Staff Writer- Jacob Erlandson
“You will have never been to anything like this before,” Professor of Geology, and Member of the Storytelling and Sensemaking Circle (SaSC) Laura Triplett ensured.
SaSC is a group of faculty, students, and Dakota community members dedicated to retelling the storied existence of Gustavus Adolphus College, the greater St. Peter community, and the local Dakota community in ways that accurately reflect our complex, sometimes dark, and ever evolving shared history.
“The symposium is the final culminating event that brings together all of this, we share what we’ve learned, and we have a discussion… It’s what it means to be a good relative, from the Dakota Perspective,” Thorstensson, McKnight, Nordstrom Endowed Chair, Professor of Scandinavian Studies, and Co-Founder of the SaSC at Gustavus Ursula Lindqvist said.
The Storytelling and Sensemaking Symposium is an event focusing on the culmination of two years of continued effort by Lindqvist and the Gustavus SaSC. The event—taking place from 9 AM to 2 PM on Saturday, November 7th, in Alumni Hall—is more than a lecture, it is meant to be a multifaceted experience of learning, storytelling, and sharing culture.
The event expects to be able to accommodate a small number of walk-ins, but Lindqvist urges students to sign up via a QR code found on one of the many posters around campus. This better coordinates seating and food (yes, there will be free food.)
“For Students who want to understand what justice looks like, this is going to be it,” emphasized Triplett. The Symposium in partnership with our Dakota Elders and relatives is meant to spread the work that has been going on between the Dakota community and the college to not only students but the community.
“The intended audience for this work is not just the school, but also introducing members of the local communities and might not know the history… it’s opening up to everyone being involved in this communication… A lot of times we don’t admit how ingrained indigenous relations are in our culture,” Senior Natasha Grad said. Grad is working with Lindqvist in coordinating the event planning for the symposium.
“There’s a hunger to learn more because this story has been silenced for so many years, and now is a timely moment to have this conversation,” Lindqvist said.
She and other members of the SaSC have been working for two years to rationalize the history of our communities, but this was not the beginning of Lindqvist’s and the college’s work on indigenous relations. Lindqvist describes working on the President’s Council for Indigenous Relations since its beginnings in 2021.
“When I started doing this indigenous relations work, the college had no idea who to reach out to. We’ve since then started a Dakota Elder in Residence program,” Lindqvist said.
She further stressed how far the college has come and how much interest she has been seeing in the community. “It’s a very human thing to sit together and talk and eat,” Triplett said. This is of course because there will be food.
“I don’t want to say, the best reason is the food… but that is a huge piece of it,” Grad said. This is more than just a potluck, as Grad, Lindqvist, and Triplett all made sure to emphasize how important the shared meal is.
“One thing we’ve really learned, Dakota people expect there to be generous meals when you’re having deep and difficult conversations, and of course for celebrations,” Lindqvist said. She emphasizes that the symposium is very much meant to be all of these things.
“It is a day spent putting yourself in that culture, which is really the best way to learn about something,” Grad said.
Grad, Lindqvist, and Triplett all expressed their excitement for the symposium, and said that the event has brought them countless opportunities to learn and grow. They emphasized the importance of sharing that learning with the school community and Saint Peter at-large. Our shared history is long, complicated, dark, and endlessly fascinating, but most importantly, it is something that deserves to be acknowledged.