Lesley Art + Design’s Community Design Studio invites you to a conversation with Heidi Brandow, Zoë Toledo, and Jaz Bonnin, Co-founders of the Harvard Indigenous Design Collective, about the larger implications of the Massachusetts state flag, seal, and motto. The Harvard Indigenous Design Collective (HIDC) is a group at the Graduate School of Design that “promotes design by and for Indigenous communities as foundational to the history, theory, and practice of design fields.” Heidi Brando is Navajo and Native Hawaiian. She earned her M.Des in the Art, Design, and Public Domain program with a focus that includes industrial design and Turkish language. Zoë Toledo is Diné / Navajo, earning a M.Arch with a focus on “nontraditional ways of building.” Jaz Bonnin is Yankton Sioux and Blackfoot, graduating from the M.Des program with a focus on conservation and preservation.  Recorded on April 1, 2021.

Lesley Art + Design’s Community Design Studio invites you to a conversation with Councilman Jonathan James Perry about the larger implications of the Massachusetts state flag, seal, and motto. Jonathan James Perry is an Aquinnah Wampanoag culture bearer, leader, historian, artist, and professional speaker. He is grounded in the traditions of his ocean-going ancestors. His material work embodies the refined quality of that of his ancestors, while still drawing upon his experience in a contemporary society. He is currently serving his fifth, three-year term as Councilman for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head / Aquinnah, and works diligently to enforce and uphold the sovereignty of his tribal nation as well as to maintain cultural continuance among his tribal citizens. He has over fifteen years of experience working within the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, with the responsibility of protecting and preserving cultural sites of significance throughout southern New England. He currently works for the Elders Council at the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation to ensure cultural continuity and preservation within the community. He has over twenty years of experience in the research and historical interpretation of Eastern Woodlands Native culture and art. He has worked with various non-profit and tribal organizations in exhibit design and cultural consultation based on traditional Wampanoag knowledge, symbolism, and values.  Councilman James Perry was most recently awarded the 2017 First People’s Fund Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award for his work in reviving Wampanoag maritime traditions. Recorded on April 20, 2021.

Lesley Art + Design’s Community Design Studio invites you to a conversation with Jennifer Himmelreich about the larger implications of the Massachusetts state flag, seal, and motto. Jennifer Himmelreich is Diné / Navajo. With a Masters of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and an undergraduate degree from Fort Lewis College, Himmelreich helps Indigenous communities design and manage information centers that reflect their unique cultural knowledge systems. Studying issues of indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, she comments, “I researched the stories each community wanted to tell and reflected on how each institution sought to realize those unique needs.” She has worked as the Native American Artist Files Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and is the former Co-Director of the Native American Fellowship at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. The Native American Fellowship is a leadership incubator for rising Indigenous scholars and cultural heritage professionals across the United States and Canada. Recorded on April 13, 2021.

Lesley Art + Design’s Community Design Studio invites you to a conversation with Jean-Luc Pierite and co-hosts Madeline Meyer and Jess Stevens about the Massachusetts state flag, seal, and motto. This introductory discussion also explores themes of education, mascots, and what it really means to have a seat at the table. To familiarize yourself with the Massachusetts state flag, this graphic from Change the Mass Flag is a great place to start: https://tinyurl.com/mass-flag Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Jean-Luc now resides in Jamaica Plain. Prior to his election to the North American Indian Center of Boston Board of Directors, Jean-Luc was also elected to the Community Linguist seat of the Advisory Circle for CoLang for the period 2016-20. The Institute on Collaborative Language Research or "CoLang" is designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization. Currently, Jean-Luc volunteers with his Tribe's Language and Culture Revitalization Program which is a collaboration with Tulane University in New Orleans. This program is based on tradition passed from Jean-Luc's great-grandfather Joseph Alcide Pierite, Sr., last traditional chief and medicine man of the Tunica-Biloxi. The Tribe is an amalgamation of members from the Central Louisiana communities of: Tunica, Biloxi-Choctaw, Ofo, and Avoyel. Jean-Luc is currently a student in the Master in Design for Emergent Futures at the Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya. Jean-Luc has a B.A. in Humanities with a co-major in Mass Communication and Japanese from Dillard University in New Orleans. He also earned an A.S. in Video Game Design from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Recorded on February 2, 2021. Learn more about NAICOB at: http://www.naicob.org/ https://www.instagram.com/naicob91/ https://twitter.com/naicob91 https://www.facebook.com/NAICOB Jean-Luc Pierite’s project site: https://indigifab.org/

Beyond the Flag is presented by Lesley University College of Art + Design's Community Design Studio, located on the ancestral homelands and traditional territory of the Massachusett people: Cambridge, Massachusetts. Join Madeline Meyer and Jess Stevens in conversations with some extraordinary Indigenous political and cultural leaders about the Massachusetts state flag and seal. A very special thank you to all of our advisors, as well as Katherine Shozawa, Rick Rawlins, Heather Shaw, and Michael Coleman.