nativedancer12
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? We are in CA.
Our native american (tribe unrecognized) dance/cultural diffusion group was the resident dance group at a cultural center for roughly five years, since its grand opening. Our elder had even taken part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the center, in which he presented an offering, etc.
We used to hold practice dance ceremonies, which are highly regarded as sacred; as soon as we begin, we say a prayer, invoke the four directions and "close" the circle and do not open it up until we are usually done.
Often times our ceremonies would bring attention to passers-by, due to the loud drumming, which was fine. We always welcome "spectatorship," so as long as they respect the circle in the same manner as he or she would when entering a church or synagogue.
One afternoon, a white woman and her daughter came around, our circle had already closed (we usually don't talk to folks on the outside -- the circle is "closed", standard NA ceremonial protocol) when she wanted her daughter to come in and dance. The elder, trying to avoid a conversation then because of the seriousness of our ceremonies, told her briefly to wait until we were through. The woman got upset, the daughter (I believe) she began to cry, and they stormed out of the area.
She then wrote a letter to the exec director of the center (being new herself, only a few months at that time) ranting about her "experience" on the basis of racism.
This same exec director in response, desecrated a later ceremony (by walking into our closed circle), with guards standing by at three entrances, and had us leave, including the elder.
The elder had previously tried to explain himself, though since they were both of the same ethnicity, it was believed she would have understood such sacred protocol. Apparently not.
Do we have any recourse? Thanks in advance for any insight.
Our native american (tribe unrecognized) dance/cultural diffusion group was the resident dance group at a cultural center for roughly five years, since its grand opening. Our elder had even taken part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the center, in which he presented an offering, etc.
We used to hold practice dance ceremonies, which are highly regarded as sacred; as soon as we begin, we say a prayer, invoke the four directions and "close" the circle and do not open it up until we are usually done.
Often times our ceremonies would bring attention to passers-by, due to the loud drumming, which was fine. We always welcome "spectatorship," so as long as they respect the circle in the same manner as he or she would when entering a church or synagogue.
One afternoon, a white woman and her daughter came around, our circle had already closed (we usually don't talk to folks on the outside -- the circle is "closed", standard NA ceremonial protocol) when she wanted her daughter to come in and dance. The elder, trying to avoid a conversation then because of the seriousness of our ceremonies, told her briefly to wait until we were through. The woman got upset, the daughter (I believe) she began to cry, and they stormed out of the area.
She then wrote a letter to the exec director of the center (being new herself, only a few months at that time) ranting about her "experience" on the basis of racism.
This same exec director in response, desecrated a later ceremony (by walking into our closed circle), with guards standing by at three entrances, and had us leave, including the elder.
The elder had previously tried to explain himself, though since they were both of the same ethnicity, it was believed she would have understood such sacred protocol. Apparently not.
Do we have any recourse? Thanks in advance for any insight.