Events

Mo'ai statues carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in Chile. Stock image from Unsplash. Mo'ai statues carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in Chile. Stock image from Unsplash.
The Native American and Global Indigenous Studies (NAGIS) program will host a series of events open to the university community. Events range from guest lectures to roundtable discussion. Contact nagis@miami.edu for more information.

What's Happening at NAGIS

Native American Heritage Month

Learn more about Native American Heritage Month at the U here

Event
Date
Time
Organization(s)
Location
"Tequesta in Context: From Deep History to Downtown Redevelopment" November 8, 2023 6:30 p.m.

HistoryMiami Museum

Kislak Center at the Museum of Art and Design, Miami Dade College

Center for Humanities

Lowe Art Museum

NAGIS

HistoryMiami Museum

A New Era in Native American & Indigenous Studies Conference

April 24, 2023

 

April 25, 2023

8:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

NAGIS

Lakeside Pavilion

 

Shalala Center 

Past Events

Open All Tabs
  • November 8, 2023 - "Tequesta in Context: From Deep History to Downtown Redevelopment"

    Register here for the event. 

    Co-sponsored by: HistoryMiami MuseumKislak Center at the Museum of Art and Design, Miami Dade College; and the University of Miami’s Center for the HumanitiesLowe Art MuseumNAGIS (Native American and Global Indigenous Studies), and LISG (Libraries Indigenous Studies Group).

     

    Rapid redevelopment of downtown Miami continued to reveal further evidence of the original peoples who lived at the mouth of the Miami River. Known since Spanish contact as the Tequesta, these expert fisher-hunter-gatherers lived for thousands of years in hardwood hummocks along both banks of the river at the edge of Biscayne Bay. Archaeological and documentary evidence of Tequesta life abounds but remains little known to the public. Traci Ardren, a leading scholar of the pre-Hispanic world, explains what we know about Tequesta lifeways, how we know it, and the important lessons Tequesta culture can provide Miamians struggling to manage rising sea levels and an imperiled ecosystem. Introduced by Dr. Carol Damian, Curator of MDC’s Kislak Center, Dr. Ardren places the recent excavations near the Miami Circle, and other components of the ancient capital of the Tequesta, such as the Met Square development, into the context of the deep history of Indigenous cultural accomplishments in South Florida.

     

     

    Traci Ardren is an anthropological archaeologist interested in New World prehistoric cultures. Her research focuses on issues of identity and other forms of symbolic representation in the archaeological record, especially the ways in which differences are explained through gender. Current preoccupations include the role of cuisine in identity formation in the later periods of Classic Maya culture and prehistoric southern Florida, as well as the many ways plants manipulated human activities. Traci co-directs the Matecumbe Chiefdom Project looking at the political organization and environmental adaptation of the pre-Hispanic occupants of the Florida Keys and adjacent areas of southern Florida. She grew up in and around the Ringling Museum of Art, and the many ways in which objects are allowed to convey our wants and needs is a lifelong fascination.

     

     

    HistoryMiami Museum

    101 West Flagler Street Miami, FL 33130

     

    Please see the information below for travel options to HistoryMiami Museum.

     

    Getting to HistoryMiamiMuseum

     

    By vehicle:

    Miami-Dade Cultural Center Garage, 50 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami, Florida

     

    Take the south elevator to the 2nd floor exit. Exit this floor and follow the pathway across a covered, above street level footbridge that leads directly to the Miami-Dade Cultural Plaza. Parking for Museum visitors with validation is a flat rate of $5. Parking may be validated at the Museum’s Visitor Services desk.

     

    Public Transportation

    Follow these links to plan your trip using the Metrorail, Metromover, MetrobusCity of Miami trolley or City of Coral Gables trolley.

  • April 24-25, 2023 - A New Era in Native American & Indigenous Studies Conference

    April 24, 2023 

    8:30 AM - 8:00 PM

    Lakeside Pavilion

     

    April 25, 2023 

    8:30 AM - 5:30 PM

    Shalala Center 

    Click the below images to see an expanded version. 


