Community-Accountable Archaeology Partnership Project at Leupp Isolation Center
Tuesday, September 24, 2024 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm
NJAHS Japantown Peace Gallery, 1684 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77563159225?pwd=gYFQRbTRh4x2V1hdGk5wnwCDY7ZGLa.1
Meeting ID: 775 6315 9225
Passcode: 5zV7LZ
Co-presented by Koji Lau-Ozawa, Jun Sunseri, and Davina Two Bears.
Join us in the afternoon on Tuesday, September 24 for a hybrid Zoom and in-person presentation on the initial findings from an archaeological project exploring the grounds of the Leupp Isolation Center, an isolation center for Japanese American “troublemakers” following the December 1942 Manzanar Uprising that was established at the site of the former Indian boarding school of Leupp on a Navajo reservation in Arizona.
This archaeological initiative utilizes a community accountable approach, in service to the unique priorities of the Diné (Navajo) and Nikkei communities, and began first with agreements between the archaeologists and the communities around the Old Leupp site, including Birdsprings and Leupp, as well as input from descendants of Japanese Americans imprisoned at Leupp.
In their talk, the archaeology team will share some of their initial results from their first season of fieldwork at the Old Leupp site, as well as seek mentorship from community members as they work on analyzing their results and co-crafting next steps.
About the team: The team is made up of Diné and Nikkei members: Davina Two Bears, Jun Sunseri, and Koji Lau-Ozawa. Davina is Diné and originally from Birdsprings, Arizona, a community adjacent to Leupp. Kojun “Jun” Ueno Sunseri is shin-issei, born in Tokyo with biological paternal roots from Ueno and emigrated at five years old to the United States to be raised in other cultures in Southern California and eventually adopted. Koji Lau-Ozawa is a sansei/yonsei from San Francisco. His grandparents, along with great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, were all incarcerated at the Gila River Incarceration Camp where he focused his first major research project.