WWU alumna Rena Priest kicks off campus' Native American Heritage Month activities Nov. 2

WWU’s Native American Heritage Month Planning Committee is excited to announce the kickoff for Native American Heritage Month with the event, "Our Time. Our Homelands." on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. in the Wilson Library Reading Room.

The event will showcase a poetry reading by WWU alumna Rena Priest, Washington state’s 6th Poet Laureate, and a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation.

Priest will read a series of poems on topics relating to the climate crisis, extinction, hope, human perceptions of time, traditional foodways, and the relationship between spiritual belief systems and human interactions with non-human communities, landscapes, and seascapes. The event will open with songs from Westshore Canoe Family and the short film, "Our Sacred Obligation," from Children of the Setting Sun Productions.

A limited number of Rena Priest's most recent book, "I Sing the Salmon Home," will be available complimentary to students thanks to the Center for Education, Equity, and Diversity in the Woodring College of Education. The event will also feature a display of various art pieces from Native American artists. Light refreshments to be available.  

Native American Heritage Month continues for all of November with a lineup of speakers and programs. More information can be found at the website https://www.wwu.edu/nahm.