Hey Friends!

Thanks for showing up and recognizing indigenous people’s day together as a community. We really didn’t know what to expect from this gathering, and it was really heartening to get to gather with such a cool group of folks who really do care about justice in history, right now, and into the futures that don’t exist yet.

Thank you also to the many folks out there that recognized Indigenous People's Day in their own communities and through their own actions. Of course it's important to recognize the struggles for justice and equality as continual and ongoing, and but I think it is helpful to set aside special times to remember and  focus our energy on specific areas of that larger effort, and to relate these larger issues to our local communities whenever possible. This is especially important in these times as there is so much being done to try and erase and bury these histories while continuing on the same path of settler colonialism and exploitation here and across the globe.

I’ll share a few links from the other night, please reach out if you have something that should be included.

Some Current Efforts to work in solidarity with Indigenous Struggles in our area

The Honor Native Land Fund 
https://www.honornativelandfund.org
The Honor Native Land Fund (HNLF) is an opportunity for non-Native people living in the Midwest to contribute to the rematration of land to Indigenous stewardship. Through supporting land return, participants in HNLF acknowledge that we live on Indigenous homelands while taking practical steps toward repair. A Link to the Decolonial Repair Network can be found on their website.

Watch Line 5
https://watchline5.com
A group to educate about and monitor Line 5

Nibiwalk
https://www.nibiwalk.org/about/
Led by Anishinaabe Grandmothers, Water Walks respect the truth that water is a life giver, and because women also give life they are the keepers of the water.

Onaman Collective
http://onamancollective.com/who-we-are/
Artists Isaac Murdoch (Ojibway) and Christi Belcourt (Metis) created and shared the thunderbird woman image we reproduced together at the gathering in our 16x 24 leaf painting. They also run a language and cultural camp and accept donations and sell their art to support it.