Gatherings at the Crossroads:
Abya Yala & Activism

This event is organized by Five Colleges, Inc. and Five College NAIS faculty and is made possible with Mellon Foundation funds.
It is free and open to the public. The Symposium is an in-person event only.

Located in the Kwinitekw Valley, the Five College Consortium is composed of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke
and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Abya Yala

Abya Yala refers to the continent of the Americas in the language of Kuna/Guna peoples. It can be translated as “land in its full maturity” or “land of vital blood.” The concept emerged toward the end of the 1970s in the Kuna territory of Dulenega, Panama, when Kuna activists won a lawsuit to stop the construction of a shopping mall: they employed the term Abya Yala to refer to the American continent in its totality. As Kiche' Maya scholar Emil' Keme has relayed, when influential Iymara leader Takir Mamani met with Kuna authorities, they told him,“Everyone uses the name of America for our continent, but we hold the true name Abya Yala,” a message they asked him to share. Along with others, Mamani “spread the message in various gatherings and international forums, asking Indigenous representatives and organizations that instead of using the names of ‘America’ or ‘Latin America’ they use Abiayala to refer to the continent in their official declarations.” 

Since the 1980s, Indigenous movements increasingly refer to the Americas as Abya Yala, enacting an Indigenous locus of cultural and political expression to decolonize epistemologies. Emil’ Keme has recently proposed “Abiayala as a transhemispheric Indigenous bridge” which can foster dialogues that “could potentially lead us to develop” and renew “political alliances.” In this symposium, we are gathering together activists/writers/scholars from Indigenous homelands in the Northeast with those from across Abya Yala to foster dialogue and potentially, create alliances. Abya Yala represents the many crossroads that connect the Indigenous peoples of the continent, including the Connecticut River Valley.

^{Emil’ keme: “Arech kak’asi’k le Abiayala rajawaxik ne kakam le Americas. Utzukuxik jun ajwaralikil winaq chi kab’e chi naj / Para que Abiayala viva, las Américas deben morir. Hacia una Indigeneidad transhemisférica / For Abiayala to Live, The Americas Must Die. Toward a Trans-Hemispheric Indigeneity.” Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal 5:1 (2018)}

Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies Symposium 

Gatherings at the Crossroads: Abya Yala & Activism

Thursday and Friday, October 12 & 13 

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Thursday, Oct. 12 

5pm: Cookout at Book and Plow Farm | Pampa mesa (potluck) with Corn Roast and Cheese Bar, followed by a Reading in the new Pavilion by Native Creative Writers, including:

• Carlos Flores Quispe
• Madeleine Hutchins
• Irma Álvarez Ccoscco
• Rosa Chávez
• Heid Erdrich

Friday, Oct. 13

9am-4:15pm: Symposium Activities at Amherst College Powerhouse 

Featured speakers include: 

• Troy Phillips
• Linda Coombs
• Emil' Keme
• Chimaway Lopez
• Kohar Avakian
• Carlos Flores Quispe
• Rosa Chávez 
• Kahente Horn-Miller
• Natali Segovia

4:30pm:  Boundless Exhibit Tour by Mead Art Museum Guest Curator Heid Erdrich and Reception at the Mead Art Museum

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Additional information and Registration is available on the FCI website. This event is free and open to all. Registration is required.

The NAIS Symposium is made possible with funds from The Mellon Foundation.

For questions, feel free to contact Bea Cusin at bcusin@fivecolleges.edu.