Meet Dominik MorningDove - A Student's Perspective on the GlobalMindED Conference
1. What is your personal narrative? What challenges and major life moments have led you to where you are?
At the age of 14 I suffered from a disease that left me in the hospital and with compromised lungs. Singing and music was my medicine and helped to keep my lungs stronger than they would have been without. Writing music to translate how I feel and see the world naturally came next. Furthermore, experiences in college led me to solidify that idea and purpose in myself. I am also an outsider where I come from due to the language barrier between my own people and myself. It's not easy for me to learn an entirely oral language, especially since I never grew up with it. Learning German and previous experiences attempting to learn my ancestral language has shown me that I do have a much easier time when I am able to see and read the language and grammar.
2. What dreams and goals do you have for your future?
I dream to be a composer for various media formats and assist the transformation of Native American Culture from one of preservation to one of growth, especially in terms of translating my Pueblo’s Language into a written format from a purely oral one.
3. How has being a part of the GlobalMindED community impacted you? How do you hope to continue growing and learning from this inclusive community?
GlobalMindED has given me a great opportunity to meet people that I would never have dreamed of meeting. It also has allowed me a unique ability to speak directly to some leaders in the Native American community about the struggles people like me have about language and Pueblo culture.
4. What do you need from your community to be supported and transition into an inclusive professional?
I would need quite a bit of cooperation from my own community in moving away from the present “stagnation” of culture. There are quite a few personal barriers to the sharing of knowledge that many people in my community have, and pushing for a written language would only make that harder to deal with.
Thank you to GlobalMindED and Carol for working with me to make sure I was able to have this experience. I am deeply grateful!
