Erase the Border: A petition of 114 voices against the US-Mexico border fence on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation

A voice for change

vojo29154 Story

Hello

Public Story

Susan Quasha, Barrytown, NY

celsom3 Story

Uriel Castaneda, Seattle, WA

Public Story

Voice from the Tohono O'odham Reservation

Lorrie LeJeune, Cambridge, MA

Laura Forlano, Cambridge, MA

Huan Sun, Cambridge, MA

Alexandre Goncalves, Cambridge, MA

Nathan Matias, MIT Center for Civic Media, Cambridge, MA

Denise Cheng, Cambridge, MA

Rahul Bhargava, Cambridge, MA

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham activist and elder

Catherine D'Ignazio, MIT Center for Civic Media

Nick Grossman, MIT Media Lab

Rodrigo Davies, student, MIT

Anonymous

Jan Smith, Mattapoisett, MA

Stephen Suen, MIT Student, Cambridge, MA

Sasha Costanza-Chock, Co-Principal Investigator, MIT Center for Civic Media, Cambridge, MA

Rogelio Alejandro Lopez, Research Assistant, Comparative Media Studies, MIT, Cambridge, MA

Molly Sauter, Research Assistant, Comparative Media Studies, MIT, Cambridge, MA

M.C. McGrath, MIT Student, Cambridge, MA

Luis Capelo, Masters Candidate in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School

Anonymous, MIT Student

Kyle Yuan, MIT Student, Cambridge, MA

Joanna Kao, Computer Science Student, MIT, Cambridge, MA

Guillermo, Cambridge, MA

Becky Hurwitz, Codesign Facilitator and Community Organizer, MIT Center for Civic Media

Andrew Lowenthal, Co-founder and Executive Director, EngageMedia

Andre Muggiati, Master in Public Administration Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School

Alex Ho, Ed.M. student, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Aditi Mehta, Ph.D. Student, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT

Anne Callahan, Artist & MIT Graduate Student, Cambridge, MA

Fred D'Ignazio, Author & Community Garden Leader, Apex, NC

David Raymond, Waltham, MA

Janet D'Ignazio, Vice President, ICF International, Apex, NC

Jan Michaels, Wayland, MA

Catherine D'Ignazio, Research Assistant, MIT Center for Civic Media, Cambridge, MA

Beckyh Story

A petition of 114 voices to make Tohono O'odham citizenship part of comprehensive immigration reform

The 2008 border fence divides the community, prevents tribe members from receiving critical health services and subjects O'odham to racism and discrimination. All O'odham tribe members should have US citizenship. Learn more...

By signing the petition, you support putting Tohono O'odham citizenship back on the table (it was shelved in 2001) as part of comprehensive immigration reform.

Your voices will be recorded together, remixed as songs, and sent to legislators. Read more about where your voice will go and how you can use this archive.

Our Voices

Voice from the Tohono O'odham Reservation

Nathan Matias, MIT Center for Civic Media, Cambridge, MA

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham activist and elder

Catherine D'Ignazio, MIT Center for Civic Media

Stephen Suen, MIT Student, Cambridge, MA

Sasha Costanza-Chock, Co-Principal Investigator, MIT Center for Civic Media, Cambridge, MA

Rogelio Alejandro Lopez, Research Assistant, Comparative Media Studies, MIT, Cambridge, MA

Molly Sauter, Research Assistant, Comparative Media Studies, MIT, Cambridge, MA

M.C. McGrath, MIT Student, Cambridge, MA

Luis Capelo, Masters Candidate in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School

Joanna Kao, Computer Science Student, MIT, Cambridge, MA

Becky Hurwitz, Codesign Facilitator and Community Organizer, MIT Center for Civic Media

Andrew Lowenthal, Co-founder and Executive Director, EngageMedia

Andre Muggiati, Master in Public Administration Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School

Alex Ho, Ed.M. student, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Aditi Mehta, Ph.D. Student, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT

Anne Callahan, Artist & MIT Graduate Student, Cambridge, MA

Fred D'Ignazio, Author & Community Garden Leader, Apex, NC

Janet D'Ignazio, Vice President, ICF International, Apex, NC

Catherine D'Ignazio, Research Assistant, MIT Center for Civic Media, Cambridge, MA

Where does my voice go?

To Legislators

We will deliver your voices to legislators who have the power to erase the border. We will call their phone lines and play your voices. We will mail them CDs with your voices compiled. We will stage listening parties on their steps.
To Remixes

Click above to listen to a short remix of the Erase the Border petition by musician Dave Raymond. Want to make your own? Download the archive!
To You

Download our 114 voices. We are open source. We want you to come up with creative ways to put these voices to work. Remix them into a song, use them as a beat, host a listening party, call your legislator, play the archive outside a detention center. Share your work with us and we'll feature it here.

More information

Map

Map of traditional O'odham lands by Forest Purnell based on information collected by George Barnett
New York Times article

In Drug War, Tribe Feels Invaded by Both Sides. By Erik Eckholm for the series War Without Borders. Above photo by Chris Hinkle for the New York Times.
We erased the border with our bodies and hands

Artists Ofelia Rivas and Catherine D'Ignazio worked with Tohono O'odham youth on a symbolic action to erase the border fence by pressing and painting. This is a Zeega presentation - a multimedia presentation with sound and video that tells our story.