11/25/2021
Go to my new linktree (link in comments) for ways to support indigenous producers, history lessons, and podcasts featuring indigenous voices. My goal is to grow this list of resources over time, but its a start.
On this day I have always practiced gratitude. Today I am grateful to learn and be better each day as I become more aware of the importance of decolonizing my mindset, identifying the lies our society has told us about our history, rewriting a new story that elevates the voices of marginalized people, and recognize the longstanding truth that is held by the people who’s land we live on. I live on Clackamas Chinookan land. This land was stolen and colonized but it is still Clackamas Chinookan land. The nearby village of Canemah (which comes from the word meaning canoe) may be gone, but the Clackamas and Chinookan peoples still live. The tribes are here now and I want to do what I can to elevate Indigenous voices.
I thought about some Indigenous people and groups that I have found and follow, but I am learning that can have the negative effect of putting the burden of education on Indigenous people, and also possibly driving negative attention to their online spaces.
So here is my intention:
1) Be accountable for my own learning by doing my own research and intentionally cultivating my social media space.
2) Know who’s land I live on and learn their story.
3) Elevate Indigenous voices through conversation and mindful sharing. Name my sources and ask permission.
4) Research my own history. We were all indigenous once, it’s just that many of us are so far removed in time and place from our own indigenous ancestors that we have forgotten, and become the colonizers who ripped us from our relationship with the land and community.
4) Do not appropriate or homogenize native cultures. There are thousands of native cultures in what is now the americas, they are unique and every person has their own unique story.
I have started a linktree in the comments below to share some resources and indigenous voices. If I am sharing an individual person or business I have asked permission. The other links are to public information and podcasts that are widely available.