“Leaders from both the Sogorea Te' Land Trust and Children of the Setting Sun spoke of a gradual shift they've witnessed in philanthropy, one which suggests large donors might finally be willing to listen to their ideas, and fund their efforts without the need to defend the significance of Indigenous culture and environmental spirituality at every turn. The Decolonizing Wealth Project and its Indigenous Earth Fund serve as a philanthropy-driven megaphone for this cry to reduce barriers to environmental justice and to implement community-driven solutions.” [more]
Chase DiBenedetto, Mashable
Be sure to explore this robust list of resources compiled by Learning for Justice, which include their own materials as well as materials from throughout the sector. “As scholar Debbie Reese reminds us about supporting Native American young people: ‘Our children are Native every day. But in far too many places, books by Native writers are only brought into the classroom in November [during Native American Heritage month]. We are who we are, all year long. Use the books all year round. Bring those possible selves into the classroom as a matter of course so that Native children’s identities are affirmed, every day.’ We offer the following resources to honor and teach the truth about Native peoples and to help ensure that learning about this heritage takes place all year long.” [more]
Learning for Justice
“Despite having more than 19 Tribal communities accept the original [My Brother’s Keeper] Community Challenge, and having numerous tribal young men participating in MBK programs in urban centers, we’ve struggled to ensure our Native brothers and sisters see themselves in this work. We acknowledge allyship is much more difficult to navigate with erasure and invisibility being main barriers to being seen and heard in modern society. This [videorecording of a panel] session with indigenous leaders discussed Tribal intersections with MBK.” [more]
My Brother’s Keeper Alliance
The American Buffalo, a film by Ken Burns released earlier this fall, is far more than a nature documentary. “The near-extinction of American buffalo populations during the 1800s was ultimately an act of genocide against Native American people by U.S. government. Native peoples endured and survived the attacks on their ceremony, sacred history, land, and language that took place via the hunting and mass killing of buffalo. Indigenous peoplehood has been so entwined with the buffalo that it is important to understand this relationship as a matrix.” The full four-hour film is available to stream for free, and PBS also offers a series of shorter segments from the film designed for classroom use that provide an excellent starting point for learning more about Indigenous history and ceremony.
|
