A Native American voice sheds lights on indigenous teachings

Brittney Walley, a member of the Nipmuc people, joined the Hopkinton Freedom Team at our August meeting. HFT member and high school student Sai Gudempati introduced Ms. Walley. Among her many talents, Ms. Walley is the Nipmuc tribal anti-mascot representative and speaks in schools and elsewhere regarding the use of mascots, indigenous teachings and other issues. Here is a little information about Brittney


Photo Source: Ohketeau's post in Part II of the Living Present series

Ms. Walley received a number of challenging questions and answered them all with patience and kindness along with helpful resources and suggestions for further exploration. While helping the participants to see the bigger picture of the necessity to educate ourselves and our community more about indigenous issues, she also stressed the importance for us to form meaningful relationships and an ongoing connection with local Indigenous tribal people.


General resources and Calls to Action to learn and educate ourselves (provided by Brittney):

  • Information about and action steps related to Line 3 at stopline3.org with the camps asking for more people to come out, donations to keep the camps running smoothly, and spreading awareness and education about what Line 3 is about.

  • MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda: Explore the various bills at the legislature, including the Mascot bill & the IPD bill. When an action item comes up, it's usually added to the website, and we could connect to the statewide steering committee if interested.
    maindigenousagenda.org

  • The Living Presence of our History series through Ohketeau. This series covers many topics. It is not an authority, but still a helpful resource.

  • For those on social media who are interested in being updated on Line 3, I suggest following Giiwedin who is on the ground and posting nearly every day. Ugrunna, another Native creator, just went back out there again recently. If you explore this page of the Line 3 resource linked above, you can read about what they were a part of on their first trip out there:
    stopline3.org/news/willowriver-shutdownconstruction 

  • For parents or anyone involved with children, I highly recommend the book "We are Water Protectors" by Carole Lindstrom. She is Anishinabe/Metis. The book brings diversity to a child's bookshelf and also helps educate about real life issues. (And the illustrations are gorgeous.) It earned the 2021 Caldecott Medal and is a New York Times Bestseller. On the website, it is described as "a picture book inspired by Standing Rock, and all Indigenous Peoples fighting for clean water."
    carolelindstrom.com/learn-more-about-we-are-water-protectors

A huge thank you to Sai for arranging this helpful presentation and discussion with Brittney Walley!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hopkinton's First Pride Parade 2021

Image
Historical First Pride Parade in Hopkinton Massachusetts  Celebrated during Pride month on June 26th, 2021 On June 26th, 2021, Hopkinton celebrated its very first Pride Parade around the Hopkinton High School track. The event was organized by Hopkinton Freedom Team in collaboration with the Hopkinton Youth Commission .  The event was a triumphant one in many ways. Planning for the event occurred in slightly unusual circumstances with the continued consequences of Covid, as well as the lead organizer for the event, Freya Proudman, being stationed thousands of miles away studying at university in England. Despite that, the parade was a unanimous success thanks to the dedication of Freya and fellow Hopkinton Freedom Team member Madison Loos, who is also President of the Gender Sexuality Alliance and incoming senior at Hopkinton High School. Many members of the community volunteered their time and effort in making this event a big success.  To many, the parade stood as a way to show suppo
Read more

Working Together For Change: Active Bystander workshop

Image
Two-part Active Bystander Training Workshop was offered to three age groups in Hopkinton between May-June 2021 After a well-received two-part Active Bystander workshop for town employees and members of town boards and committees with the Hopkinton Freedom Team in the winter of 2021, the Hopkinton Youth & Family Services brought three more training workshops to the Hopkinton community in May and June. The workshop was facilitated by  True Story Theater . A two-part workshop was held for adults 21+ and another two-part session held for high school and college-age students while a single session was held for middle school students with an adult of their choosing. The Active Bystander Training workshops were all held on Zoom and led by True Story Theater whose mission is “Fostering a culture of empathy, respect, and creativity.”   The topics covered and skills learned in the workshops embodied that goal. The facilitators gave an opportunity for the participants to examine one’s own i
Read more