ONAN
Cross-Cultural Forms
The founder of ONAN
is an academically trained social, cultural, and intellectual historian,
and a practitioner of public history.
Welcome
Since founding ONAN Cross-Cultural Forums in the late 1990s my commitment to advanced education and travel remains strong. Together, these provide credentials and empowerment for exercising agency and situating our voice in broader society.
I look forward to exploring contracts that provide opportunities to engage individuals, communities, and organizations dedicated to advancing knowledge and strengthening interpersonal relationships.
Respectfully
Janna LM Rogers, PhD
ONAN
The goal of ONAN
is to build friendships and learn
about cultures, traditions, and heritage
via intellectual gatherings
that deepen understandings
of unique differences and similarities.
ONAN grew from grassroots community outreach during the late 1990s that was then known as the Oklahoma Native American Network and was a platform for engaging diverse experiences of Native American peoples.
Janna LM Rogers is founder of ONAN. Before pursuing a doctoral degree, she enjoyed a career as a activist, publicist, promoter, journalist, and as a commercial actor.
As a journalist, Janna founded and published The Indigenous Voice and covered Oklahoma Indian Country writing for Oklahoma Indian Times (Okit). Doc executive produced the radio call-in program Oklahoma Indian Forum which aired from KAKC (Clear Channel Communications). She also executive produced Inside Native America, the longest-running Indian affairs television program in the United States which aired from KOTV, CBS television network in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
ONAN Cross-Cultural Forums
(Est. late 1990s as the Oklahoma Native American Network)
Janna LM Rogers established the Oklahoma Native American Network (ONAN) in memory of her brother, David (1966-1996). During the early years of ONAN she organized and hosted programs that were free to the public. Janna facilitated educational seminars including Inter-Tribal and Intra-Tribal Racism and Its Origins which garnered national and international interest and was attended by Indigenous academics, tribal leaders, politicians, filmmakers, celebrities, and activists.
The media began calling Janna "Promise Keeper" because of her dedication for upholding her brother's memory through educational gatherings. These gatherings held core principals that developed and continue to drive her research today. Janna maintains that her work aims to "speak respectfully but loud enough to be heard and amplify silenced voices of the past."
Decades after the passing of Janna's brother she keeps her promise to him. Four days before David passed he said, "Promise me you will use your voice to tell our experiences and stress the diversity of being Indian people." This promise is rooted in Janna's decision to earn an a PhD. Along the way she realized there are career building trends within academia that merit the importance to exercise caution when academics boast of being the experts of Native American topics.
During the early years of ONAN Janna coined two phrases that are still referenced in her work. "The Barbie-Ken Syndrome" refers the homogenization of cultures to the point that language, culture, heritage, traditions, identity, and collective memory are lost or replaced. "The Oklahoma Trinity" is a phrase that refers to a demographic that traces from pre-statehood history to multi-ethnic Native American-Caucasian-African American individuals and families whose ideology and lifeways have been shaped by histories of chattel slavery, forced removals, and Protestantism.