Great Plains Conference: April 6-8, 2022
Deadline: October 25, 2021
The 2022 Great Plains conference asks how residents of the Great Plains can best reckon with the violence, conflict, and abuse that has occurred in our region and move toward healing, justice, and reconciliation. It invites us to remember and honor the painful past, and then to imagine and build new relationships and communities based on respect and dignity for all. People on the Great Plains have suffered dispossession, exile, violence, discrimination, exclusion, exploitation, forcible assimilation, and family separation. Typical accounts of the region often downplay or erase these events. Yet past abuses have contributed to current disparities and inequalities, and our failure to confront them has limited our possibilities to create a fully inclusive and thriving society. This conference will bring together a wide variety of speakers and activities to reckon with the past while also highlighting the resiliency of people and culture moving forward. The event is designed for community members, local and regional leaders, student groups, the academic community, and anyone interested in these issues.
Keynote speaker Walter Echo-Hawk will kick off the following two full days of speakers, cultural events, panels and workshops. Attendees can also enjoy the Contemporary Indigeneity exhibition at the Great Plains Art Museum. This conference will reckon with the past while also highlighting the resiliency of people, cultures, and communities moving forward. The event is designed for community members and organizers, local and regional leaders, students, student groups, the academic community, and anyone curious about these issues.