HSESI Scholar Series: Hope, Healing and the Warrior Women Project - A discussion with Dr. Elizabeth Castle

Hope, Healing and the Warrior Women Project - A Discussion with Dr. Elizabeth Castle

Hope, Healing and the Warrior Women Project - A discussion with Dr. Elizabeth Castle

Event Description

On January 30th, 2023 the High School Ethnic Studies Initiative (HSESI), held "Hope, Healing and the Warrior Women Project - A discussion with Dr. Elizabeth Castle”. This event took place at the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley and was a part of the HSESI Scholars Series. The series hosts panel discussions year-round aimed at supporting California high school Ethnic Studies educators.

Filmmaker and scholar Dr. Castle shared her experiences with The Warrior Women Project (which she founded in 2006), and how it honors the legacies of Native Women activists. She shared insights on incorporating the narratives of Wounded Knee activists, and oral histories more generally, into today’s academic landscape, especially into Ethnic Studies courses.

Panel

Panelist: Dr. Elizabeth “Beth” A. Castle, Community Scholar and Filmmaker, The Warrior Women Project

Moderator: Dr. Victoria Robinson, Faculty, Department of Ethnic Studies, and Director, The American Cultures Center, UC Berkeley

Transforming and Expanding Historical Narratives

Dr. Castle discusses the importance of Ethnic Studies as a field that prioritizes the voices of those who have been oppressed and with the potential to transform the traditional historical narrative into one that is more truthful and includes the perspectives of all peoples.

(00:29) Ethnic Studies is a liberatory model that keeps and maintains social justice at the center, and this practice of history is healing.
(00:30) Ethnic Studies opens up the space that history flattens and erases.
(01:02) The whole goal of the Warrior Women Project and Ethnic Studies is to ask what is the best way we can tell the history of the Occupation of Wounded Knee and its truth and ensure that the values and lessons of this history moves people and changes the master narrative.

Teaching and Creating History

Dr. Castle talks about how history can be created through our own stories. She also advises that when teaching history it is important to be truthful and avoid falling into a master narrative, which often ignores or suppresses certain histories.

(01:22) Scholars have to start sharing how ideas of matriarchy, for example, got co-created over time and how Ethnic Studies educators can reconnect to them. It’s super important that matriarchy isn’t understood only in a white anthropological sense.
(00:42) Allowing people to tell their own history is a very healing experience over time. Having interviewed people over several decades, it is clear that allowing people to share their stories has helped to heal their traumas.

Designing Content and Using Resources

Dr. Castle highlights the importance of using storytelling as a teaching tool, emphasizing that storytelling should be held at the same level of validity and importance as archival documents. She also advises teaching outside of one’s expertise or comfort level, as doing so allows students to be exposed to histories that they may not have heard before.

(00:58) The Warrior Women Project is looking to make sure these archival documents highlighting the solidarity between Indigenous Peoples and Palestinians actively become a part of the tools that teachers can use in ways where they don’t have to necessarily contend with the idea that it's a story. Even though there is an understanding that stories carry history, oral histories can still be undermined in certain ways that an archival document that’s been ethically researched is not.
(01:17) For people who are apprehensive about working outside of their comfort zones or teaching stories that are not theirs, the most instructive thing for me is that rarely the concerns are about my background, the concerns have always been that I’ve done my homework and I had the means of demonstrating that.

Creating Space for Indigenous Voices

Dr. Castle highlights that doing research about the history and culture of different Indigenous Peoples is an important part of creating space for Indigenous voices. Furthermore, she recommends that allowing people to tell their stories requires active listening, engagement, and transparency.

(00:41) Allowing space for, listening, and demonstrating that you have done the extra homework that it takes to understand the historical and cultural framework of someone’s story. Which does take extra work, because that content is not available.
(01:11) Instead of a traditional method of interviewing where you build a story from what someone is telling you. You should open the space for someone to share their story. The actual process needs to be really transparent, that you are listening, that your emotions don’t overcome the space.

