fy24 annual report - Flipbook - Page 21
Symposium on Voting Rights:
Our Past, Our Present, Our Future
This symposium convened a diverse and influential gathering of political leaders, voting
rights scholars, thought leaders, students, and
community members to engage in meaningful
conversations about the state of voting rights
in Minnesota. The subsequent table discussions
tackled the challenges our democracy currently faces and explored critical issues like
ranked choice voting, campaign finance,
redistricting, countering disinformation, and
democratic participation.
We Are Water MN
Generously supported by the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency, this traveling exhibit
focuses on strengthening Minnesota residents’
relationships with water and invites the curation
of new perspectives and engagement in water
stewardship initiatives.
Communities who host the exhibits design
a unique educational experience, centered
around their own local water issues. Visitors
examine these issues - and how to resolve
them - through the sharing of personal stories,
histories, and scientific information.
Why Treaties Matter:
Self-Government in the
Dakota and Ojibwe Nations.
What’s Next for Voting?
Still Marching Toward
the Mountaintop
Why Treaties Matter: Self-Government in the
Dakota and Ojibwe Nations began when the
11 federally recognized tribes located in
Minnesota approved a partnership between
the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, MHC,
and the Smithsonian’s National Museum
of the American Indian. The exhibit visually
explores relationships between Dakota and
Ojibwe Indian Nations and the U.S. government
in this place we now call Minnesota.
In collaboration with the University of Minnesota’s
College of Liberal Arts (CLA), we were proud
to co-organize and co-facilitate “What’s Next for
Voting? Still Marching Toward the Mountaintop”.
This event convened university students, faculty,
staff, and guests from across the metro area to
reflect on the history of voting policy and
culture since the 1963 March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom.
Since its inception, the knowledge, insight,
and the perspective of tribal members have
been the exhibit’s foundation. Dakota and
Ojibwe individuals and communities tell their
own stories of sovereignty, adaptability, and
sustainability. We learn how treaties affected
the lands and lifeways of the Indigenous
peoples of this place, and why these binding
agreements between nations still matter today.
After a panel discussion, attendees participated
in a working lunch where they considered
and committed to strategies for listening
empathetically across political differences,
combatting misinformation without endangering
relationships, supporting those who may face
physical, logistical, or other barriers to voting, and
working to strengthen our democracy every day
as opposed to only once every four years.
Mandela Washington
Fellows Program
For the second consecutive year, the
University of Minnesota asked MHC to host
a workshop for their 2024 cohort of Mandela
Washington Fellows focused on developments,
themes, challenges, and possibilities of
democracy in the United States.
The Mandela Washington Fellows program,
sponsored by the U.S. Department of State,
brings young professionals from across
Sub-Saharan Africa to the U.S. to obtain an
up-close and critical perspective on American
democracy while learning from one another’s
distinctive political experiences and traditions.
MHC’s role is to present U.S. democracy as a
case study from which a wide range of lessons
can be drawn, prompting the fellows to think
in different ways about the democratic assets
and challenges of their home countries.
Third Way Civics
Third Way Civics (3WC) is an innovative approach
to undergraduate classroom learning, putting
students at the center of the knowledge creation
process with instructors acting as coaches
facilitating development of academic and civic
skills. The information literacy, critical-thinking,
perspective-taking, and collaborative skills
emphasized in 3WC not only improve student
knowledge but also foster the skills that
employers want and our democracy needs.
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