My original idea for this portion of my project was to interview some professors here on campus about how they thought about teaching Native American culture was important, I have since then decided to take a different route! I am going to interview a few of my friends back home who are of Native American decent and how they felt growing up in the school system and in the world in general with their heritage. I will be conducting both these interviews by the end of this weekend!
The concept that I choose was Postmodern cultural spaces - which to refresh the memory are places that are defined by cultural practices - languages spoken, identities enacted, rituals performed - and that often changes as new people move in and out of these spaces. After reading some of this it sparked some of the interview questions I might ask my interviewees. Some may include; Have you ever performed in rituals that are common in your heritage, if so what were they? Do you think it is important to stay connected to your culture? Would you say you completely identify yourself as part of the Native American culture? among other question as well. I also looked at the concept of regionalism which is - loyalty to a particular region that holds significant cultural meaning for that person. My friends that I will be interviewing were born and raised in the Midwest and have all their lives and so this also sparked some possible interview questions. Do you believe you connect more with being of Native American heritage because you live in the Midwest? If you were not to live in the Midwest would you not feel like you would connect as much to your heritage? I'm leaning more towards the idea of regionalism since the questions seem more directed towards my interview audience but we shall see when it all comes together!
Together or separate these should both help narrow down some of the questions we have been asking throughout this entire class! It will help us connect more towards my selected group which is the Native Americans and how they feel connected to their culture in what ways. What their definition of culture is to them being from a different heritage that has previously faced much past and continued prejudice. How connected they feel to their heritage since much of it has been lost over the years because of migration, loss of language and people no longer living with their tribes on reservations or selected cities.
Update: I have set up two interviews one with a friend here in Lincoln who has Native American heritage and one back home (South Dakota). The friend here will be a face to face interview about her culture and the one back home will be through messages on Facebook or e-mail so I will rely on printing out or writing down her answers! I attended an event or more of an exhibit here in Lincoln at the Great Plains Art Exhibit where they had a collections of an artist who drew, painted and sculpted Native Americans. Some were realistic and others seemed to be the stereotypical or stereotypes of Native Americans. I could not take pictures but I did spend a lot of time looking and memorizing some scenes and jotted down some notes that I will hopefully successfully integrate into my final video! Although this isn't what one would think of as a typical event I found it extremely helpful and enlightening! Best of luck to the rest of you with your projects!
Great Plains Art Museum (across from the Lied Center)
Works Cited
Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural Communication in Contexts. Boston, Mass: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.
Kim, I think this is an interesting topic to research. I think its also cool that you are choosing a topic that is relevant to your life! Good luck on your project as well
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