Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Team One Spirit Runs for Youth and to Bring Attention to Alcohol Consumption in Pine Ridge Reservation

Two Native Americans ran on the 2014 NYC Marathon to bring media attention to the alcohol epidemic that is killing high school students in Pine Ridge, South Dakota Reservation. 

Team One represented indigenous communities on an international platform. They want to fundraise for youth centers and clinics to be built on their reservation to give the youth safe places to celebrate their culture and also to show the world the deplorable conditions they live in. 

I think it is very positive to have Native American athletes to serve as role models and to participate in important events such as this one to bring awareness. As stated in the article, Team One was amazed to see fellow Native Americans cheering for them in NYC,  they had no idea their people lived and stretched all the way to NY. 

The link to the article 


Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The 'great indigenous divide': Winnipeg stares into an ethnic chasm

"On the eve of an election, Winnipeg, home to Canada’s largest urban indigenous population, is finally grappling with a social division reminiscent of US cities before the civil rights movement"

"Two of the candidates are indigenous: Brian Bowman, a Métis privacy lawyer who will become the first indigenous mayor in Winnipeg’s 140-year history if he can pull ahead (he’s in a statistical tie for first place) and Robert-Falcon Ouellette, a Cree university administrator polling in third. “Whoever is elected mayor has a responsibility to build bridges between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal community,”

Interesting enough, Winnipeg is one of the poorest cities in the nation, the unemployment rate is extremely high, alcoholism and drug addiction numbers are skyrocketing.  The housing conditions on the reservations are unfit for people. 

My big problem can also be applied to Canada. Natives also face many "belongingness issues" and they are rarely mentioned in the media. On the bright side, both candidates are Native, they might be able to help Winnipeg's issues because they understand where their people are coming from. (hopefully)  

Link to the article here

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Continuing Research

I did a survey on SurveyMonkey.com and so far I've gotten 24 responses.  Lack of  information has been the biggest issue. I shaped this survey as an awareness module which  would lead the consumer to question the bigger picture, which happens to be the core of my problem. Lack of media coverage and lack of overall information about native americans.

90% female
less than 10% male
age median 21-29

Common answer: Native Americans are  portrayed as barbaric and misunderstood savages.

When asked if they had ever been to a reservation?
-the popular answer was NO.

How would they imagine it?
-Poor, desolate place. People needing to be saved by a stronger society (USA)

100% had no idea about the 70% High School drop out rate in reservations.

90% didn't know that 1 in 10 Native American youth death was alcohol related.

95% would volunteer and help end this epidemic and would love to get more information. 

You can see the results here

Friday, October 10, 2014

This quote hits home!

"It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply arranged. 
The only difficulty was, she had not the smallest idea how to set about it."

Lewis Carrol, of Alice in Alice in Wonderland

Creative theorist/pioneer

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Hungarian, has written many books about creativity and happiness.  Some of the center core of his arguments come from the notion of motivation, and happiness. When we are happy our "flow" increases. Flow- a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation.

Edward de Bono
He came up with the concept of Lateral Thinking which stands for changing the way we think. Six Thinking Hats- each hat is a different style of thinking. This method helps us understand problems by changing our "hat" and see the problem with different view of professionals.

Teresa Amabile
She studies how life in a corporation/ organization can influence people and their overall performance. In her book "The Progress Principle" she explains the confluence of emotions, perceptions, and motivations that people experience as they react to their jobs.

Roger von Oech
He is an innovator, inventor and a creative thinker. His work tries to stimulate creativity and innovate business. Has written the following books "A Whack on the Side of the Head", "A Kick in the Seat of the Pants", "Expect the Unexpected" and his most famous work "Creative Whack Pack"

Graham Wallas
Famous for the Wallas Model of the Process of Creativity which consists in:
Preparation (definition of issue, observation and study)
Incubation (laying the issue aside for a time)
Illumination( the moment when a new idea finally emerges)
Verification (checking it out)
His model explains the notion that creative thinking is a subconscious process, and cannot be directed. It must left alone, and it will come naturally.


Sigmund Freud
Founding father of Psychoanalysis. He developed different techniques such as "Free Association" which stands for the importance of patients speaking for themselves, rather than the analyst doing all the talking, "transference", and was big on the study of dreams and their representation. Another big discovery was his theory of the "unconscious mind"- processes int he mind that occur automatically and are not available to introspection, and include thought process, memory affect and motivation.

Ellis Paul Torrance
Known for the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and as the "Father of Modern Creativity". "courageous risk-taking is essential for creativity".