     

  • December 1-30, 2022 - Indigenous Art Installations | Library

    All Month (December)

    Curator/IHC/NAGIS

    Richter Library

  • December 1-30, 2022 - Indigenous Art Installations | Campus

    All Month (December)

    Curator/IHC/NAGIS

    Breezeway, Westbrook Walkway, Shalala Promenade

  • December 1st, 2022 - Lowes Museum Indigenous Art Tour

    December 1st, 2022

    11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

    IHC/NAGIS

    Lowes Museum Lowes Museum 

  • November 30th, 2022 - Lunch for Indigenous Students and Screening of Indigenous Film: Prey

    November 30th, 2022

    TBD MSA

    TBD

    TBD

  • November 28th, 2022 - Indigenous performances and artisans

    November 28th, 2022

    12:00 - 2:00 PM

    IHC/NAGIS/MSA

    Lakeside Stage and Patio

     

  • November 16th, 2022 - MSA Unity Tabling Event

    November 16th, 2022

    12:00 - 2:00 PM

    Unity/MSA

    Lakeside Patio

     

  • November 15th, 2022 - UChat Indigenous Discussion

    November 15th, 2022

    6:00 - 7:00 PM

    UM Debate Team/UChat

    Storm Surge

  • November 4th, 2022 - Fake News and Fabricated History:Ned Christie as the Symbol of the Wild West

    November 4th, 2022

    12:30 - 2:00 PM

    Center for Humanities

    Richter Library, First Floor, Flex B

  • November 3rd, 2022 - The Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movement: Successes and New Challenges

    November 3rd, 2022 

    Newman Alumni Center 

    7:00 PM 

    RSVP: bit.ly/Stanford_Mihesuah


     

  • October 19th, 2022 - What's At Stake in the Brazilian Presidential Elections (Part 2)

    Please join NAGIS and the MLL Portugese Program for a special screening and discussion on October 19th. 

    Merrick 210-02

    (Conference Room #2)

    5:30 PM

     


     

  • April 26, 2022 - Exoticization in Collecting Institutions

    Exoticization in Collecting Institutions

    Confronting the Facade of Representation in Colonial Knowledge Systems and Creating Tactics for Indigenous Agency

    Date: April 26, 2022

    Time: 1:00 p.m.

    Guest Speaker: Durante Blais-Billie, Tribal Member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida

    Hosted by: Library Indigenous Studies Group


    Durante Blais-Billie is a Two-Spirit member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Durante holds an M.A. in art history and management from the University of St. Andrews and has formerly served their tribe as the assistant director of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum. They have also acted as a cultural representative and ambassador for their community under the title Miss Florida Seminole.

    Durante's work focuses on reclaiming Indigenous knowledge systems through Native-led education with the central mission of de-colonial healing. They are dedicated to exploring the intersections of Seminole identity, Indigenous knowledge, and Seminole visual culture. They utilize their lived experience and the knowledge gifted to them by their community to negotiate what ‘art history’ truly looks like for their people.

    Durante is also an advocate for cultural continuation through inter-generational organization and serves as a member of the independent youth council, Future Indigenous Leaders of South Florida. Working in their community, they are a founding contributor of their tribe’s first Two-Spirit Affirmation project where they advocate for Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ rights as an essential part to community well-being.

    Watch The Presentation

  • March 23, 2022 & April 20, 2022 - Luso-Afro-Brazilian Film Series

    The Portuguese Program at the University of Miami presents: Luso-Afro-Brazilian Film Series. Join us to watch the film and stay for a discussion. The film series will be presented with English subtitles and is open to anyone in the University of Miami community who would like to participate. This event will take place on two different dates.

    March 23, 2022 - Ser Tão Velho Cerrado

    April 20, 2022 - A Última Floresta

    Both events will take place at 1:00 p.m. in the Modern Languages & Literatures (MLL) Library in the Merrick Building, suite number 210-02. 


    This is an event flyer. The flyer contains a picture of the film posters for both films that will be shown in the series. The first film poster contains text in Portuguese and an exotic bird. The second film poster contains text in Portugues and an up close image of an indigenous person. The flyer contains details about the event. The majority of the flyer contains text, and yellow coloring.

