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!


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