By Emely Bonilla, Oct. 18, 2022
In honor of Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 10 the Native American Student Center hosted a market where students could stop by, support local Indigenous vendors and gain knowledge on this holiday.
The event took place in the University Plaza, where students could stop by and check out what the local vendors had for sale. The event was free of charge and students recieved a free screen-printed tote bag with a custom design made by the Native American Student Center.
Community members were able to showcase their art while share their culture along with it. Derek Farias, an architecture student and artist had a display at this market of his own vibrant paintings, and he was able to sell prints of his pieces as well.
Events such as this market that focus on highlighting Indigenous people and their art is important to Farias because, “it brought a lot of people from my community together, in a way it allowed each person to individually express themselves with what they engage with personally.”
The Native American Student Center strives to create a safe space for students like Farias to understand their own background and push them towards academic success. Alex “Panda” Armendariz, interim coordinator for the Native American Student Center and graduate student for the regenerative studies program, feels that gatherings such as these allow for the campus to understand Indigenous history more.
“We have been taught in the past about Columbus and the false narrative that has been taught about the ‘discovery’ of the Americas, how great he was and the many great things that came from that. It is not true; it is a false narrative,” said Armendariz
Indigenous People’s Day was established as a holiday within California and Los Angeles County in 2019 to replace the federal holiday, Columbus Day. By creating a campus wide celebration, it can help people with Native backgrounds to reestablish this holiday as their own. As a university that is located within Los Angeles county, the Native American Student Center decided last year that making Indigenous Peoples Day more known can truly help this minority group.
Though there is much more work that needs to be done for Indigenous people to reclaim and rewrite the corruption seen within our education, Armendariz is proud of the work that is being done for native students at CPP.
“We have a physical space here on campus, a lot of universities do not have a physical space like this,” said Panda. “They don’t have dedicated staff to support their students. Currently, our division of student affairs is pushing toward supporting our different cultural and different identity groups. There’s a lot of leadership support, it’s a slow build, it’ll take time, as we continue to build, and we continue to push we will see more representation and more efforts to support these students on campus.”
Madi Garcia, a graduate student from the history department, hopes that the work done by the Native American Student Center can be seen campus wide. The center is constantly trying to address the lack of Native diversity within academia and encourages students to achieve their goals in higher education, but they also hope to make these issues known campus wide.
Garcia feels that by hosting these events the center is gaining the traction needed to make the campus aware of the history behind Indigenous stories and struggles.
“If we could get a little more involvement, even from admin, I am calling on admin at this point to show their support as well,” said Garcia.
There has been a newfound importance in ethnic studies for the past few years. California state legislators have been working towards creating more policies like the AB-1460 which made ethnic studies a requirement within the California State system. California representatives continue to push for more of ethnic history in public schools, but there are still states within the U.S. that do not view this as a prominent issue to focus on. Indigenous students and faculty continue to push for their peers who do acknowledge their fight to support their cause.
“It’s very common to hear in the Native community ‘We are doing this for the next seven generations to come’ and I really believe that’s how I am doing my journey,” said Garcia. “I will be in those uncomfortable spaces; I will be in those conversations about how history must be written. This is important work we are doing, and I would love to encourage other native scholars to keep going, to fill in those slots in those departments that are empty.”
More information about the Native American Student Center is available on their website
Feature image courtesy of Emely Bonilla