  • March 3, 2022 - Oaxaca Resurgent: Indigeneity, Development, and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Mexico

    Join us in hosting Mr. Alan Shane Dillingham in a discussion for a talk on his book: Oaxaca Resurgent: Indigeneity, Development, and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Mexico. Oaxaca Resurgent examines how Indigenous people in one of Mexico's most rebellious states shaped local and national politics during during the twentieth century. Mr. Dillingham is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Assistant Professor of Latin American History at Albright College.

    Date: March 3, 2022

    Time: 11:00 a.m.

    Location: Shalala Student Center, Activities Room South


    This is an event flyer. The flyer contains a picture of the guest speaker, Alan Shane Dillingham and the cover of their book. The flyer contains details about the event. The majority of the flyer contains text, and black and red coloring.

  • February 25, 2022 - Kinstillatory Praxis: Indigenous Relations Across Land and Sky

    Join us in hosting Mr. Joseph Pierce in a discussion answering the following questions: How do we relate to the stars as Kin? How do we star like them? This presentation argues that the work of relating to the celestial, kinstillatory praxis, offers routes of belonging that expand beyond the limits of colonial normativity. Mr. Pierce is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at Stony Brook University.

    Date: February 25, 2022

    Time: 10:00 a.m.

    Location: Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, Merrick Building, Suite 105


    This is an event flyer. The flyer contains a picture of the guest speaker, Joseph Pierce and the cover of their book. The flyer contains details about the event. The majority of the flyer contains text, and black and grey coloring.

  • February 18, 2022 - Maya Feminism and Decolonial Poetics in Maya Cu Choc's "Ix Tzib'" (Woman Scribe)

    How do Maya women envision their emancipation? This presentation explores the answer to this question by offering a critical analysis of the poem, "Ix Tzib' (Woman Scribe)," written by Q'eqchi' Maya poet, Maya Cu Choc. 

    Our guest speaker, Dr. Emil' Keme (K'iche' Maya Nation) is a member of the Maya anticolonial collective Ix'b'alamquej Junajpu Wanuaq' and is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. He is the convener of the Critical Ethnic Studies collective at Carolina and the author of the book Le Maya Q'atzij/Our Maya World (2021), which was awarded Cuba's 2020 Casa de las Americas literary criticism prize.


    This is an image for an event flyer. The image contains text and graphic elements such as colored rectangles, and hand-drawn turtle. There is also an image of the guest speaker, Dr. Emil' Keme. This image contains details about the event on February 18, 2022.

  • February 7, 2022 - Imposed Inflexibility: American Indian Tribes and the Movement Away from the Flexible Polity

    Dr. Raymond Orr is the Associate Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies, and an Affiliated Researcher at the Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma. He is also a Senior Fellow in the Atlantic Program for Social Equity at the University of Melbourne. Dr. Orr is currently developing projects on the intersection of trust, law, regulation, and health priorities in Native American communities. 


    This is an image for an event flyer. The image contains text and graphic elements such as colored rectangles, and hand-drawn turtle. There is also an image of the guest speaker, Dr. Raymond Orr. This image contains details about the event on February 7, 2022.

  • November 30, 2021 - Racismo y Colonialidad (Racism and Coloniality)

    The Native American and Global Indigenous Studies (NAGIS) group hosted a discussion with Sandra Xinico Batz. Sandra Xinico Batz is a Kakchiquel anthropologist, columnist, and educator. Her publications and activism address diverse issues involving Indigenous peoples of Guatemala, ranging from colonization, genocide, and migration to patriarchy, extractivism, and intellectual property rights.


    This is an image of an event flyer. The flyer has red and white text. There is a picture of the guest speaker Sandra Xinico Batz. This event will be held on November 30, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. EST via Zoom. There is a QR code on the bottom left-hand corner of the flyer which when scanned will take the user to the Zoom registration web page.

