2024: Indigenous People and Place
After a successful first year of Centering Indigenous Knowledge, Montana Campus Compact is excited to return in 2024. This year’s series will focus on the theme of Indigenous People and Place and will explore people’s millennia-spanning relationships with and the significance, history, and power of place.
Much like the series in 2023, native languages, which provide the worldview to see and understand these relationships, will feature prominently in the discussions. We will draw upon the rich contributions of these scholars to raise awareness of their work to advance knowledge and perpetuate the cultures of Montana’s indigenous people.
The Series
As part of its mission to advance the public purposes of colleges and universities and to educate students for civic and social responsibility, the Montana Campus Compact (MTCC) board seeks to raise awareness of the richness of indigenous knowledge in our state and center the people and institutions who lead the movement here. The four sessions in this years series will examine the theme of indigenous people and place.
With the understanding that a webinar series will only scratch the surface, we are hopeful to inspire people to learn more and seek out ways of supporting tribal colleges and their work to advance and preserve indigenous knowledge. Like 2023, we’re very excited to announce that our 2024 series will be facilitated by Dr. Karla Bird (Amskapi Piikani), University of Montana Tribal Outreach Specialist and former president of Blackfeet Community College.
The Host
Montana Campus Compact is an eighteen-campus higher education consortium and part of the Campus Compact movement, whose institutions support the public missions of colleges and universities. MTCC was founded in 1993 and is administratively hosted by the Universithttp://fpcc.eduy of Montana in Missoula. MTCC has six active Tribal College and University (TCU) member institutions, and our board is chaired by President Haven Gourneau from Fort Peck Community College. The network will be changing its name in the spring of 2024, but continuing its focus on student and community engagement from higher education.
College presidents join Campus Compact and support work across the state and country that promotes community and democratic engagement, volunteerism and service, and community-engaged teaching and learning. Our Montana network hosts two signature AmeriCorps programs: an anti-poverty-focused AmeriCorps VISTA program and a college access and success-focused AmeriCorps program, as well as a host of other student awards, scholarships and programs.
This four-part webinar series will run during March 2024 with weekly installments on Thursdays at noon (MST/MDT).
Registration for the series will be covered via sponsorship, and attendees are encouraged instead to support via contributions to the institutions themselves or the American Indian College Fund.
