PILAR CÔTÉ is a cultural strategist, curator, artist, social entrepreneur, novel tech advocate/advisor (AI/VR/AR/Blockchain), audio storyteller and public speaker. She specializes in creating innovative solutions that drive social impact. Her expertise in web3 strategy and industry knowledge allows her to approach problem-solving in unique ways that both build community and bring about positive change. She has worked with and advised a variety of clients in the fields of art, music, tech, fashion and the non-profit space. She is a member of the Tech and AI Advisory Council for NCOSE (Washington, DC), a member of the Waawiiyaataanong Indigenous Arts Council, a founding member and executive board member of the StorytimeDAO, a Co-founder of the Detroit chapter of ‘Women in Music’ (Vice-Chair of Development & Partnerships, Vice-Chair of Fundraising & DEI), Advisor & Strategist at Holotopia Sustainable Fashion Web3 Collective, a member of the Board of Trustees at Vizmesh.io, and is a Racial Equity Fellow with the Civil Rights Center at the Wayne State School of Law.
LAND, LEGACY, AND STEWARDSHIP: THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN INDIGENOUS FUTURES
Land, Legacy, and Stewardship: The Role of Institutions in Indigenous Futures
Image credit: Pilar Cote, Wings of Life, 2024.
Saturday, November 9, 1-2PM
MOCAD CAFÉ
ADMISSION: Events in MOCAD Café are free and open to the public.
In collaboration with the Waawiiyaataanong Arts Council of Detroit, this panel explores the intersection of landback movements, Indigenous sovereignty, and institutional accountability in the Detroit Metro area and academic settings. Moderated by Pilar Cote, with contributions from Oakland University representatives Megan Peiser and Andrea Knutson, the discussion will focus on ongoing efforts in land stewardship, food sovereignty, and cultural preservation, notably at Oakland University. Panelists will address the challenges and possibilities of fostering Indigenous futures through community-driven initiatives and academic partnerships, including developing collaborative land acknowledgments and heritage sites.
MEGAN PEISER is an enrolled citizen of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She is associate professor of English at Oakland University, and co-chair of OU’s Native American Advisory Committee. At Oakland University she works in concert with university faculty, staff, students, and area community as stewards of the campus Native American Heritage Site. Peiser’s scholarship and teaching are centered on telling stories of historically and currently marginalized women using archival research, oral history, and lived traditions. Her monograph, The Review Periodical and British Women Novelists, 1790–1820, and accompanying database are forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, and she is the co-manager with Emily Spunaugle of the Marguerite Hicks Project. Peiser’s recent work on Indigenous perspectives in/of the eighteenth century can be found in Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Eighteenth-Century Theory and Interpretation, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Peiser is active in the Indigenous food sovereignty movement in SE Michigan, where she lives with her family.
ANDREA KNUTSON is an Associate Professor of English and Environmental Humanities at Oakland University in SE Michigan. She’s also the settler descendant co-chair of the Native American Advisory Committee, which oversees the development of the 4 acre Native American Heritage Site on campus as an inter-Tribal food sovereign, educational, and ceremonial cultural space. Her scholarship focuses on plantation ecologies within the British empire, sovereign spaces within the plantation complex, and archival traces that reveal the racial geographies of plantation. She’s been the recipient of two fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society and has published in Early American Literature, Resilience: A Journal of Environmental Humanities, Edge Effects, and American Literary History. She’s working on a second book about the materialism and sovereignty of clay in plantation histories.
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