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Sometimes the way Native Americans wear their hair reflects a specific cultural expression. There may be a little more hair spray and some curls these days, but the tradition is still there. How do you wear your hair? Is it an expression of your cultural identity? And what happens when expression, through our hair, causes controversy?
Guests:
Pamela Peters (Navajo) – multimedia indigenous documentarian
Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation) – lawyer, co-founder of Not Your Mascot and national campaigns director for Honor the Earth
Mary Kim Titla (San Carlos Apache) – executive director of the United National Indian Tribal Youth incorporated (UNITY)
Ruth Swaney (Salish) – budget director for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
Break Music: Lightbeam Thunder (feat. Marla Nauni) (song) Cempoalli 20 & Quese Imc (artist) Osahwuh (album)
Wow, I heard the program but came here to see what the hair style looked like. I’m astounded that the official objected to this. The buns look tidy, don’t cover the jersey numbers. I’d think they are safer than letting hair hang down. In college I knew a girl who was on the bball time who’s hair reached below her bottom. She would tie it up in a fat pony tail that was so heavy it affected her ability to hold her head straight when she ran – no official objected to that!
Glad the girls won in the end on the hair issue.
Here is the link to my poem Hair – http://www.anishinaabekwe.com/www.anishinaabekwe.com/ishinaabekwe.com/2014/01/poem-hair.html
My son, who is in Kindergarten, was bullied at school because of his long hair. Three other students held him down and knotted his hair so badly that he asked for it to be cut for the first time in his life after we tried to brush out the tangle for two hours. We decided to home school after the administration denied that the incident ever happened. He told me a few weeks later that he liked his short hair, but missed his long hair. I reminded him that it will grow back, and that he is still a strong Cherokee boy, and no one can take that from him.