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23rd International Conference

HEARING AND TELLING:
ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR INTERCULTURAL SERVICE-LEARNING

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October 16-22, 2005
Rapid City, Lakota Nation, USA

Cosponsored by South Dakota State University

CONFERENCE REPORT

The power of stories-telling them, listening to them, and learning from them-formed the central theme for the 23rd IPSL International Conference, held in Rapid City, South Dakota (USA), from October 16-22, 2005. Nearly 225 people from more than twenty countries journeyed to the homeland of the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota nations for a week of plenary and concurrent sessions, workshops, field trips, and cultural events centered on the various ways in which telling and hearing the stories of many cultures is at the heart of effective intercultural service-learning.

The conference was co-sponsored by South Dakota State University, which with IPSL offers the Lakota Nation international service-learning program on a variety of American Indian reservations in South Dakota each semester and summer. Keynote speakers included prominent Lakota educators and leaders, such as Lionel Bordeaux, president of Sinte Gliska University located on the Rosebud reservation; Gerard Baker, the first American Indian superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial; and Vine Deloria, Jr., the noted Lakota historian and teacher whose video presentation to the conference was his last public appearance before his death a few weeks later.

Concurrent sessions offered a wide variety of perspectives on the links between storytelling, listening, and service-learning, ranging from learning death and dying through stories, to methods of collaborative storytelling across cultural boundaries, to the use of photojournaling as a tool for cross-cultural community service-learning. Evening cultural events included the telling of stories from the "other" India, performances (with much audience participation) by Denise One Star and family, leading Lakota singers and dancers, and Kevin Locke, a renowned Hoop dancer and flute player, as well as an opportunity to visit Prairie Edge, a major center for American Indian arts and crafts.

Virtually every conference participant voted the day-long journey to the Pine Ridge reservation to be the highlight of the conference. Starting early in the morning, a caravan of buses took all of the conference participants to locations of significance to the Lakota Nation, from the fantastically eroded landscape of the Badlands, to a view of Indian higher education at Lakota Oglala College, to the sobering stillness of the Wounded Knee massacre site, to service locations for IPSL students in and around the Pine Ridge community, ending with Indian tacos and dancing at the SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club. For many conference participants, both those from the U.S. and abroad, this was the first time to experience directly the sights and conditions on an American Indian reservation-memories of which have continued to resonate for many after their returns home.

Literally dozens of people were involved in the planning and implementation of the conference, but a few should be given special recognition: Allen Branum, Valerian Three Irons, Marilyn Three Irons, Diane Nagy, and other members of the conference planning team at South Dakota State University; and Barbara Wanasek at IPSL-all of whose work went well beyond the call of duty to make the conference one of the most successful ever held by IPSL.

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