This is New Hampshire: Exploring Diversity in the Granite State
By Nour Habib, Granite State News Collaborative Engagement Reporter
Good afternoon!
This month marks one year since the Collaborative embarked on its race and equity reporting project. In the last year, we have published numerous in-depth stories and series on issues relating to education, policing, environmental justice and civic engagement, and how certain policies or practices within these areas impact people of color and create or reinforce inequities. Much of our reporting has also looked at the solutions that communities are trying to address such inequities, and whether these solutions are working.
We've also launched The Common Ground Initiative, a podcast and column series that highlights the diversity of our communities with stories of people the average Granite Stater might not get to see or meet. The Collaborative also partnered with student journalists to explore diversity on New Hampshire's college campuses. Additionally, we held several listening sessions during the last year to hear directly from people of color about the issues most important to them, and their concerns about media coverage of their communities.
Our work continues this year, with the latest story in our Invisible Walls series exploring why many refugees are funneled into a few Manchester neighborhoods, generally with poor living conditions and little support. And the latest in our education series looks at leveling, a school practice that places students in different academic levels based on past performance. The practice has been criticized for harming students of color, and some NH schools are now shifting away from it in pursuit of equity.
We at the Collaborative would like to say thank you for your continued reading, listening and engagement in our projects. And thanks to the many of you who have donated to the Collaborative to help us continue our reporting efforts on some of the most important issues facing our state today!
If there is anything you'd like to see us examine this year, please email me at nour.habib@collaborativenh.org, or contact Collaborative Director Melanie Plenda at melanie.plenda@collaborativenh.org.
Partner shout out
Our partners at Manchester Ink Link have launched a new, occasional series called New in New Hampshire, highlighting the personal stories of immigrants in New Hampshire and the Granite Staters involved in their resettlement and success.
The first story in the series profiles the Rev. Sandra Pontoh, founder and pastor of the Maranatha Indonesian UCC Church in Madbury. Read it here.
Three Questions with Anne Jennison
Anne Jennison is a Native American storyteller, historian and educator.
"What draws me to storytelling is the exchange of ideas and energy that occurs when I share stories with audiences," Jennison said of her storytelling work. "I provide the words and actions of the story, but my listeners provide the images that they see in their mind’s eye as they hear the stories I’m telling. Each person envisions the story in relation to their own life experiences, so a rich tapestry of shared imagination is woven with each story that’s told."
Jennison has also been a member of the NH Commission on Native American Affairs for two years, serving as chair for the last year.
"The work of the Commission is far-ranging and includes very necessary public education about the Indigenous people of many tribes who live and work in New Hampshire today – constantly teaching people that there are contemporary Native American people who are their fellow New Hampshire citizens: their neighbors, coworkers, teachers, medical professionals, business people, first-responders, etc. who live here and now, not in some distant past," she said.
Below, she shares more about her storytelling, her work in education and her Native identity. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
1. Tell me about your work in storytelling, and who your favorite audience is.
The traditional Indigenous Northeast stories that I tell are meant for the whole community. Although I often draw audiences of interested adults of all ages, I love it when there are whole multi-age family groups in the audience as well. The stories create a shared memory and a reference point between generations in a family when they all hear the stories together. This is the way Indigenous storytelling in the Northeast has always been done – all ages together. The stories are meant to be entertaining so they are filled with drama, humor, and moments of wonder, but they are also lesson stories that carry within them the information people need to know about the world around us – and how to live in balance with one another as a community as well as in balance with Mother Earth – and always thinking about the generations that will follow after us. The stories teach us to look back seven generations to learn from the wisdom of our ancestors and also to think forward to how our actions today will affect our descendants over the next seven generations. The stories remind us that we, ourselves, are only a part of a long unfurling story and that we need to always think about the whole story, not just our part in it.
2. As a social studies teacher for several years, what were your thoughts on the social studies curriculum during your time in education?
While I enjoyed teaching history and civics, it troubled me greatly that right up to the time I retired from teaching social studies in a New Hampshire public school system in 2015, the curriculum we were forced to teach, due to state and federal mandates, was basically Western Civilization, meaning that we were teaching primarily United States history from the perspective of, first, its European imperialist colonizers and, later, its American “Manifest destiny” ideals that rode roughshod over people of color and all women. The accomplishments and contributions of Black Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and women from all groups were seldom taught. I wrote proposals for a Native Studies Course and a Cultural Anthropology course, which I got to teach for two years, but then federal and state education guidelines changed once again – and those courses went by the wayside as there was no way to fit them into the new curriculum mandates, which became narrower and narrower.
3. How has the decision to publicly identify as a native person impacted you?
It was just kind of a relief to be able to express that part of me out loud. It didn’t change who I am or how I think or behave except that it caused me to go back to school to learn more about the Indigenous part of my heritage and how those ancestors interacted with my colonial ancestors. It’s interesting to me that people in general seem to assume that if you have Native American ancestry that you must be an expert on all things Native American/First Nations. However, no one asks me about or expects me to know anything about my English, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Swedish and Northern European ancestors (although I do!). Hmmm. What does that say about how Native Americans are still viewed as “other” on their own lands?
BONUS: Jennison recommended the following resources for those interested in learning more about the history of Native people in this region
Books:
The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast (Indigenous Americas), 2008, by Lisa Brooks
Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War, 2018, by Lisa Brooks
The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People, 1994, by Colin Calloway
The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America, 1994, by Colin Calloway
After King Philip’s War: Presence and Persistence in Indian New England, editor, 1997, by Colin Calloway
The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation, 2018, by Colin Calloway
Websites:
Abbe Museum
Atowi Project
Bounty – The Upstander Project: Film & Teachers’ Guide
Cowasuck Band of the Penacook Abenaki People
Indigenous NH Collaborative Collective - INHCC
Wabanaki Reach
Thanks for reading! See you next month. -- Nour
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ABOUT THE GRANITE STATE NEWS COLLABORATIVE
The Granite State News Collaborative is a collective of about 20 local media, education and community partners working together to produce and share news stories on the issues that most impact our state. Together we can provide more information to more communities across New Hampshire than we could individually.