Special Invitation to Indigenous Friends
“Decolonizing Quakers” (decolonizingquakers.org ) working group started as an effort of primarily white Quakers to improve knowledge of and relationships with Indigenous people of the USA & Canada. The working group has come to understand the need to add and center Indigenous and African American voices in our ‘decolonizing’ work moving forward.
But we as a working group with the ‘decolonizing’ name have a problem: we’re not clear on how each of us uses the word, especially in different racial groups. To this end we invite Indigenous Friends of Turtle Island (Quakers who are direct descendants of Indigenous peoples of ‘North America’) to gather with tom kunesh (Lakota/mixt) to discuss the term ‘ decolonizing ’ and to see if we can come to some agreement on its meaning and goals among us as Indigenous Friends.
Decolonizing Quakers working group invites all Turtle Island Indigenous Friends to meet online on Zoom on Saturday 5 February 2022, starting at 14:00 Atlantic/ 13:00 Eastern/ 12:00 Central/ 11:00 Mountain/ 10:00 Pacific/ 09:00 Alaska/ 07:00 Hawaii. Pre-registration is required.
Indigenous Friends plan to meet for about 4 hours ~ an hour of introductions, an hour of small group discussion, an hour of large group discussion, an hour of seeing if we can come up with our own description of ‘decolonization’. If you are Indigenous, a Friend, and interested, please fill out the interest/ contact form here at google.com/forms/ . Questions can be directed to tom kunesh tom@kunesh.net.
Change History as it is Being Made Today
Broken promises about health care and Indigenous-led education affect Native communities today. Complex legal boundaries still threaten the safety of tribal members, especially women. And lands, water, and resources are still being taken from Indigenous Peoples. Join in advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples spelled out in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and highlighted in the news from Tribal Nations.