Post by blackcrowheart on Nov 1, 2005 13:49:43 GMT -5
NAU resident elder shares knowledge
Erny Zah
Arizona Daily Sun
Oct. 29, 2005 12:00 AM
FLAGSTAFF - Living a long life is respected in many Native American communities. The Applied Indigenous Studies program is no different. At the AIS program at Northern Arizona University, long-life experience is cherished in the form of resident elders. Bob Lomadafkie, a Hopi, is one of two resident elders.
"We do have a focus on traditional knowledge," said Octaviana Trujillo, AIS department chair.
Lomadafkie, an artisan, has been a resident of Flagstaff for most of his life and said his pathway to becoming a resident elder came a few years ago. When Lomadafkie, 63, was working at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Trujillo came to him asking to place AIS interns at the museum. She suggested the idea of becoming a resident elder. advertisement
The Ottens Foundation and Wells Fargo have provided the program with funding to support the elders-in-residence program.
Sitting in a coffeehouse, Lomadafkie, dressed in a black shirt with a thin silver bracelet on his left wrist, first recalled what the western side of Flagstaff used to look like when he was a child. Looking at South Milton Road, he said there weren't any buildings, but rather, fields with sunflowers.
"That's when Flagstaff had a population of 6,000," he said.
Flagstaff now is "too big," he said.
Lomadafkie works three days a week at NAU and has an office. He tries to establish communication with the Indian students because there are social issues he may be able to help with.
"We want to help (students) feel comfortable without compromising where they come from. That's another thing, is not to give up your identity," he said.
There are cultural issues that arise for Native Americans students where they might feel timid to share with a person who might not understand, he said.
Philan Tree, a Navajo student from Tolani Lake, agrees.
"It's the perspective of it. They are more understanding," she said, adding that it's helpful that resident elders are of the same background as some students. They provide an ear if "there are things you can't explain," she said.
Lomadafkie has been polling students and hearing what their concerns are. He sees himself as a "sounding board ... to hear them and know that they are understood."
He hopes this understanding will take on a new meaning.
"We want to create a Native community within the AIS department," he said.
That a community with incorporated indigenous knowledge is recognized and embraced by a university is unique, Trujillo said. NAU is only one of two universities in North America that has resident elders as part of its academic staff.
Lomadafkie also believes this community serves as a pathway to a larger picture embracing all walks of life.
"It's your life pattern," he said. "You address that world, and you address it with your knowledge."
Erny Zah
Arizona Daily Sun
Oct. 29, 2005 12:00 AM
FLAGSTAFF - Living a long life is respected in many Native American communities. The Applied Indigenous Studies program is no different. At the AIS program at Northern Arizona University, long-life experience is cherished in the form of resident elders. Bob Lomadafkie, a Hopi, is one of two resident elders.
"We do have a focus on traditional knowledge," said Octaviana Trujillo, AIS department chair.
Lomadafkie, an artisan, has been a resident of Flagstaff for most of his life and said his pathway to becoming a resident elder came a few years ago. When Lomadafkie, 63, was working at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Trujillo came to him asking to place AIS interns at the museum. She suggested the idea of becoming a resident elder. advertisement
The Ottens Foundation and Wells Fargo have provided the program with funding to support the elders-in-residence program.
Sitting in a coffeehouse, Lomadafkie, dressed in a black shirt with a thin silver bracelet on his left wrist, first recalled what the western side of Flagstaff used to look like when he was a child. Looking at South Milton Road, he said there weren't any buildings, but rather, fields with sunflowers.
"That's when Flagstaff had a population of 6,000," he said.
Flagstaff now is "too big," he said.
Lomadafkie works three days a week at NAU and has an office. He tries to establish communication with the Indian students because there are social issues he may be able to help with.
"We want to help (students) feel comfortable without compromising where they come from. That's another thing, is not to give up your identity," he said.
There are cultural issues that arise for Native Americans students where they might feel timid to share with a person who might not understand, he said.
Philan Tree, a Navajo student from Tolani Lake, agrees.
"It's the perspective of it. They are more understanding," she said, adding that it's helpful that resident elders are of the same background as some students. They provide an ear if "there are things you can't explain," she said.
Lomadafkie has been polling students and hearing what their concerns are. He sees himself as a "sounding board ... to hear them and know that they are understood."
He hopes this understanding will take on a new meaning.
"We want to create a Native community within the AIS department," he said.
That a community with incorporated indigenous knowledge is recognized and embraced by a university is unique, Trujillo said. NAU is only one of two universities in North America that has resident elders as part of its academic staff.
Lomadafkie also believes this community serves as a pathway to a larger picture embracing all walks of life.
"It's your life pattern," he said. "You address that world, and you address it with your knowledge."