Harvard Celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day with Rap, Dance, and Arepas

Harvard affiliates and attendees celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day in front of Matthews Hall, decorated with dozens of colorful, hand-crafted signs calling for Indigenous pride and an end to injustice towards Indigenous populations.

The Monday afternoon event, organized by Native Americans at Harvard College and the Harvard University Native American Program, consisted of serving Native foods, reciting poems, dancing traditional Hula dance, and rapping.

Indigenous Peoples Day, formerly known as Columbus Day, was first recognized on Harvard’s calendar in 2017. But the annual celebration in Harvard Yard has happened since the early 2000s, according to NAHC Co-Presidents Lena M. Tinker ’25 and Kira G. Fagerstrom ’24

“Having a space where we’re not just doing education and talking about Columbus and that particular history — where we actually get to bring our Indigenous presence and celebrate our community and celebrate all of our stories in our very diverse community and ways of walking in this world as an Indigenous person — is really special,” Tinker said after the event.

This year’s event featured keynote speaker Amira Madison, who acts as a liaison between Indigenous people and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 in her roles as Supporting Indigenous Communities fellow and Councilwoman for her tribe, Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). During the event, Madison spoke about her experience growing up as an Indigenous person in Massachusetts.

Throughout the entire three-hour event, organizers sold home-cooked Indigenous food in exchange for a donation of choice. This included arepas, a corn dish traditionally from Native communities in Venezuela stuffed with plantains, beans, and cheese. Frybread, berries with cream, and a three sisters stew made with corn, beans, and squash were also served.

“Colonialism took a lot from us, but it didn’t take away our food, thankfully,” Harvard Extension School student Karen S. Medina-Perez said.

Members of NAHC worked together to make the food, which served as a bonding experience for Indigenous students on campus.

“With selling our food, it’s also introducing non-Natives to our culture and allowing them a chance to experience it, and also creating community bonding within our community because all this food is made by NAHC members,” NAHC member Maile J. Din ’27 said.

After the keynote speaker, the open mic began, featuring various speakers sharing art related to their Native heritage.

Ava E. Silva ’27, a member of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe, performed a poem she wrote in high school about not fitting in with a typical Indigenous appearance.

“Society has this idea of what you have to look like to be Indigenous — you have to have a certain skin color, you have to have a certain look about you, and that’s always been really hard for me because I don’t look like that traditional model type,” Silvia said.

Later in the set, Kiani K. Akina ’25 led a performance of a traditional “Kaulana Nā Pua” Hula dance with four other Hawaiian native students. They danced to a song about the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the late 1800s.

“If you don’t know anything about Hawaii, or this is the first time you’ve ever heard that Hawaii was illegally overthrown — it still is — what a great day to learn more,” Akina said to the audience before the dance.

Rap was a performance style unique to this year’s event. Amy E. Chalan ’23-’24 decided to perform a Quechuan rap song by Inmortal Kultura called “Mas Runas Que Nunca,” which she learned while doing research for her thesis.

“Sharing rap was a bit of a different side of me that I hadn’t shared last year,” Chalan said. “I think I was still coming into my own and I think now I’m more comfortable with expressing my indigeneity in different ways without being so cognizant or aware of the impositions that are put on what our identity is supposed to look like and sound like.”

—Staff writer Asher J. Montgomery can be reached at asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @asherjmont or on Threads @asher_montgomery.