Michele: 

Yes. Okay, so Casey is gonna be kicking us off today. But I’m Michele Heyward This is Casey Eva. This is I’d ever say equity inclusion talk, we are back. And today we’re talking about indigenous people today. And you’re like, what is that? An ally ship. So she’s gonna kick it off. And in case you just start out with with indigenous peoples day, because some people don’t know what that is and what’s going on and, and let’s get on Whoa.

KC:

Well, I’m coming today as a learner. I’m not coming today as the expert or person who has arrived or made it very far on the journey. So that is number one, I have to acknowledge the number two I have to do is say that I am coming to you live from this unceded territory of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. And the way I found that out was to go to native dash land.ca. And you could put in your zip code, and you can find out where it is that you’re located and whose territory it was, whose unceded territory it was, that the colonizers took it from. And so, indigenous peoples day is the day that was formerly known as Columbus Day for many of us who have chosen to no longer celebrate Columbus Day. Um, so that is the first thing. The second thing to note is, is to investigate that these are two separate things. We’re not celebrating indigenous peoples day. As, at least for me and my perspective as a response to Columbus Day. To me, it’s about saying, we are going to spend time digging in and increasing our awareness and knowledge of the history so that we can interrupt the inequity cycle that has perpetuated oppression on indigenous people. So to me, I’m like, I don’t really even want to connect it to Columbus, although I will right now is because Columbus Day was created because when Italian Americans were coming over to the United States, they were also being oppressed and put down in the hierarchy. And in order to increase Italian Americans proximity to whiteness, they latched on to Columbus, and said, Look, he’s at the heart of the United States. Therefore, Italian Americans should also be at the heart of the United States, and the heart of whiteness. And so to me, Columbus Day was about increasing proximity to whiteness, in order to be less oppressed. Indigenous peoples day, is about looking at indigenous people understanding the history and unlearning and learning more about how our indigenous people in this land have been oppressed historically, and how we continue to oppress them. And we continue to benefit from that oppression. And I have to say, once again, I’m coming to this as a learner, I am not the person that knows it all. And so therefore, I came with a resource to recommend. So this website that I said earlier, which I’ll put in the chat, is a website that will tell you the land that you’re on the tribes, the unceded territory that you’re on. And there’s also this cool resource. That’s, that’s a Teacher’s Guide. And this Teacher’s Guide came out in March 2019. And it is good for kids to adults. It shows it talks about the pros and cons of the map itself. It talks about the importance of learning about colonialism. Michelle and I laugh about using the word colonizer and just bringing that into mainstream sort of conversation just to instigate conversation around that. And then also it talks, it gives resources for teachers to learn more, including myself, I think of myself as a teacher as well. And so therefore, I’m so excited to dig into these resources. So these are some things that I am looking to integrate into my knowledge bank into my tools into my toolbox and applying into the spaces and spheres of influence that I have access to. So whenever I have a meeting, or whenever I’m at a group event, and maybe I get the mic for a second, I’m doing some land acknowledgments can be powerful. And then we need to ask what else after that, that is some awareness raising, but then we also need to say yes to action. So if we talk about ally ship, we need to raise awareness we need to listen to indigenous people and their stories and and believe them, and then also we need to learn on our own and talk to other folks in our sphere of influence and then do what action that we can say yes to action. So that is our ally ship acronym that we always like to bring it back to. So that is what I come with. Today, what do you think, Michelle?

Michele: 

