[Tyler Walters, Dean of Libraries] We have a wonderful traveling exhibit that we've
been able to procure here for Virginia Tech. It's titled Native Voices, Native
Peoples: Concepts of Health and Wellness. This was an exhibit that was
put together and had been hosted by the National Library of Medicine from 2011
to 2015 and it's now a traveling exhibit so they worked with the American Library
Association as some of you may know to make this a traveling exhibit throughout
the country. It's going to exhibit for several years going forward. There has
been a competition to host this wonderful exhibit and we've been one of
those fortunate. We're one of a hundred institutions and I just learned we're
only one of two in Virginia that are actually hosting this. We will have it
here till October 26. It's very excellent, it's a great to work with ALA
to host materials from the National Library of Medicine. I would
like to thank those who wrote the grant that supports this going forward.
That is Anthony Wright de Hernandez, Sam Winn, Ginny Pannabecker,
Charla Gilbert, and Monena Hall, so we have a quick hand
for the grant writers. Very good.
I would say that this is a very significant
exhibit it's actually kind of one of my favorite topics of my own academic
background. It's important to remember as we look at different cultures and learn
about different peoples and different ways of living, we stop and think about
you know what's core to that. I mean our health and wellness is very important, it
is something that we all think about every day and work toward being healthy
and different cultures have different approaches to these things so
I think it's very important to be focusing on this and the beautiful
exhibit, along with the recordings. If you go to the website I've spent some time
there as well just a lot of good information you kind of feel like you're
getting just getting enveloped into this topic and really paying attention to
how some other native cultures really focus on this topic and take care of
people in their communities. I did want to mention also that there's two other
upcoming events associated with this. There's going to be a panel discussion
on September 20th in the MPR on the first floor in the library from 6:00 to
7:00 p.m. They'll show some of the clips from the
exhibit and discuss it, and on October 10 there's going to be an event that's
Indigenous Peoples Day, so there's going to be a talk and walk, Beyond
1492: What the land has to teach for a sustainable future.
The speaker is going to be Vicki Ferguson and the walk is going to be out
at the Turfgrass Research Center to learn more about the land and
how it informs our health. So thank you for coming and with that I'll turn it
over to our next speaker.
[Ginny Pannabecker] Thank you very much, my name is Ginny Pannabecker
and I'm a health, life science and scholarly communication librarian here at Virginia
Tech. Today I'm standing in on behalf of Dr. Sam Cook, Director of American
Indian Studies here at Virginia Tech and we wanted to express our gratitude to
Dr. Cook for his collaboration and bringing this exhibit here. We had many
people work with us to sponsor this grant, write letters of acknowledgement,
and work towards events, but Dr. Cook has in particular helped us connect with
people to come to our panel discussion and also to arrange the event at the
Turfgrass Research Center on native and sustainable gardening.
A couple highlights from the American Indian studies program research here
include that much of the research by American Indian studies faculty and new
curricula focus on issues of sustainability, ecology, health, and
community capacity building both locally and globally. In one case Professor Nick
Copeland has worked for years with Mayan communities in Guatemala in
examining how party politics restrict local autonomy, and his current work focuses
on food sovereignty and state policies. Also Dr. Cook has been involved in a
study abroad to San Jose de Boque Nicaragua which focuses on renewable energies and community sustainability.
In addition, many people with American Indian Studies
at Virginia Tech and in the community have been involved in developing an
indigenous garden at the Turfgrass Research Center. This was developed in
collaboration with Monacan horticulturalist Victoria Ferguson who
will be speaking on the 10th as we heard earlier. So thank you very much to
Dr. Cook and our additional partners for this exhibit. [applause]
[Sam Winn] On behalf of the University Libraries Diversity Council we want to thank you
for attending this reception and demonstrating your support of inclusive
dynamic programming here in the University Libraries. One of the primary
goals of the Diversity Council is to identify and promote opportunities for
the University Libraries to partner with traditionally marginalized and
underrepresented groups in our community, and in doing so we hope to fulfill our
mission to enable all members of the campus and surrounding community to
cultivate ideas, develop capacities, and create knowledge. As one of only two
Virginia institutions selected to host this exhibit we are deeply honored.
So our thanks go out to the National Library of Medicine for developing this
outstanding resource and the American Library Association for sponsoring the
traveling exhibition. Our ability to bring this exhibition to Virginia Tech
is thanks in no small part to the support of our administration and the
diligent preparation of the University Libraries grant planning team which
again includes project director Anthony Wright de Hernandez and his predecessor
Monena Hall, Ginny Pannabecker, Charla Gilbert and myself.
And we're especially grateful for the assistance of our esteemed
colleagues throughout the University Libraries and in the Department of
American Indian Studies, the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise,
the Intercultural Engagement Center, Virginia Tech Carilion School of
Medicine, and the Moss Arts Center. We look forward to working with campus
stakeholders and community leaders to support additional programming resources
of scholarship here in the Libraries that reflect the rich depth breadth and
intercultural engagement of the Hokie community so thank you once again for
coming to our reception and we invite you to please eat the wonderful goodies
that we have prepared on the back table for you and take some time to engage
with the exhibit. Thank you very much. [Applause]
[Music]