Allyship on Turtle Island
To Indigenous, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, & Native Peoples
Professional and Leadership Development
As an Indigenous woman from the Muisca people in Boyacá, Colombia, I have done a lot of work to peel back layers of assimilation and learn how to behave according to Indigenous values since I was not raised on my land or amongst my people. I have been doing coming home work under the supervision of Native elders and Indigenous mentors for the past 10 years.
In my workshops, I put capitalism front and center, as we examine together how it intersects with racism, Indigeneity, attempted genocide, and colonization. The capitalist nation states that we live in not only shape us but also shape how we educate and raise our children. Capitalism’s goal is to remain invisible so that it can keep going as a system. To convince us all that its ills are the result of individual human failings, instead of built in features of the system that are there by design. My focus is on providing people with action steps that they can take to be more culturally aware, aka good friends. To me this means working on collective action, individual steps, and behavior change.
Whoever your people are, I am happy to tailor my curriculum to the needs of your institution or group. Please contact me or have your school do so for a quote on prices. Options that I offer are:
2 Hour Key Note Presentation/Workshop (Zoom or In Person)
Half Day of Professional and/or Leadership Development (In Person)
Full Day of Professional and/or Leadership Development (In Person)
Extended Learning Communities (Ongoing, online)
For Libraries and Community Organizations: A 1.5 Hour Workshop
If you have been wondering what it looks like to be a good guest living on stolen Native land, then this workshop is for you! Learn from my 10 years of experience implementing the teachings of Native elders and Indigenous mentors on how to decolonize. This does not mean that we are engaging in cultural appropriation, quite the opposite. It means that we are undoing the layers of assimilation that our ancestors were forced into for survival.
Together, either in person or on Zoom, we will:
Go over a brief history of colonization on Turtle Island
Review Action steps that you can take to move towards harmony with Native peoples
Look at what behaviors you need to change to be good guests on stolen Native lands
Love is an action. It is about how we treat ourselves and each other. My focus in this class is on teaching people from all walks of life the difference between capitalism and Indigeneity as systems and ways of being, so that they can make informed choices about which system’s values they want to let shape their behavior. Changing how we behave is what allows us to build close relationships of reciprocity, trust, and accountability. It is one path that we can walk outside of capitalism and towards Indigeneity.
For Teens: Decolonization and You
The 'Decolonization And You' curriculum will help students understand their relationship to the stolen Native land that they live on and tell their own stories about the effects of colonization on them and their families through poetry and writing exercises. This includes a presentation to talk about capitalism and Indigeneity as systems and ways of being, a vocabulary hand out with key terms, a writing exercise handout about responsibility and Indigenous values, writing exercises, small group work, culminating in writing a poem and presenting them to the class.
Whoever your teens/ students are, I am happy to tailor my curriculum to their needs or that of your school/ program. Please contact me for a quote on price. What I offer:
Session 1: Indigeneity, Capitalism, Nation States, And Your Migration Story
Session 2: Taking Responsibility For How We Behave
Session 3: Writing Poems Together
"Native Americans are essentially calling for righteousness.
By this they mean a shared ideology developed by all people
using their purest and most unselfish minds."
— Lorraine Canoe/Tom Porter, MOHAWK from White Bison Meditations with Native American Elders