By Corvo Rohwer, Puyallup Tribal News
Administrators and representatives from various local school districts visited Chief Leschi Schools on Oct. 29 to attend a collaborative summit regarding the goals of a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this year.
The session focused primarily on ensuring schools were equipped to implement House Bill 2551, which permits students to wear regalia and cultural items during graduation ceremonies and related events.
The meeting was hosted by Heritage Division Curriculum Developer and School Liaison Patricia Conway and featured a panel of Native community members and educators, including David Sway-la Duenas, Michael Muck Hall, Clinton McCloud and Carolyn DeFord.
“The purpose of the panel is to educate and engage school administrators, teachers and district leaders on the legal and cultural rights of Native students to wear traditional regalia at ceremonies,” Conway said. “It’s also about the importance of regalia as identity, sovereignty and cultural pride, and practical steps one can take to create supportive cultural spaces.”
Conway said one of her goals was to provide an opportunity for school representatives to gain perspectives from Tribal leadership and educators about their own personal experiences from their time in schools. This also gave the panel members a chance to share their relationship with regalia, both in the past and the present.
“In public school, my first day of school I was sent with a ribbon shirt, a choker, my hair braided down to my waist and a feather in my hair. This was the early 80s, and I got jumped and got into fights,” Hall said. “It’s amazing that students in this day and age are able to wear their culturally traditional regalia and represent their ancestors that laid their lives down for them to have this lineage.”
Duenas followed up with his own experience, sharing with attendees that regalia can take form in many variations. He also touched on how the ability to wear his regalia during his graduation at Chief Leschi Schools made him feel included in his community.
“I was able to wear regalia, and part of that looks like the traditional grad cap which can also be made out of cedar or feature beaded edges or be adorned with a feather, and then I chose to wear the traditional Jostens commencement robes,” Duenas said. “It was an opportunity to be my authentic true self.”
Students from various grade levels at Chief Leschi Schools briefly attended the summit to provide additional context on what regalia looks like. They also shared a few songs and dances.
The summit’s second half concluded with breakout sessions to discuss the topic further, and reinforced commitments to achieving the objectives outlined in the MOU.
