Memory and Resonance: A Gathering in Las Vegas
History lives not only in the archives, but in the voices of those who remember.
During a recent visit to Las Vegas, Nevada, Native Bound Unbound Director Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez was invited by Dr. Susan Johnson of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His visit included a public presentation at the university art museum and a guest session in Dr. Johnson’s graduate seminar on slavery. There, alongside Dr. Honor Sachs (University of Colorado Boulder), he discussed research methods that inform both Sachs’ forthcoming book, The Book of Judith, and the Native Bound Unbound project.
Yet the most resonant moment of the trip unfolded at a community Memory Gathering held at Nuwu Art, a Native-owned art and activism space founded by Fawn Douglas (Southern Paiute) and Dr. A.B. Wilkinson. The evening began with a welcome from the founders, followed by Dr. Wilkinson’s reflections on his scholarship. Before introducing the Native Bound Unbound project, Dr. Rael-Gálvez invited each participant to speak their name and call into the room an ancestor or loved one whose memory they wished to honor. This invocation opened a space of collective reflection.
In response to his prompt—“What brings you here?”—attendees began to share powerful, personal stories. With vulnerability and clarity, they spoke about the history they carry, the documents they saw, and the ancestors they remembered. Many responded to records revealing that Paiute people had been bought, traded, and enslaved in the region. Others shared their own family histories—Paiute, Nahua, Ute, Diné, Dakota—naming the legacies of displacement, survival, and resistance.
Dr. Rael-Gálvez later described the gathering as one of the most generative and moving he has ever witnessed. “It flowed like water,” he said. The collective memory held in that space, nourished by truth-telling and mutual recognition, became a powerful affirmation of the project’s purpose.
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