EONYWA'NDIYONHRATEHKWIH CHIA' EKWÄA'TATEHKWIH - Nos esprits et nos corps sont et seront toujours présents - Our minds and bodies are and forever will be present - Wendat and Wyandot Studies Conference - Wendake, June 13-16, 2012

WENDAKE, QC, April 4, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - Project Yawenda, the Huron-Wendat Nation and the Yawendowänenh Society are pleased to announce the first Wendat and Wyandot Studies Conference, in Wendake (Wendat Territory, Quebec, Canada), from June 13 to 16, 2012. The opening session will be held at Salle Kondiaronk (June 13, evening), and the plenary and paper sessions at Hotel-Musee Premières Nations (June 14-16).

Grand Chief Konrad Sioui has the following to say: "Our Huron-Wendat-Wyandot people forms one Nation that, with all other Iroquoian Nations, has always dwelved along the great Saint Lawrence River, up to the Great Lakes and much beyond. Our customs and our spirituality have guided us up to now, in order to preserve our sacred alliances with our brothers and sisters from all horizons. May it still and always remain thus. I spoke."

The conference aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners, from both native communities and academia from America and Europe, who are interested in the Wendat and Wyandot(te) peoples from Quebec, Oklahoma, Kansas, Michigan, and elsewhere. It will allow them to share what is currently done and said concerning these nations' history, culture, language, society, as well as the assertion of their rights. The theme of the conference will be: "Wendat and Wyandot Continuities". Presentations will attempt to illustrate how continuity has been maintained between the Wendat and Wyandot of today and their ancestors, without preventing the former from being fully integrated into the contemporary world.

Thematic sessions as well as individual communications will deal with the fundamental rights pertaining to Wendat or Wyandot citizenship, sovereignty and territory, as well as with these nations' knowledge, traditions, language, history, archeology, artistic and literary activities, contemporary territory, and material culture. The conference will be held under the honorary presidency of the philosopher, historian and anthropologist Dr. Georges E. Sioui, the dean of Wendat intellectuals. It will also aim at honoring the memory of ethnologist Marius Barbeau, as we celebrate the centennial anniversary of his fieldwork in Wendake and Wyandotte, Oklahoma, during 2011-12.

Registration to the conference amounts to 100$ (30$ for members of First Nations and students). The preliminary program of the conference, as well as a registration form, can be found at:
http://www.ciera.ulaval.ca/PDF/Programme-prel-wendat.pdf (program)
http://www.ciera.ulaval.ca/English/activities/wendat_conference.htm (registration)

For any query about the conference, please contact: [email protected].