In Jessica's humanities class, we worked on finding a philosophy to go into detail in and I decided that I wanted to cover a philosophy that I personally live by. This was a Navajo philosophy that focuses solely on the balance and harmony of all beings, and essentially is the lifestyle many Diné people live by. My project also happened to be my LINK project, and was actually inspired by my mentor and the work I'd done up at the college with 'The Independent.' I incorporated my skills I learned from writing into my written pieces for this project, and I also worked with skills I wanted to include, which was painting in acrylic. I worked on my painting and articles throughout my LINK as well.
Further into this project, I didn't necessarily learn anything new solely because this philosophy is one I myself, and my family lives by. I did however, when researching it from other peoples perspectives, see that the way my people (the Navajo) live by is seen as a philosophy. To me, it's not something people can understand as something, it's just a way of life and learning that other people see it as a philosophy. I personally believe it's like this because on the outside won't and will never understand the true nature of the Hózhó way, and by trying to redefine it as a philosophy, they do so to try and understand it in a way people that are not Indigenous can comprehend it in a simple form.
Interpersonal Article
Artist Statement
The Ethics of Food & Eating
"Am I What I Eat?"
To start off this project, we dove deeply into the reality of what food is, and where it comes from by looking at it from the industrial and organic systems. What I learned from what we read and watched in class was that there were many forces that put people into situations that pressure them to choose a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle because of the food they consume on the regular. From this project, I was able to gain different perspectives of not only our society, but of the people in my class, who all have various lifestyles for various reasons and situations.
This project helped me understand my own experiences and vocalize them when differentiating the importance of health and processed food, and more importantly, money. I concluded that money plays a big role into what consumers eat, and with the lifestyles of 'unhealthy' and 'healthy', the prices in between have a huge gap. This played a role in my perspective, because coming from a family that has the misfortune of experiencing times of money dictating the weeks of what we consumer, I focused on researching how a food organizations target families income, meaning healthier foods focus on the more privileged in riches, who are more likely to have healthier foods at their disposable, compared to low income families who are unable to eat healthier because they're income is targeted by processed food, which is cheaper and convenient.
What I take away overall from this project is not only where food comes from, but how some people I've grown up with and take classes with have never experienced what I've studied from this project. I've learned that when voicing my concerns and the realities of real situations, many students in my class who I know have great affluence are brought up privileged when it comes to money and food, and aren't able to comprehend the reality of how money is the true dictator of consumers, and isn't entirely because people want to always eat unhealthy. In fact, many families want healthier lifestyles but money is what rules their decisions. I also learned some people are very closed minded when it comes to reasons to why certain people eat they were they do. For example, one of my classmates expressed that they ate vegan because they were unable to properly process regular foods like diary, and meats. Many consumers in our class who shown that those were apart of their food ethics did not agree in their choice, and then followed with remarked negatively about veganism and vegans while they were right in front of them. This has impacted my perspective of my peers and people who I recognize as individuals with privilege when it comes to money and ethics.
From Two Worlds
Reflection
I decided from the moment we started this project, I was going to make a film that addressed a large variety of issues regarding the history of Native Americans, and the lasting cause and effects of specific events. I focused solely on generational trauma, and compared the historical perspective to current issues to represent that present day Indigenous people are victims of colonialism, and the toxic environment they're constantly surrounded by is not something they created themselves. The topics I discussed were genocide, imprisonment camps, Indian boarding schools, stereotypes, sexual violence against Native women, and the importance of identity. I formatted the written portion of my work into a voiceover, and included two Native American students from Fort Lewis College as apart of my interviews. This project is more personalized to myself, because I, myself am Native American. Instead of looking to find and understand the other side that are not in agreement with my 'values', I decided to change my project to be more educational, with the purpose of appealing to the other side from a more educating standpoint, rather than my normal approach, being more bold, and aggressive. One thing that I learned throughout this project, was having the ability to hold myself in a more respectful manner when in a discussion, whether I agree or disagree with what's being talked about. When we were at exhibition, I showed my skills as not only a presenter, but as a human to listen and hear people, regardless of their bias. My experience when I talked with the people who showed interest in my film and written script was not what I expected. Before anyone came to my table, I had already prepared myself for the ignorant remarks and standoffish nature of others when they learned what my topic was, but the reactions were completely opposite. Instead, I was met with positive feedback, and understanding. One thing that I didn't expect many to understand was Generational Trauma, but through listening, I learned that a lot of non-natives know what it means, and often feel generational guilt because they don't know how to find solutions to these issues created by the ancestors of white settlers of America. As I mentioned before, I didn't entirely have a distinct two side debate with common grounds, and solely focused more on educating a history that's not taught, and from the perspectives of the youth of Native Americans. However, coming into this project, I thought I had the information and 'Native' points nailed, but through my process of gaining knowledge and hearing out other perspectives from other Natives, I learned that we're not all entirely different. Of course, I know that, but I always thought that because I came from a direct bloodline that had been deeply affected by the Indian boarding schools and internment camps, I was one of the few Navajos that had deeper ties to these events. Instead, I learned that from both of my interviewees, one full Navajo, and the other Laguna Pueblo, two people from entirely different tribes, shared similar experiences and perspectives that tied them to the history of Native Americans. It was definitely an eye opener. After completing my project, I learned that democracy is a system that's governed by the elected officials that represent the people. I didn't feel like there was a lot of democracy embedded in everyone’s projects, but in a way, we were all our own officials by addressing certain topics that many people either agree or disagree with. For myself personally, I made a film to project my ideas in a format that is easily accessible to the public (Youtube). In my own way, I represented a history that isn’t taught traditionally in schools, and not truthfully. At the end of this project, my political views haven't changed, and I strongly feel that they will remain that way for a long time. However, through this process of Rogerian rhetoric and learning to state our bias in a civil discourse, while also hearing out the other side and finding common ground, I think as a class, we all learned the important aspect of at least hearing what the opposite end has to say, and recognize that that's their opinion/perspective, and have the ability to respectfully agree or disagree. A role that Rogerian rhetoric plays in our society, is the 'propaganda' we see in political campaigns that are used to appease and appeal, rather than respectfully understand and compromise. However, I personally think that when a persons perspective/opinion begins with disregarding a peoples or people existence and right, the other side does not have a guaranteed hearing (ex. Racist, homophobic, sexist, etc.)