DIG

If you'd like to be informed about events and activities, get in touch with Quetzani at qlm12@hampshire.edu.

Currently,we are planning:

- A gathering for Indigenous students, faculty, and staff in the Five College area. It will be a potluck in the Cultural Center on Friday Feb. 28th at 5pm. Come out and make connections with the Indigenous community!

Also, we are not currently having regular meetings as attendance for the group is very low, as it usually is, and we are trying to branch out to gather attention of more people.

The MISSION Statement
DIG! (Decolonizing Indigenous Generations) is a CLOSED group that aims to create safe spaces for people who identify within the pan-indigenous spectrum. The definition of "indigenous" for DIG! are those groups whose homelands have been colonized but continue to carry on their cultural heritage, even using their cultures as a form of resistance. This is a network for solidarity among global Indigenous communities. If you do plan to attend meetings to come and learn about the group and what we do, we ask that you have respect for others and the group's overall mission.

The overall goal is to create personal/cultural expression and enrichment of our members. This will be done through activities such as: storytelling (only in the wintertime! there's a good reason for it), beadwork and its cultural significance, cooking of traditional food (sometimes we will cook other things too), sewing traditional dance regalia, weaving, putting on movie/documentary screenings &amp; having discussion with the larger Hampshire community. We also try to engage in various levels of activism, such as confronting administration so we can have active recruitment of Indigenous peoples, consistent and supportive faculty to ensure we are respected in and outside the classroom while pursuing our education, and practicing forms of decolonization.

A Brief History
Eve Little Shell LaFountain, a 2008 Hampshire graduate, was the first person to generate interest for a student group of indigenous students on the campus. She went through all the channels to make it official the spring of 2006. LaFountain went to Hampfest that year to gather a mass but there was hesitation because she felt the group wouldn't offer enough voice for the indigenous students with the number of allies she had gained. In the end DIG! didn't work out but LaFountain kept the idea in mind.

In the fall of 2007, Hampshire had enough enrolled students that the group could exist even without allies in order to meet the quota of group membership. That collection of students came together and decided on a plan to be recognized, they drafted a mission statement and let others know that there would soon be a place to have for themselves. A call was sent out for potential signers to take care of business that next semester.

LaFountain was joined by EJ Santos and Conor MacCallan-Finkelman to set up the foundations for DIG! and invite students to direct the group's purpose. The first meeting of DIG! was held on February 21, 2008.

Affiliates
SOURCE Student Groups

5 Colleges Indigenous Student Alliance (FCISA)

Mt. Holyoke NATIVE SPIRIT

ISSA (Indigenous Smith Students &amp; Allies)

NASA (UMass Native American Student Association)

Five College Native American-Indian Studies Committee

'''*Look us up or leave a message on Facebook @ Five College Indigenous Student Alliance! '''

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