Sophia Holstrom and David Turney
Recorded
September 6, 2023
Archived
September 6, 2023
40:40 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
mby023082
Description
Sophia Holstrom (24) interviews her grandfather David "Napos" Turney (69) about his work teaching Menominee history, culture, and language. Napos talks about teaching at University of Wisconsin - Green Bay (UWGB) and Sophia talks about later attending UWGB as a student.Subject Log / Time Code
David "Napos" Turney (N) describes all the tribes that used to lived on the land University of Wisconsin - Green Bay (UWGB) is built on. N details the history of the land: the importance of the Fox River, how the town got the name Green Bay, and more.
Sophia Holstrom (S) describes what it means to her to be attending school at UWGB. S says she wanted to be close to home and to family. S says her grandfather and mother also attended UWGB.
N details his journey in education and his path to teaching Menominee history and culture at UWGB.
S and N discuss elder hour sessions at UWGB. N says it meant a lot to him to be one of the first elders to be working with students. S says she was excited when she learned about elder hour sessions because she loves to learn about different cultures.
N explains how he got the opportunity to teach in the Green Bay area public schools. N says working with the school district opened up many opportunities for him, including the opportunity to teach Menominee language to students.
S talks about the importance of learning one's own language. S says it helps you build a sense of identity and feel closer to one's culture.
S says she gets to excited to tell people that her grandfather taught at UWGB and helps people get excited about learning their own languages. She says she is blessed that her grandfather is very involved with Menominee culture and gave her a Menominee name.
S says she was very shy before attending UWGB. She adds that she met her lifelong best friend at First Nations Studies Center at UWGB and lives with her now.
S says it's nice to know that her grandfather also did not know what he wanted to do when he was her age.
S reflects on what it was like being having her grandfather and other elders as a part of her upbringing.
Participants
- Sophia Holstrom
- David Turney