Reports from Standing Rock

First Voices Radio continues to bring our listeners regular reports from Standing Rock, North Dakota, where thousands of water protectors have gathered to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. In the first half-hour, Tiokasin talks with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, who has created mirrored shields for the water protectors at Standing Rock. Cannupas unique, ceramic-centric, but ultimately multi-disciplinary, artwork tells provocative stories of complex Indigenous identities coming up against 21st Century imperatives, mediation, and destructivity. Born in North Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation, in a small town known as Fort Yates, Cannupa comes from Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Austrian, and Norwegian descent. Cannupa is a 2016 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellow in Visual Art. In the second half-hour, Tiokasin welcomes back Linda Black Elk, an ethnobotanist and science educator at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota. Linda actively works toward food and wellness sovereignty and is serving with the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council. The Standing Medic and Healer Council coordinates medical and healer supplies, human resources, and other types of medical and healing aid between all the camps at Standing Rock; Standing Rock Emergency Services; Indian Health Service; Standing Rock Tribal Council; Mni Wiconi Integrative Health Clinic; and the greater allopathic and healer community. The Medic and Healer Council also connects people wanting to offer support to those on the ground who are coordinating aid.


Share This Episode