  • November 18, 2021 - Engaging, Recruiting, and Studying Native Communities in Brain Health and Alzheimer's Disease Research

    This presentation will review collective research efforts funded by the National Instutitues of Health (NIH) to understand, intervene, and mitigate ADRD health disparities.


    This is an image of an event flyer. The flyer has a navy blue and yellow background with white and yellow text. There is a picture of the guest speaker James Galvin. This event, titled "Engaging, Recruiting, and Studying Native Communities in Brain Health and Alzheimer's Disease Research," will be held on November 18, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. EST via Zoom. There is a QR code on the bottom left-hand corner of the flyer which when scanned will take the user to the Zoom registration web page.

  • October 11, 2021 - Centering Indigenous Students' Experience at UM

    Date: October 11, 2021

    Time: 6:00 p.m. ET

    This Indigenous Peoples' Day, NAGIS is hosting a virtual roundtable to uplift the voices of Indigenous students past and present, to learn from their experiences, and help create an impetus for change.


    This is a flyer for the Centering Indigenous Students' Experience at UM. This flyer is mostly text. There is one image of a poster at a march advocating for Indigenous Peoples' rights. The poster reads we exist, we resist, we rise.

  • October 7, 2021 - Understanding Relationality: Centering Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Academic Librarianship

    Sandy Littletree is a LIS educator and researcher with interests at the intersections of Indigenous systems of knowledge and the library and information science field. Her dissertation research focused on the history and development of tribal libraries in the United States, where she examined the themes of advocacy, leadership, self-determination, cultural knowledge, and government responsibilities to tribes. She has developed advocacy resources for tribal libraries, produced a series of oral histories that document the stories of Arizona’s tribal libraries, and oversaw the revision of the 3rd edition of TRAILS, a training manual designed for tribal libraries. As the former Program Manager for the Knowledge River project at the University of Arizona, she recruited and worked to retain students interested in serving Latino and Native American communities. She is a past president of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and currently serves on several advisory boards for LIS projects in Indigenous communities in the US and Canada. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, originally from the Four Corners region of New Mexico.

    View the Video

  • August 19, 2021 - Indigenous Land Rights in Brazil: Strategies for Advocacy & Resistance

    This event will address the Indigenous ancestral land rights at stake during the upcoming Brazil’s Supreme Court hearing on August 25; damaging federal legislation under consideration; parallels with Native rights in the United States; and strategies for national and international mobilization and solidarity. Registration for this Zoom webinar is required.


    This is the flyer for the Indigenous Land Rights in Brazil webinar on August 19, 2021.

  • April 12-13, 2021 - Documenting Diversity & Democracy in Brazil

    The University of Miami invites you to, Documenting Diversity and Democracy in Brazil, a virtual symposium established as an exploration of the unique and multi-faceted Leila Míccolis Brazilian Alternative Press Collection. Featuring keynote and scholarly presentations, the event highlights the Collection’s intersectionalities and (dis)connections between burgeoning social and political movements in Brazil from the military dictatorship (1964–1985) to the present day. With a focus on human rights, social justice, and cross-fertilization of historical and sociopolitical trajectories, the presenters will shed light on recovering the voices of marginalized Brazilians.


     This is a composite flyer image for the event Documenting Diversity & Democracy in Brazil on April 12-13, 2021.

  • March 24, 2021 - Service Learning and Leadership: A Fierce Connection

    A lecture and discussion featuring Dr. Lorienne Roy, Anishinabe, who is enrolled on the White Earth Reservation and a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Dr. Roy is a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin).

     


    This is the flyer for the lecture with Loriene Roy on March 24, 2021.

  • March 11, 2021 - Native Women Creating Visibility: Storytelling, Advocacy, and Art

     


    This is a flyer for the virtual discussion with Mary Kathryn Nagle.

  • February 12, 2021 - Indigenous Women Migrants and Violence in the Settler Capitalist State

     


    This is the flyer for the event.

  • January 14, 2021 - Virgil Ortiz, an Indigenous Futurist


    This is the flyer for the event.

  • November 18, 2020 - A Conversation with Betty Osceola


    This is the flyer for the event.