By Natalie “Lee” Arneson
On May 3rd, The Evergreen State College celebrated the 16th José Gómez Farmworker Justice Day. The opening ceremony, beginning at 10am, was held in Evans Hall with speeches from Kara Briggs and Evergreen faculty members Prita Lal and Alice Nelson. Briggs’ speech was a timely and moving introduction to the day’s events, serving as a call for action and allyship, as well as a bittersweet goodbye as Kara Briggs officially announces her departure from her role as the college’s VP for Tribal Relations, Arts and Cultures. Tears gathered in my eyes as I watched Kara speak, knowing this may well be the last time we share space with her in this way.
“Weats – Weats (listen to me in the Lushootseed language). Hutch Slahail (good day in Lushootseed). I am Kara Briggs, your soon to be leaving Vice President of Tribal Relations, Arts and Cultures. I am a Sauk-Suiattle citizen and I opened in the Lushootseed language of my tribe. Like many of us, the peoples of this hemisphere, our Indigenous roots run deep, and are shrouded in ancient relationships, our ancient trade routes are written in the landscape, our family trees in captured in our Indigenous DNA.
“Despite the common cries that our tribal languages are dying. Our languages are alive – Nahuatl has more than a million people speaking it in Mexico today. Our Indigenous languages have far more sophisticated vocabulary for the types of environmental crisis that climate change is bringing forward in our hemisphere, far more teachings about how to respond ecologically, rooted in the sciences of our Native nations that began in our landscapes tens of thousands of years ago.
“The Maya and Nahuatl peoples had pre-contract written languages, and great collections of manuscripts, even if the colonial agents burned these libraries, the fact is they exist in the heritage of Indigenous peoples from this hemisphere. I am honored to open the José Gómez Farmworker Justice Day, and I am honored to be able to speak for a few minutes with students and farm workers.”
The end of Kara’s speech was met with thundering applause and hands raised. There was a solemnity to the cacophonous noise, and a sense of deep gratitude that permeated the air as she stepped from the stage.
The next person to take the stage was Evergreen faculty member Prita Lal, who provided a labor acknowledgement.
“We acknowledge that the economy in which we work was built upon land stolen from Native peoples and labor taken through the enslavement of Black people, and the exploitation of immigrant workers. Even after the formal end of slavery, Black people, and other people of color, have had freedom, time, knowledge, wealth, and work taken from them without compensation in ways that have laid the foundation for today’s economy and society. This includes the care, work, and labor of social reproduction by women, in particular Black women, that has long been taken for granted. As African American story and scholar activist Robin D.G. Kelley said, “Federal assistance to Black people in any form is not a gift, but a down payment for centuries of unpaid labor, violence, and exploitation.””
Evergreen faculty member Alice Nelson next took the stage to share a few words about the history of José Gómez Farmworker Justice Day and about José Gómez himself. Alice shared with us a clip from his commencement address, graduation 2006.
“At the end of each day’s work, I had to fix the milk cows for the pasture two miles away, walking that distance every evening gave me a lot of time to think. I thought about how hard our life was, and how unfair that we had to work so much, for so little. My thoughts would turn into words. And my words turned to oral manifestos of rage and indignation…And now, a half century later, I can still feel, smell, and taste those days of oppression as if they were only yesterday. And here I am finally, on a stage with an attentive audience at this institution of higher learning, I never dreamed back then this moment would be within my reach, and I hope that my words of rage and indignation today do not startle, confuse, or amuse you. Rather, I hope that you see a connection between my experiences, and the advice that I would share with you as you now venture forth with diplomas in hand, hopefully to do good in the world.”
Following the opening ceremony, guest speakers Lucy López, Australia Tobón, and Senaida Perez Villegas from local food justice organization Community to Community (C2C) and Edgar Franks from the independent farmworker union Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ) were introduced. After presenting briefly on their respective mission statements and histories the speakers moved into a panel mediated by Prita Lal.
From 2 to 4pm a workshop was held in Purce Hall 3 led by Roxana Pardo Garcia via zoom. Roxana is a self-described “Hood Intellectual Xingona” and founder of La Roxay Productions, a consulting agency “that approaches community work through a healing justice framework”, as well as the co-founder and executive director of Alimentando al Pueblo—the only Latinx foodbank in the nation. Roxana presented De Theory a Acción; “a workshop that guides the audience through 8 reflections that are rooted in Roxana’s experience transitioning from the hood to college, and back to the hood.”
Roxana touches on the topics of White Supremacy, Legacies and Colonialism and the different ways it affects people of color. From the perspective of a first-generation college student and bringing these ideas, thoughts and frustrations home, Roxana asked attendees to reflect on ways to put these thoughts into action for ourselves and our community; “We must build the community we desire and deserve.”
I return to Kara Briggs’ closing statements of her speech at the opening ceremony, the impact of them still resonating within me as I write this article.
“I am lastly reminded of May, 1991, when my Yakama grandmother Atwai Ermina Goudy Edsall passed at age 85. I remember as the hearse traveled across the Yakama Nation, the 30 miles from Toppenish to our family cemetery in White Swan, and as the hearse passed the fields where farm workers were tying up hops, the men stopped their work, took off their hats, put their hands on their hearts and stood solemnly by the side of the road as we passed. My uncle said, they, like us, are Native peoples, they share many values with us as Native peoples from these lands across this hemisphere.
“This is probably the last time I will be speaking with you as Vice President at this college, it has been my honor to be with you, and to hopefully say some words to elevate the relations of the Indigenous peoples of North and South America.”
Kara’s words, and the words shared by all our speakers throughout the day, are a reminder of the power that can be wielded when we stand together in solidarity and compassion while striving towards liberation.
