Building Language Through Indigenous Pop Culture Workshop

For this workshop, participants created comic strips that featured Indigenous languages.

Lee Francis, Ph.D., (Laguna Pueblo) led a two and a half - day workshop, July 16-18, 2018, entitled “Building Language through Indigenous Pop Culture.” The workshop began with an overview of the history and importance of comics and sequential art. Participants were then told a story, and were tasked with creating a three panel comic of the story. The focus then shifted to participants creating their own illustrated story. Participants were asked to create four three-panel comics that featured their Indigenous languages and they were encouraged to consider making their comics from an Indigenous perspective. The workshop concluded with participants sharing their comics to the whole group and networking with the instructor and their peers to brainstorm how to continue their work. 12 participants representing 8 Tribal nations attended the workshop that was held at the College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson.