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Approximately 50 Harvard students, affiliates, and family members gathered to celebrate Indigenous graduates of the University Monday afternoon.
The event — which drew Indigenous students and family members from Hawaii to Peru — honored the Class of 2024’s accomplishments, with several speakers noting the backdrop of Harvard’s colonial ties. Graduates also received Indigenous stoles ahead of Thursday’s Commencement exercises.
“Historically, our communities don’t have access to the opportunity you have access to while you’re here,” said Jordan T. Clark, the assistant director of the Harvard University Native American Program. “Build your legacy.”
In an interview with The Crimson, Américo Mendoza-Mori — an Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights lecturer who announced graduates’ names as they received their stoles — emphasized that celebrating Harvard’s indigenous graduates was especially important given the University’s history.
“Harvard has a legacy of coloniality,” Mendoza-Mori said, describing the University’s founding mission to “culturate” Native students.
“‘Indigeneity’ is an umbrella term to acknowledge colonial legacies in different parts of the world,” he added. “That’s what we understand in this type of celebration.”
Mendoza-Mori also noted that the celebration comes as the University has faced several crises in the lead-up to Commencement.
“We have students who might be committed to protesting, to having a voice or to facilitating dialogues,” Mendoza-Mori said, acknowledging the 20-day pro-Palestine occupation of Harvard Yard. “This moment of celebration is also important and part of these complex dynamics,” he added.
Katherine Tinco Necochea — the graduate student speaker — gave an address focused on self-care and her Quechua Indigenous roots in Peru. She described the celebration as filled with a spirit “unique to the Indigenous community here at Harvard” in an interview with The Crimson.
“It’s a lot of hope, a lot of dreams of freedom, freedoms of being liberated from past circumstances, past challenges,” said Tinco Necochea, a student at the Graduate Student of Education.
Pomaika’i K.K. Ogata ’24, who is Kānaka Maoli, said the celebration was a heartwarming experience.
“My family just flew in from Hawaii this morning — and even though they’re really jet lagged, they came out to support me today, which was sweet,” she said.
Still, Tinco Necochea acknowledged the “tragedies” which have punctuated the Class of 2024’s undergraduate experience.
“I wouldn’t have the right words to describe what they’ve been feeling,” Tinco Necochea said. “I think those are memories that live on with you,” she added.
—Staff writer Frank S. Zhou can be reached at frank.zhou@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @frank_s_zhou or on Threads @frank_s_zhou.
