Indigenous Peoples Day
CU Boulder students, staff and faculty and members of the Boulder community are invited to participate in a community celebration and observance of Indigenous Peoples Day through two signature events on October 14 and 16.
These events will give participants the opportunity to:
- Understand the historical legacies of and present-day movements for Native and Indigenous social and environmental justice and civil rights.
- Explore the interconnectedness of Native and Indigenous social justice movements to other identity-based and social and environmental movements for justice and civil rights.
- Identify practical strategies for reciprocity, recovery and culturally responsible allyship with Native and Indigenous humans and organizations to address and advocate for justice, centering land back and language back.
Plenary Session and Luncheon
“Indigenous Peoples Day Reframed: Toward an Intersectional, Decolonial and Transnational Vision for Indigenous Sovereignty”
Oct. 14, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom
Lunch will be provided. Registration is required.
Keynote Speakers
Makalika Destarte Naholowa’a, JD
Recent Past President of the National Native American Bar Association and Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
A native Hawaiian and cultural practitioner, Naholowaʻa is a lawyer and Indigenous peoples advocate who specializes in intellectual property, technology law and traditional knowledge. As executive director of the nonprofit, public interest law firm Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, Naholowaʻa and colleagues work to advance Native Hawaiian identity and culture.
As an attorney, Naholowaʻa handled trademark, copyright and unfair competition cases at a leading private law firm in the Pacific Northwest and intellectual property and tech law at a Fortune 500 tech company, where she led the global trademark practice group. Naholowaʻa has also provided guidance on and spoken about intellectual property and traditional knowledge.
In 2023 and 2024, Naholowaʻa served as president of the National Native American Bar Association and has held leadership positions with the American Bar Association, the Washington State Bar Association, and the International Trademark Association. She is a lifetime member of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association.
Autumn BlackDeer, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work
BlackDeeris a queer decolonial scholar and activist from the Southern Cheyenne Nation and serves as an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. Her scholarship illuminates the impact of structural violence on American Indian and Alaska Native communities. BlackDeer centers Indigenous voices throughout her research by using quantitative approaches and big data as tools for responsible storytelling. BlackDeer is a racial equity scholar with an emphasis on Indigenous tribal sovereignty and is deeply committed to furthering decolonial and abolitionist work.
Land Back, Language Back: Workshops and Panel Discussions
Oct. 16, 2 to 4 p.m.
UMC 386
Land Back panelists:
- Doreen Martínez, Associate Professor, Race, Gender and Ethnic Studies, Colorado State University
- Andrea Knutson, Associate Professor, English, Oakland University
- Leila Gómez, Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies, CU Boulder
Language Back panelists:
- Ambrocio Gutierrez Lorenzo, Associate Professor, Linguistics, CU Boulder
- Anthony Crank, Navajo Language and Culture Teacher, Denver Center for International Studies
- James Sleeper, Lead Apprentice of the Cheyenne Arapaho Language Program in Oklahoma
Program Sponsors
These signature events are sponsored by the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, the College of Engineering and Applied Science, the Center for Inclusion and Social Change and the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Event Parking
Paid parking is available in the Euclid parking garage, just east of the University Memorial Center (UMC) between Broadway and 18th Street. This is a "pay-by-plate" lot and payment can be made at a pay station or by using the ParkMobile app (Zone 63205).
Additional Resources
About Indigenous Peoples Day
Indigenous Peoples Day, a federal holiday in the United States, celebrates the continuing presence and millennia-deep contributions, history, traditions and long-standing concerns of the First Peoples who are indigenous to North, Central and South America and Hawaii. Officially adopted in 2021, the holiday is observed nationally on the second Monday of October.
Resource Guide
Prepared by CU Boulder University Libraries, supports the goals and outcomes for CU Boulder's Indigenous Peoples Day Signature Events by centering resources related to Indigenous knowledge in Hawaii, especially the coral reef, reclamation narratives by Indigenous artists, the notion of Indigenous reciprocity, cultural relevance, multiracial identity, and scholarly literature for North American regions.