WAUKESHA – The American Indian Cultural Association, a student group at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, has invited a hoop dancer and a poet and writing teacher to make presentations on campus during March. Both are open to the public at no charge.On Thursday, March 23, Thirza Defoe, who is part Oneida and part Ojibwe, will perform a hoop dance at noon on the Hub stage in the UW-Waukesha Commons. The hoops used in this oldest of the Native American sacred dances represent various meanings, including life itself. The dancer creates shapes with the hoops, making eagles and other life forms. The multi colors stand for the many colors of people.Taught the dance by her cousin, Defoe, who is a senior at Pius XI High School in Milwaukee, has been dancing since she was 10 years old. She also does storytelling. Her outfits have been hand-sewn by her mother.On Wednesday, March 29, Native American writer Kimberly M. Blaeser, who teaches at UW-Milwaukee, will do a reading and hold a discussion at 1:00 p.m. in the Commons Conference Room 101.
Of Anishinaabe and German heritage, Blaeser grew up on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota and has spent her professional life articulating her heritage and its significance through literature. She teaches courses in Native American literature, American nature writing, and creative writing and writes poetry and about writing. She has published a book of poetry, Trailing You (1994), a book based on her dissertation, Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition (1996), and a collection, Stories Migrating Home: Anishinaabe Prose (1998), which she edited.
