing an accurate, authentic voice to the classroom is one of the best ways to do that. Can you speak more to that question?

Brenda Beyal
I think it's important to recognize that everyone has an authentic voice for some specific things that have happened in their lives. Yes, there are many Native Americans in Utah County who would be more than willing to come into your classroom, and give an authentic voice to what Native Americans here in the present are doing and creating. I love this because it brings Native Americans into the present — you're not speaking about Native Americans as if they lived a long time ago. These authentic voices can share their own experiences being Native American. We need to distinguish between an authentic voice and an official voice. An official voice is someone that can speak for a whole tribe, or a whole group of people. You would have to make sure that your students understand that this is an authentic voice that will share their own personal experience, and ways of thinking—they don't represent the whole tribe.

Emily Soderborg
I just wanted to share—my daughter is in kindergarten this year. I have been working with our PTA. I asked them if they were bringing anyone in. And they're like, “Oh, we hadn't even thought about that.” So I said, “We have a Title VI coordinator in the school, let's go to her. Let's reach out to that Title VI coordinator.” I talked to her. There were eight different families in the school that had ties to Native American culture; some of them are Navajo, some of them are Sioux. Parents are a really, really great resource within the community. We also have been working with the Utah Division of Arts and Museums on a Native American Teaching Artist Roster that's publicly accessible on their website, you can go in and right now we have 31 different artists that are willing to be hired to come into classrooms and on the teaching artists roster. It talks specifically about what they're willing to share what they're willing to do. And so we're trying to put resources out there so that you can find that there are people all over the community here in Utah County, but also all over the state of Utah. Some of them are actually national, that they're willing to travel if people are willing to to reach out to them. So in working with my daughter's school, we are now bringing in four different artists to do a Native American History Month assembly, and then share that within the classrooms as well just by reaching out to people in our direct community.

Brenda Beyal
I'm wondering if we can stop and re-record. Emily, I'm wondering if you could say Lakota instead of Sioux.

Emily Soderborg
I know that it's Lakota. It's the fact I make mistakes all the time. So Lakota is the name they call themselves; Sioux is a name that the American government used. It's in my brain because that's what I grew up using. But we are now trying to reach out and use the names that the people call themselves— like Brenda is Diné, but they were called Navajo. We're trying to use the names that the people call themselves rather than names that were placed upon them.

Brenda Beyal
There are lots of Native American tribes that are now doing a language change, so we're just trying to keep up with them. I love that Emily explained it so well. It is important for us to just use the name that people want to be called by. In fact, last night we learned a little bit about Massasoit, a sculpture that Cyrus Dallin created.

Cally Flox
This statue was originally commissioned by a Utah artist for Plymouth Rock for a monument there in the 1920’s, and there are three copies of it in Utah: one at the state capitol, one at BYU, and one at the Springville Museum of Art. It's a beautiful sculpture, and it's typical of what would be created in the 1920’s as far as accuracy and things. But they named it Massasoit. Because of that, people thought that was the Native American’s name who was represented in the statue, and it isn't.

Brenda Beyal
His real name is Ousamequin. For all of these years, he has been known as Massasoit, which means great leader and that's wonderful. I think it is time for us to call him by his true name, which is Ousamequin. So hence encouraged to instead Lakota or Nakota, or Dakota. So instead of Pima Tohono O'odham, instead of Navajo dinette.

Heather Francis
I love learning this new information. I think teachers are really going to want to know it too. So, okay, well, I just want to conclude this question by saying, if you want to know more about not appropriating in the classroom, but including Native American arts in a Native American culture in your classroom, we have an online PD course answering just this question. It's called Amplify Native Voices in the Classroom. You can register for it online on our website, and we'll put a link in the show notes. There's actually a teaching artist and Native educator who starts the course, his name's Alan Groves. He was in a previous series for NACI on this podcast, but he gives a great example of how he's a bead worker. He talks about how important bead working is in his life and how it contributes to his identity. Then, he gives teachers in this online course and assignment to create their own work of art inspired by this native arts practice, but it's not. He doesn't ask them to do beadwork. So that's a great way to get introduced to another example of how we help teachers get that confidence to include Native arts in the classroom.

Brenda Beyal
There is also a wonderful show at the Springville Museum of Art called Contemporary Voices, Utah native art. It features many of the artists that are on the Utah Teaching Artist roster. And I went through the show and I was astounded by the creativity and also the gifts that these artists have that they've honed in on those gifts and have just produced beautiful works of art. There was a beautiful beaded dress that we were just stunned by.

Cally Flox
You're right Brenda, that dress was beautiful. The only way it could be more beautiful is if a Native woman was wearing it. It's a knee length, light-colored buckskin dress and the buckskin has the…Brenda: long, long fringe. Cally: The whole shoulder piece shawl was beaded in these bright, beautiful, pink, flowery colors. It was so feminine and delicate with a placard on the front that represented symbols from her family, her life, and the things that she loved. It radiated femininity in such a beautiful way. It was a gorgeous dress.

Brenda Beyal
And then there is visual art where it can really get you thinking about what was this artist portraying what was the story? What was their story? So a trip to the Springfield Museum of Art and having them take a look at the statue which is still titled Massasoit, but we know now his name is Ousamequin, and then right next to it, just going and viewing the contemporary voices show would be a fantastic activity.

The Contemporary Voices show at the Springville Museum of Art is open through the fall season.

Artful Teaching is made possible by the BYU Arts Partnership and the McKay School of Education.

Brenda Beyal
Thanks to James Huston for editing this podcast. Music was generously provided by Connor Chee, a Navajo Diné composer and performer.

Cally Flox, Heather Francis
Special thanks to all of the teachers who are changing lives every day while serving in schools. If you liked what you heard, please leave us a review. You can find all the show notes for this episode and more resources at advancingartsleadership.com.