By Khristine Sandwith
On Nov. 22, 2019, faculty members Suree Towfighnia and Maria Isabel Morales presented their panel Nurturing Roots – Culture, Sustainability, Land, and the Role of Media and Art in Shaping Narratives at the Communications Building’s Recital Hall. The panel was created to educate their research project with Instituto Oaxaqueño Del Cafe to Evergreen, and also to educate Evergreen on the importance of culture and community. To help incorporate these concepts, Jeremiah Johns, Alex White Plume, Reuben Cruz, and Josefina Vasquez Morales presented how they involve sustainability in their culture. Jeremiah Jones speaks about the Squaxin Island Tribe, Alex White Plume on his family business, White Plume Hemp, Reuben Cruz on poetry, and Josefina Vasquez Morales on coffee production. Programs who were part of the audience included Mediaworks, Carrying Home: Latinx Worlds, Media, and Education, Arts of Urgency: Latin American Film and Literature, Diversity and Dissent in Media and Education, Farm to Table, SOS: Community Resilience, From the Earth: The History, Stories, and Social Justice of Farming in the U.S., Media Artist Studio, and Eating in Translation.
Back in 2018, Tomfighnia and Josefina Vasquez Morales, the director of Instituto Oaxaqueño Del Cafe (Oaxacan Coffee Institute), met at a conference in Oaxaca, Mexico. Both wanted to collaborate on creating a short video on the cultural values of coffee, starting from seed to cup. Vasquez Morales was fascinated by the possibility of using animation as the main art form, however, Tomfighnia didn’t have animation experience. With the idea still in mind, finding people with a media background and passion in their project was essential to create their video. After a year of planning, student August Davis worked as an animation director, and student Keely Liles worked alongside Tomfighnia as director associate. This was done through SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) and they called their project Cafe es Vida (Coffee is Life) to represent their research on Oaxaca, Mexico, and the cultural significance of coffee in its country.
Representation and artwork played a key role in their narrative. Throughout the project, Tomfighnia interviewed kids from Oaxacan communities and Vasquez Morales about how coffee revolves in their culture. At their panel, there was a short video of kids and Josefinea’s experiences with coffee. Kids, of different areas of Oaxaca, showed their experiences and one kid demonstrated how he makes coffee. To help with the animation, Vasquez Morales scanned 102 children’s drawings from three Oaxacan communities for the animation project. There were youth from three communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, whose drawings of the coffee cycle informed animation.
While she wasn’t able to come to Evergreen, Vasquez Morales spoke about the importance of coffee and connecting with nature. Before and after harvests, gratitude recitals take place, thanking health, energy, solidarity of gratitude, and knowledge being passed for generations. It was about reconnecting to land, traditions with nature, and celebrating culture. Vasquez Morales noted how natural occurrences affect coffee beans’ quality. Specialized coffee differs from own identity and personality. Its taste can be affected by its fermentation, hours being picked, moon phases, and flavor variety.
Jeremiah Johns spoke about how the Squaxin Island Tribe incorporates their culture and sustainability in their land. Sustainability has always been ingrained in its identity, life, and culture. Johns wanted to challenge colonial life in his community. For example, creating a community garden was important in learning about growing your own food and connecting with nature. They also created activities such as canoe journeys and trying to bring everyone together of different generations. In their land, they’re currently facing rising sea levels and trauma towards their water, land, and sea creatures.
Alex White Plume, a Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, addressed the challenges faced while growing hemp for his family business, White Plume Hemp; challenges faced from the U.S. government’s restrictive hemp laws. His business models traditional Lakota economic practices and fights for the right to grow hemp for CBD and medicine. His family has been mocked while trying to run their business, as well as being kept in poverty with the government hemp laws. During their first year growing hemp, the government stole their land due to legislative policies. According to Evo Hemp, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) started preventing the White Plume family from growing hemp since 2002, violating the Sioux Treaty of 1868 and prohibiting industrial hemp cultivation. Federal injunction wouldn’t be lifted until March 2016, which only allowed for the growing of hemp with a maximum of 0.3 percent THC levels.
Che Christ (Reuben Cruz), a Pii Paash (Maricopa)/Quechan poet from the Estrella Mountains in Arizona, recited poetry about restoring rivers and the importance of land. To him, the beauty of nature isn’t seen often from the distractions people constantly need. According to the Prairie Dust Films website, he documents stories of love, his homes, and social justice built from his ancestors through film, poetry, and hip-hop music. A member of the Gila River Nation and Prairie Dust Films, he dedicates his work to being a part of his community and helping others. He has supported people in disenfranchised communities, worked on community outreach for the film Standing Silent Nation, and has taken part in multiple filmmaking aspects for Crying Earth Rise Up, such as work on pre-production.
To anyone interested in exploring sustainability and/or cultures, Evergreen student clubs provide these opportunities. Earth Crafts Collective connects students and community to earth-based crafts and practices. Some activities include nature walks, cordage weaving, birdwatching, and natural building. Farmworker Justice Solidarity Collective brings environmental and farmworker justice with land sovereignty roots. Their goal is to push for better conditions, more agency, and more human rights justice for Washington state farmworkers. Activities include educating Evergreen and Olympia about the H-2A program, WAFLA (Washington Farm Labor Association), farmworker strikes and unions, food origins, and other Washington food and immigration systems.
