Little did we know going into our first trip to Red Cliff in February that the next time we were all gathered there, it would be for Ginanda Gikendaasomin’s grand opening, an event seven years in the making. With that April 18 date in our minds, our work took on special urgency — in a joyful way, as we would get to see our pieces of work become part of a functioning whole.
The four of us (Carmella, Kathryn, Megann, and Sam) took the six-hour drive up north with Omar and Janetta Pegues, who recently became the director at Madison Public Library’s Goodman South branch and was part of TLAM during her time at SLIS.
One of the most amazing parts of the opening event was the chance we got to meet past TLAMers who had worked on the project. Every year was represented by at least one person who had been part of the Red Cliff group. In our conversations with TLAM graduates, we got a better sense of the history of the project, the relationships it has fostered, and the important role it played in everyone’s personal and library-related education.
We got into Bayfield and made a phone call to check in with those who had arrived the day before. They were (surprise!) working in the library, so we swung over to say hello and see what needed doing.
People were seizing the opportunity to check on classification numbers that had yet to be entered correctly into the LibraryThing catalog. Some of us dove into that and some volunteered for a project under the direction of Red Cliff librarian Nancy Newago, tying handfuls of tobacco into cloth bundles that were to be given to guests the next day.
We took a break for group dinner — Louise had arranged a big table for Friday fish fry in Bayfield. After eating together and welcoming a few new arrivals to our number, many of us went back to the library to keep working until we called it quits around 10 p.m.
The next morning, TLAMers gathered in the library before other guests were to arrive. We did some final preparations — hanging posters, setting up chairs and tables, and contributing to the growing atmosphere of anticipation. Shortly before “go time,” Nancy gathered us into a circle and sent a bag of tobacco around so that everyone held a small handful. She smudged each of us with burning sage, said a few words of prayer and thanks, and then we went outside to offer our tobacco back to the earth. We returned inside as community members began trickling in until the lobby area was a hubbub of hugs and excited chatter.
The ceremony began with a heartfelt prayer offered by a friend of Nancy Newago’s, followed by speeches from Rose, tribal chair, and Dee, education director, who over the past several years have been key advocates for the library within tribal government and the community at large. They both expressed gratitude and wonder for the fruition of many years of dedicated work. Next, Louise gave a speech echoing those sentiments and sharing how how important the project and her connection with Red Cliff has become.
Then the gift-giving part of the ceremony began: everyone affiliated with SLIS had a new book in hand and when Louise gave the word, we went up one by one to formally donate them to the library.
This was followed by Nancy calling attention to the woven yarn dreamcatchers hanging up around the library. She explained they were made by her mother and friends and have been in storage as she didn’t know what to do with them until now. She called each of us SLIS folks up to be given a dreamcatcher in thanks for our help over the years to launch the library into a new era.
After that, the ribbon Nancy had hung over the half-door entrance was cut, signifying the library is officially inaugurated. All in attendance were invited to the VFW for a celebratory feast.
The grand opening was a testament to the partnership whose rewards have touched ever more people over the years, starting with the students who created the TLAM class to investigate the question raised at Red Cliff about what other tribal communities out there are doing to maintain cultural institutions like libraries, and eventually growing into the Convening Great Lakes Culture Keepers conferences to share knowledge among a network of tribal cultural professionals.
Our 2015 group is so happy to have had the opportunity to take part in this community milestone and to express our best wishes for the success of the library and the step it represents toward a multi-use cultural center for Red Cliff down the road.
-Carmella, Kathryn, Megann, and Sam