Mainland Living Native Hawaiians Asked to Contribute to Boarding School Oral History Project - Underscore Native News
Mainland Living Native Hawaiians Asked to Contribute to Boarding School Oral History Project - Underscore Native News
Mainland Living Native Hawaiians Asked to Contribute to Boarding School Oral History Project - Underscore Native News
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6011437
On Aug. 25, The National Boarding School Healing Coalition’s (NABS) made its 14th stop on a 20-stop national tour in downtown Portland, becoming a place of remembrance and community. Children ran around the decorated banquet tables of the Hilton Embassy Suites, as elders joined together in conversation, laughter and prayer as a hand drum echoed through the second-level hallways.
“Our goal is to provide a safe space for survivors to share their story,” said NABS’ co-director Lacey Kinnart. “It’s to give them this opportunity to speak their truth and record it because a lot of times they’re sharing something for the very first time.”
Last November, NABS made a tour stop in Hilo, Hawaii, to interview Native Hawaiian attendees of boarding schools. Kinnart, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, said the language used to describe boarding schools in Hawaii is different than in the U.S. and Canada, with students referred to as “attendees” and their schools referred to as “reformatories” and “seminaries,” but the horrors remained the same.