I agree I’m, I’m on the same path issue as learning. And a lot of people in the black community at least, you know, oh, well, you know, somewhere in I live, we were Native American, but we don’t ever really claim a tribe. Right? We just think there is. And I can tell you this much about my journey probably really started about 10 years ago, when I actually live in Oklahoma. And it is like, why is that? So? The the I was in a client’s facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and they literally shared, they had Indian bread on the cafeteria in the client’s building one day, and I was like, What is Indian bread? And so somebody in the line was like, it’s not real. And she’s, she was, she’s indigenous. She was like, and so I went to the State Fair, and they were like, have different types of, you know, a booth for Indian food. I was like, okay, what’s really you know, what’s really going on? Like, what am I missing, I’ve never seen any, any of this, but also what they had in in Oklahoma as I’ll be driving along the Interstate, especially driving towards Texas, between Oklahoma City and not Dallas, North Texas, but you’re going west, west of Dallas, um,
towards Lawton, Oklahoma, if you’ve ever, you know, military, or if you’re going to I forget what the what the town is right now in Texas, that the larger town I would get to, they would definitely have signs, it would be signed to set Foxtrot. And I’d be like, wait, I’ve never seen this. So they would have along the way, different of signs to let you know which tribes area you were in. And so I thought it was like, I have been missing so much of my life, understanding the culture what was really going on. And then about a year or two ago, I was at a women of color Institute event. And one of the ladies at my table and that I met at that event is a professor, I’m sorry, a president at a tribal college. And she led they had her open up singing in her native song, which is in her native language, tribal language. And she translated what she was saying or what the song meant. And she also identify whose land we’re sitting on. So in the chat, I put in an app called native land. And that does, that app does the same thing as the website that you share it native dash land.ca is probably the same same thing if you get an app or the web, web base, and so that you can acknowledge who’s which tribe, land you are in, because there are 573 tribes, there is not just Native Americans, there are 573 tribes. And that completely gets ignored in the amount of people, tribes, or native indigenous people that were here were in the millions in 1492. Then on the other side of this is really how white watch America, the discovery of America became because when you look at it, you know, they say Columbus discovered America, it’s like somebody discovering your house, and you hit your home. And it’s I don’t see a problem. I mean, they invited me in for dinner. And so I stayed, and I moved in. And I made it my own, but it’s not yours. So it really is now going around on social media about this letter, this this report, I think, as a child ID. And it goes something like, you know, you tell the child is telling the teacher like hey, this thing you call Columbus Day is a lie. My mom taught me to true. He, he didn’t discover this. And the teachers like I’m highly disappointed in your response and, and the student writes back, okay. But to him, it was like how do you discover something when people already here they already own it, they already live it and and he he did not see how it made sense. And it was something that we’ve discussed for decades as well. How do you discover something when somebody is already there? This is like discovering a cure for something. Nobody knew what the answer was discovering land when people are already there. They already somebody or knew about it. So it was very, it’s been causing more discussions and thoughts, looking through the lens and explanation of a child. So I’ve loved that, that that spark of conversation. But on the other side of that is the ally ship like you said, US learning about the 575 Three tribes, where, who’s whose land Are you really sitting on? And how do you respect that? And how do you observe that so that you continue to empower the true natives of what we consider United States of America, also Canada, and how to you make sure their culture is also respected and preserved, and really showcased at the same time and respected because I think at this point, we don’t respect it. We we look at as costumes when it truly is their heritage, it is truly their culture. And it’s them as a people. So I think that has to change as well. And that’s something as allies, we have to push forward on a regular basis. It’s not a constant. It’s like to dress up to me as a native person is like wearing blackface. Right? Oh, no, no, that’s not what it is. I’m doing it like, Tonto. Yeah, you might want to rethink all of that, for real. And it to understand what that means to that when you have the Redskins or the Seminoles as mascots and the reds, right. So you really have to take into account their culture and how people are viewing them on hold.
So, um, what what I did on indigenous people day, it was, again, more education, for myself in my community, especially over on Instagram, and just sharing information and doing research and really studying the culture on a regular basis on a deeper level than I have preached it, you know, previously, and it goes deeper every year that I’m alive, and I’m around because I’m thankful to have the opportunity to do it and to share it. So if you, by chance, are an ally, you’re you’re, whether you’re new, you’ve been in it, go ahead and download what is an ally, a Ll y, y, as you guessed to take an action. And it really gives us a one pager is it’s impactful. It’s a short read. But it gives you a better idea of what you can do. In response to this is the last day of Latin x Heritage Month, our Hispanic Heritage Month. It is we have the US Thanksgiving coming up. We just had indigenous peoples today. But it really helps you to start thinking about what actions you can take when it comes to ally ship on so many different levels. We have other holidays that are coming up in December. And so how do you also as an ally step in for different different holidays that your company may not observe all of them are give you their employee based option to even celebrate and observe, observe their own, and how do you work through that as an organization? So it’s a lot going on? And and I’m really excited to, to see organizations not only investigate this, how do they make those changes? How did you make those shifts for what has been traditional work calendars, what has been traditional work settings, to really opening up to creating inclusive workplaces by not focusing on the majority, but really focusing on how to you build inclusion within your organization. And it really does take you educating yourself, making some strategies, taking actions on it, checking your measure your metrics, and then coming back. And those metrics oftentimes are not numbers. They’re actually talking to people and actually getting their reactions and how do they feel about it to know where you were, what the next step is, and what changes you may need to make in the actions you’ve already taken. So I’m excited for some organizations in what they’re working on right now. That’s all I’m gonna say. And I’ve talked a lot so

KC: 

you just named what I wanted name also, which is just to take this ally, one pager that is down here, the link, and, and then just, you know, if you’re in a, you’re in an organization, you can maybe think, okay, you know, what, how do we do the A, how do we do the L and the other L and the Y, like just listing some little things down? And just saying, this is how we’re going to these are the options for each of these letters. So if you want to raise your awareness, how can we help raise awareness? If you want to listen, here’s how you can listen to native voices. If you want to learn, here’s some links to learn. If you want to say yes to action, here are some actions you can take. So even just helping yourself number one, and then sharing that little list and saying what are some other ideas that you all They have and growing that together, because if you can do it together and community, then it’s less about, like, I know, or I don’t know, it’s just about this is what we want and value learning more about and digging in deeper and just modeling that, to me. That’s what I’ve been thinking about, like, how can I do this for myself, and then also my sphere of influence? And so this was an idea that came up and you just named it as well?

Michele: 

Yes. Okay. So that is what we have for this week, everybody, um, more to come for sure. We just been busy. I tell you that much.

KC: 

Yes.

Michele: 

So, um, yesterday did a webinar with American Chemical Society. And literally, they have K through 12, to corporate and independent consultants. So it was a great audience of mixed audience, but serving, you know, delivering content on and training on diversity, equity inclusion, for those levels. Really fun, because it got me to thinking about what that looks like when you have ally ship. And I thought about what ally ship was like in college for me, and getting to share that. And so as we continue to grow and move through those through, through our years in time here together, we definitely want to share with different tactics and tools you can use within your organization, as well as within your own community. So it’s not one and done. We are definitely definitely going to go to help you alone that way. And this, this one pager isn’t just the start of how you can get started or stay in action as an ally. Yes, yes. All right, everybody. We will talk to you next week. Have a good one. Oh,