By focusing on women, [The Warrior Women Project] has not only opened the eyes of the world to our reality and to our power. But also has forged a path for others

Marcella Gilbert

The Warrior Women Film

“Famed Indigenous activist Madonna Thunder Hawk and her daughter Marcella are highlighted in this uplifting documentary about an indomitable spirit undeterred by age or government apathy. From the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM) to the Wounded Knee incident of 1973, and most recently the North Dakota Access Pipeline protest, WARRIOR WOMEN rekindles the memories and long-standing legacy of the Red Power movement's matriarchs.” By integrating this documentary into their curriculum, Ethnic Studies educators can offer students a nuanced understanding of U.S. history from the perspective of Indigenous women, underscoring the importance of female leadership, especially elders, in activism and the struggle for justice. This project challenges traditional narratives that foster a more inclusive historical understanding, from Wounded Knee to the North Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

The Warrior Women Project Introduction Video

The Warrior Women Project uses oral histories from women who witnessed the Occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. This video also discusses the value of using interviews to learn about hidden histories. In this video, Dr. Castle and other activists discuss how these oral histories focusing on women are valuable tools for Ethnic Studies instructors because they reveal the historical impact of Indigenous women and therefore create a more comprehensive narrative.

The Warrior Women Project, Oral History Association 2023

“Excerpts from The Warrior Women Project team panel at the OHA conference in Baltimore, October 2023.” These videos showcase the importance of oral histories as an essential tool for understanding recent historical events and processes. Videos in this playlist also discuss the methodology of the 'Honoring the Women of Wounded Knee' exhibit, and expanding the project sustainably.

The Warrior Women Project, 50th Anniversary of Wounded Knee

This playlist features highlights of the events and the exhibit held for the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Wounded Knee. Visitors learn first-hand from women who were on the ground during the occupation and organizing behind the scenes. The exhibit includes life-size banners, photographs, and oral histories, creating intimate, immersive learning experiences.

The Warrior Women Project Traveling Exhibit

The Warrior Women Project's traveling exhibit page for the 50th Anniversary of Wounded Knee traveling exhibit offers a different approach to understanding the events of Wounded Knee ‘73 and includes booking information for the exhibit. These stories are brought to the forefront through this exhibit, sharing histories that recount and honor the experiences, struggles, and resilience of these women. Community knowledge becomes part of living history offering diverse voices and understandings to replace singular narratives.

The Warrior Women Project Educator Sign-Ups

This page is for educators interested in using the ‘Honoring the Women of Wounded Knee’ traveling exhibit in curriculum development. As we develop more learning tools from our vast content of oral history and archival media materials, we will make them available to those who SIGN UP to receive updates from the Warrior Women Project.

Solidarity & Wounded Knee Legal Defense / Offense Committee: Storytelling as Honoring

Marcella Gilbert, Madonna Thunder Hawk, and the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLD/OC) team on the 50th Anniversary of Wounded Knee recount memories of solidarity during the Occupation of Wounded Knee. Thunder Hawk describes how the collective action and solidarity of the WKLD/OC prevented over 380 cases from going to trial.

Honoring the Women of Wounded Knee | 1975 Letter from the Palestine Liberation Organization to WKLD/OC

The Warrior Women Project team shares a letter of solidarity and support from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the WKLD/OC at the Oral History Association in Baltimore in 2023. This resource highlights international solidarity activism at Wounded Knee.

Bancroft Library Social Protest Archive

The Bancroft Library guide to the Social Protest Archive materials introduces politicians, activists, organizations, posters, art, photographs, and oral histories relating to protests, politics, and campus life at UC Berkeley. The Bancroft Library Social Protest Archive can be used by Ethnic Studies instructors to find information and teach about the history of political activism and social movements in the Bay Area.

Indian International Treaty Council

The Indian International Treaty Council (IITC) supports the struggles of Indigenous Peoples through education, coalition building, advocacy, training, and technical assistance. The IITC helps Indigenous communities use international human rights to defend themselves against threats and violations by countries and corporations. IITC also shares opportunities for engagement, builds awareness, and generates support for Indigenous Peoples.

Water Protectors Community Oral History Project

“The Water Protectors Community Oral History Project is a community-based project that originated from a common desire to have a space where anyone who participated in the resistance movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock from 2016-2017 could have their agency to share their story. As an indigenous-led movement to protect the water of the Missouri River from the oil pipeline, thousands of “Water Protectors” from around the world came in peace and prayer to “Stand with Standing Rock” against the Energy Transfer Partners Company.”

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Official text of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In the aftermath of Wounded Knee, it was clear that countries would not give Indigenous communities their legal rights. In response, Indigenous communities advocated for their rights on the international stage. The formulation of this document was the first time that Indigenous peoples of the Americas went to the United Nations to insist on recognition of their rights.