Join us for a roundtable conversation on the occasion of the exhibition Duane Linklater: mymothersside focusing on Indigenous knowledge and ways of being that inform the artist’s practice. The discussion explores a wide range of topics, including language revitalization, food sovereignty, and ongoing ancestral practices such as basket weaving. Featured speakers are Beth Piatote (Nez Perce), UC Berkeley Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature; Carolyn Smith (Karuk), UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Anthropology; and noted food writer and author Sara Calvosa Olson (Karuk). The event will be introduced and moderated by Victoria Sung, Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator at BAMPFA.

Beth Piatote is Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Departments of Comparative Literature and English. She is a scholar of Native American/indigenous literature and law; a writer of fiction, poetry, plays and essays; and an indigenous language revitalization activist/healer specializing in Nez Perce language and literature. Among her numerous publications are the books Domestic Subjects: Gender, Citizenship, and Law in Native American Literature, and The Beadworkers: Stories.

Carolyn Smith is Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology. A traditional basketweaver and artist as well as scholar, Smith engages with indigenous knowledge to consider how basketry is profoundly intertwined with people, language, and the environment. Current research focuses on the interconnections of the ontology of basketry, museum practice and repatriation.

Sara Calvosa Olson is a noted food writer and author, most recently of the book Chimi Nu’am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen. Her work dwells at the intersection of storytelling, Indigenous food systems, security, sovereignty, reconnection and recipe development. Olson’s writing has appeared in News from Native California and Edible Shasta-Butte.