Tribal College Press (TCP) has published the audiobook version of Tom Davis’s Meditation on Ceremonies of Beginnings, which tells the history of the Tribal College Movement and the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium through poetic verse. TCP first published the print edition of Meditation on Ceremonies of Beginnings in 2020, which was followed by an ebook version last year. In this special audiobook edition, Davis showcases his great oratory skill, adding an entirely new dramatic and emotional depth to his poems.

Davis, who has devoted his career to Indian education, the Tribal College Movement, and world Indigenous higher education, began teaching at the Menominee County Community School and played an important role in the Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards. He went on to work closely with tribal college giant Verna Fowler, the founding president of the College of Menominee Nation. Davis later served at Bay Mills Community College where he helped build one of the earliest virtual degree granting programs in the United States. Along with TCU legends Lionel Bordeaux and Jim Shanley, he was among the leaders who signed the founding charter for the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium. With a tribal college career spanning over 30 years, Davis served as president of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College and Little Priest Tribal College, as well as the provost at Navajo Technical University. He is also a longtime poet, authoring two book-length epic poems, The Weirding Storm, A Dragon Epic and An American Spirit, An American Epic. 

“I loved doing the readings, and I tried to make them as powerful as I could,” stated Davis, adding, “What’s important, though, at least to me, is that the story of the effort to start both the tribal college and the world indigenous nations higher education movements is receding into distant memory. This audiobook will hopefully provide another way to remember the people and events of that movement. It is a miracle, after all.”

Years in the making, the much-anticipated audiobook version of Meditation on Ceremonies of Beginnings is available for purchase at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Visit Tribal College Press at https://tribalcollegepress.org/ to find out more.