Events
Global Birchbark Workshop
The inaugural event for the Hidden Stories project was “Birchbark: An International Meeting,” held at the University of Toronto Mississauga, 14-16 October 2022. The interdisciplinary workshop brought together Indigenous knowledge-keepers, scientists, scholars, craftspeople and artists from across the Great Lakes, as well as settler colonial scholars, conservators, and scientists from across the globe who work on birchbark materials from South Asia, including the 2,000-year old Gandharan birchbark scrolls that convey the oldest surviving texts in the Buddhist tradition. The hybrid (in-person and virtual) event was co-hosted by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, with participants travelling to the beautiful University of Toronto Mississauga campus, as well as calling in remotely from Pakistan, Australia, and Canada.
Centering the gathering on the use of birchbark as a material — especially as a writing substrate — created a place of connection for a shared understanding of its use and care by humans, across a range of traditions, time periods and locations. Comparisons were drawn and connections were made to link the historic and contemporary use of North American birchbark by Indigenous craftspeople and knowledge keepers with the early use of Himalayan birchbark in the Buddhist tradition. The event established a productive groundwork for ongoing conversations across the Hidden Stories project, especially between collaborators carrying out research within the Great Lakes & Eastern Woodlands area and those working on Kashmir and the Indus Valley.
Munsee Language & History Symposium
Gathering on Lunaapahkiing — traditional Lunaape lands — in Princeton, New Jersey, Lunaapeewak (Delaware people) from Munsee-speaking tribal nations came together in early November 2023, along with Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) community members, Princeton University students, staff, and faculty for the third annual Munsee Language & History Symposium. The symposium, co-hosted by the IAS and Princeton University Library (PUL), included sessions at PUL and a Special Collections visit with maps of traditional Lunaape lands, early books printed in Lunaape language (both Munsee and Unami), Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), and Kanien'keha (Mohawk). The choice of books was made to reflect the Indigenous languages of the attendees of the 2023 symposium. While the majority of books printed in Indigenous languages were used by preachers as tools for Christian conversion, they can nonetheless serve as a valuable resource for language reclamation and revitalization work. The gathering was co-hosted by Princeton University Library, which reported on the symposium sessions and Special Collections visit in its Newsletter.
The annual symposium, which has since 2021 taken place each autumn, will continue in 2024 and beyond, strengthening existing community connections and broadening conversations around Indigenous belongings, language, culture, and history revitalization. For information on past and upcoming events, and to see speaker presentations from past symposia, visit the Lunaape-IAS Events and resources pages.