J. P. Guilford
American psychologist whose work emphasized the idea that scores on intelligence tests cannot sustain the superiority of a person, or groups of people. He believed that most creative people scored low on standard IQ exams because they take a different approach to resolve the problem. "Intelligence consists of numerous intellectual abilities"

Alex Osborn
He was the "Father of the Brainstorming". He believed that if judgement was suspended, then the imagination could produce ideas.

John Cleese/Monthy Python
English writer, comedian, and film producer. He co-funded "Monty Python's Flying Circus" a comedy.

John Lennon/ Beatles 
English musician, singer and sonwriter and founder member of the rock band the Beatles. Political and peace activist, he was big on anti-war movements.

Steve Jobs
He was an American entrepreneur, futurist, visionary, marketer and inventor. He was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple and Pixar Animation Studios.  Often referred to as the "Father of the Digital Revolution" and a "Design perfectionist".

Marcel Duchamp
French American painter, sculptor, writer and chess player. His work is associated with the Dadaist movement- which was born pout of negative reaction to the horrors of WWI. Duchamp wanted to put art back in the service of the mind.
The Fountain 1917
(Readymades) L.H.O.O.Q 1919

Ted Talk on Creativity
Erik Johansson: Impossible Photography

"All the tools are out there, the only thing that limits us is our imagination"

Erik is an avid photographer and photoshop master. He captures images and mixes them together to create impossible scenes which are his pre-meditated works of art. He believes that everyone can be a photographer, and that the process of taking a photograph ends when the photo is taken... but he is a visionary and he likes  to do things differently. Instead of ending his route after pressing the shooter, he actually commences his journey.

He starts his creative process by planning, sketching, and combining different images to create a manipulated elaborated realist image. This is fascinating because he uses different images to create a personal visual, a personal work of art. I admire this because as he said, photography ends when you take the photograph, yet his work starts there, transforming his images into a bigger, stronger creative, elaborate work of art.

"I use images as a way of collecting material to realize the ideas in my mind."

The Cover up
Let's leave
 Go your own road
Drifting away





Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Documentaries/ reasearch

Problem:

The way Native Americans are depicted in the media affects their overall attitude towards themselves. Being misrepresented causes psychological and identity problems amongst the youth.

Documentary:

Reel Injun 

This documentary reveals the film industry's effect on North American Native people who've been depicted in movies in widely inaccurate ways. 

"Reel Injun is an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema. Travelling through the heartland of America and into the Canadian North, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond looks at how the myth of “the Injun” has influenced the world’s understanding – and misunderstanding – of Natives. With clips from hundreds of classic and recent films, and candid interviews with celebrated Native and non-Native directors, writers, actors, and activists including Clint Eastwood, Robbie Robertson, Graham Greene, Adam Beach, and Zacharias Kunuk, Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema’s depiction of Native people from the silent film era to present day."

Problem: Living in reservations or "prison camps"/ being isolated, no movie theaters/ lack of social integration causes youth to seek for alternative mediums of entertainment.  (alcohol, drugs)

Documentary:


Pine Ridge: Poorest Indian reservation in North America. Descents of "Crazy Horse" Lakota Chief live there.

-Pine Ridge is a Prison War Camp (designed by the same man who organized the Japanese American -Relocation Camps WWII)
-Natives have no rights 
-1870- Congress gave banks the right to rule
-20th Century- Power of economy belonged to the banks
-40% of American resources are Native Reservations 
-Economic problems 

Media Coverage:

Pine Ridge, tribe wages battle against alcoholism


Testimonies by students:

From Lakota Hearts 1
From Lakota Hearts 2
 
-Alcohol, depression, nobody there to help teenagers... no hope
-Generation gap young students to care about the Native life anymore
-No jobs
-Teenagers raising their brothers and sisters
-Parents are alcoholics, they grow up and mimic them
-Alcohol in school grounds

-------------------------------------------

Things that stand out for me:

-"Both worlds"
-Indian world/ Lakota world
-More opportunities to go to college
-Understand themselves
-Lack of guidance
-"Go back to their roots/ Traditions"
-Racism between them/ "she looks like she has white blood"
-A study on Native American youth from grades 7 to 12 shows that 71% reported having ever used alcohol, 55% reported having ever been drunk, 34% reported having been drunk within the past month.
-Traditional Lakota values were replaced with non Indian values bringing about a life style that has led to the worst statistics in health, education, employment, housing, legal rights, etc. As one U.S. Attorney has stated, “Native Americans are the most victimized group in America”.

Sources:

http://www.medicinewhl.org/default.htm
http://www.4aihf.org/id40.html
http://www.pineridgesioux.com/
http://www.oglalalakotanation.org/oln/PROGRAMS_-_SERVICES.html

Health Administrator
choicescoordinator@gmail.com

Idea:
Create a photography portfolio to help them identify and see their similarities as a group and what ties them together...