2024 ARPG Solstice Festival
Friday, June 21: Stories of the Land, Resistance and Solidarities: 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. Seelye (honorarily Robinson Lawn). Rain location Neilson Browsing Room
Join us in making the longest day of the year a community space of celebration that recognizes stories of the land, resistance and solidarities. This gathering will be an intentional space to learn about, reflect on and share stories that bring us in closer relationships with each other, the territories that we inhabit and the elements that sustain us. Using the Beehive Design Collective’s Mesoamerica Resiste graphics as a backdrop, this coming together will feature a collective of storytellings by students, faculty and community members. This event is fully accessible and open to everyone. Light refreshments will be provided.
Saturday, June 22: Indigenous Art at the Smith College Museum of Art: 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Experience painting, sculpture, collage, photography, and time-based media by Native American and Indigenous artists at the Smith College Museum of Art. A special installation of artworks will be organized in the Collections Galleries and Teaching Gallery for this occasion. Join Charlene Shang Miller, educator for academic programs, and SSW colleagues from the Anti-Racism Planning Group. This event is open to everyone and is wheelchair accessible.
Saturday, June 22: Honoring the Solstice with Lushanya Echeverria, Ed.D.: 3 - 5 p.m. Neilson Browsing Room
An afternoon of Lakota heritage celebrating the changing of the seasons. Storytelling, songs, a friendship dance and water blessing.
Bio: Lushanya Echeverria, Ed.D. is a professional educator, alternative practitioner and spiritual teacher. Her research focuses on connection and learning using Indigenous storytelling. Her work is based in trauma-theory and the lifelong psychological effects called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Echeverria's current research focuses on dissociative disorder caused by acute and chronic childhood boundary erosion. She is a trauma worker helping individuals heal deep-rooted psychological effects of present and intergenerational trauma.
Echeverria specializes in organizational development to cultivate cultures of connection using Indigenous practice and pedagogy. She is the executive director of Kunsi Keya Tamakoce, a spiritual retreat center sharing the practices, beliefs and ceremonies of her matriarchal Lakota heritage. The mission of Kunsi Keya Tamakoce is to connect community members to the earth and share teachings on how to live in balance and harmony with Mother Earth.
Alongside her mother, Beverly Littlethunder, Echeverria engages intergenerational teachings through spiritual connection, community development, sustainable land practice and leadership development.