By Tonya Russell — 2021
Sometimes, doing the work means looking at yourself and your actions first.
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CLEAR ALL
“Just a reminder: the system in what is currently known as the US isn’t ‘broken.’ It was designed by male white supremacist slaveowners on stolen Indigenous land to protect their interests. It’s working as it was designed.” ~Dr. Adrienne Keene (Cherokee)
The Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers petition to Pope Benedict XVI asking to revoke the three papal bulls authorizing the conversion and subjugation of the Indigenous Peoples of America.
Thirteen matriarchs from indigenous cultures are currently touring the world, promoting peace, unity, and a respect for nature. nicola Graydon meets one of them, Mona Polacca.
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In my upbringing, I was taught that everyone is my relative. That we are all relatives. My parents and grandparents instilled this value since I was a child and I notice that, without question, it helps me to see the value in each person and living thing.
“Women are like a mirror image of Mother Earth. We feel her pain. These heartaches that we feel are part of the compassion that women have, and we need to act on that compassion.” Mona Polacca.
“Grandma Aggie” is here to help us honor the water. She tells the gathered crowd of two hundred that the water hears us when we thank it for cleaning us and quenching our thirst. “We are all water babies”, she says, reminding us that we are composed largely of water.
We’ve also learned that, unlike other Americans who have had crimes committed against them, Native people, historically and today, have had little success seeking reparations in court.
Cultural appropriation in fashion plays a huge role in the continued dismissal of indigenous cultures as primitive, dismisses indigenous people as playthings, and perpetuates the idea that we are relics of the past.