Library Exhibit to Explore Native Peoples’ Experience

An upcoming library exhibit will look to bring a greater awareness of Native American life and health to the Saint Francis community.

Native Voices: Native People’s Concepts of Health and Illness is a traveling multimedia exhibit developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine in partnership with the American Library Association.

The exhibit will run from April 4 to May 8.

Featuring banners and iPads, the exhibit details how ideas of health and illness have influenced and informed Native American, Native Alaskan and Native Hawaiian cultures. Specific topics to be featured include traditions and healing.

Associate Dean of Library Services Janie Rager was instrumental in bringing the exhibit to Saint Francis. “We are one of 104 libraries nationwide that are hosting the exhibit,” said Rager. “It was important to bring this here because it looks at cultures that we don’t necessarily have locally.”

An opening ceremony is scheduled for 3 p.m. on April 4.

Brother Martin Zatsick, director of the Dorothy Day Center, will deliver a keynote address at this ceremony. “Very few people know anything about the life of a Native American,” said Zatsick. “This is a great opportunity for Saint Francis.”

Zatsick will speak about his 16 years living among the Yankton Sioux people of South Dakota. He said he hopes this exhibit might inspire a curriculum of Native American studies at Saint Francis.

“I want this talk to be a celebration of the Native Americans,” said Zatsick.