Paparazzi Ethnography

4/28 9AM: I caught up with my PhD advisor, Nelson Graburn, UC Berkeley’s Chair of the Canadian Studies Department and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, who organized a conference for this weekend, titled Aboriginal Self-Governance in Canada, taking place in the Gifford Room, Kroeber Hall.

The event kicked off last night at 6PM sharp, with a duck dinner and familiar faces including Amanda Giles and Alexis Bunten, the latter, a Bristol Bay Alaska Native and Ph.D. in Anthropology.

Alexis just completed a superb article in the recent issue of Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry, titled, A Call for Attention to Indigenous Capitalisms. She even cites my work, which is kind.

Over dinner, Alexis and I discovered that we had developed different views over what Alaska Native Corporations are going to get as a take-away from their re-election efforts on behalf of US Senator Lisa Murkowski (R). As everyone up in Alaska knows, Native corporations funded a write-in campaign for Murkowski after she lost the primary.

Alexis and I were able to to get reacquainted with Alaska heavies, Yup’ik leader Roy Huhndorf and his daughter, Dr. Shari Huhndorf, the latter now a UC Berkeley professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies, seen in the photo on the right.

At some point in the evening Nelson Graburn took to the bullypit providing an overview of the conference as well as reminding us all that government funds for research are an important part of keeping academic activities moving forward, and that we all need to take special note of who supports such funding when we vote in the next election.




I am going to refer to Nelson here and with all respect, as Daddy Cool, in memory of Boney M.‘s lead singer Bobby Farrell, that twist-master who every one adored from the 1980’s songs Rasputin and Daddy Cool.

In fact, the connection between the two men could not be more close —  both have lust for life and have a way of stirring excitement among those enviables who are lucky enough to grace their presence. Here is a poster for the day’s events, and shot of Bobby.

Curiously. I had not thought about Boney M. for ages until, one late evening, last summer in Akureyri, Iceland, while hanging out with Hjördís Guðmundsdottir, from the Akureyri Institute, at her house party, she broke out the Boney M. records. We started out earlier that evening as a group of revelers in a pub purchasing beer buckets. Here are a few photos:

Returning to Berkeley, Michele Hale, Arizona State U, Center for Indian Studies, is now talking, in the last session of the day about Navajo governance and self-determination during the 1970s, how that has led to what she calls devolution, an increase of active participation by the Navajo over what was previously federal control. This has lead to a large Navajo bureaucracy of 6000 employees with plenty levels of administration, now looking for reform because of ineffective services to communities.

And here, she refers to even greater devolution, from the central Navajo government to the even more local, whatever that is– and so I am waiting with bated breath on what the local-local looks like. This is because of lapses in ethics by leaders involved at higher levels. The phrase in play is Local Empowerment, (allows chapters to put the self in self-government), emphasizing participatory governance and citizen decision making.

Here they are, M. Hale, R. Huhndorf, A. Bunten, S. Hunhdorf:

Roy Huhndorf is now up talking about Alaska Native governance after the Alaska Statehood, when Alaska Federation of Natives was set up to counter land transfers by the federal government to the state, when at that moment, oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay, which opened up aboriginal title rights and halted the development of pipeline construction, which then led oil companies to lobby Congress to establish the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act of 1971.

Alexis Bunten opens now talking about comparative legal frameworks on indigenous governance and so on.

It was good to check in with the folks from my old stomping ground, Kroeber Hall. We will see them again next time!