Thu, Dec 14, 2017
When it comes to sharing with others, we are often more concerned about what we are going to lose than what we stand to gain. However, if we look at the bigger picture and see that we are in this together, we would see things differently. Indigenous knowledge can offer an understanding of the world as it really is and can help us positively transform our communities.
Sun, Dec 31, 2017
Frontliner and activist Joye Braun has given her life in the pursuit of clean and safe water for her Chayenne River Sioux people and all Americans. She has spent years leading the protests at Standing Rock (North Dakota Pipeline) and the Keystone XL Pipeline. Her life is a song for Mother Earth.
Wed, Feb 14, 2018
Australian Aboriginal youth are taking their own lives at the highest rate in the world. The accumulation of intergenerational trauma, continued prejudice and racism from people and institutions, lack of local opportunity, and lack of support systems are leaving kids with an incredible amount of stress and no vision of the future.
Wed, Feb 28, 2018
Manaaki - A verb in the Maori language means to support, take care of, give hospitality to, protect, look out for - show respect, generosity and care for others. For those unhappy with the way that things are unfolding around our communities and environment and want to bring healing to our world, the traditional people of New Zealand have a lesson for us.
Wed, Feb 28, 2018
Stereotypes, stigmas, prejudice, bias - all cling to us for one main reason: assumption. We hear it from others or see it on the street or in TV and movies and think that it's true. Racism is born out of these assumptions. How to melt the stereotype threat? Really meet people. When we get out of our comfort zone, our safe area from which we can cast out our perceptions, then we learn that the world is a much different place than we've been told.
Sat, Mar 31, 2018
In the 1900s concentration camps weren't exclusive to Europe. Aboriginal people were treated like cattle in Australia from the late 1700s until the 1960s, and perhaps well after, and this story of family breakup is just the tip of the iceberg. History books are written by the victors and the founding of Australia is not what they say it is. However, the past does not define us. We get to script our lives from here. Darryl has turned pain into passion and his family history into a vocation of service to all.
Sat, Apr 14, 2018
Incarceration and genocide during the 1860s nearly wiped out the Navajo (Diné) People, but they've come roaring back. The US Government set up a concentration camp at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico for the Navajo and Apache people, and trapped them there under tragic conditions for over four years. The Navajo only arrived after the 400 mile "Long Walk", across the desert, where many ran away, were stolen, or passed to the other side. Nearly half that started the walk did not return; however, the Navajo people have made a huge comeback and number 300,000 today. They are real unlikely heroes.
Mon, Apr 30, 2018
Money is an exchange that has lost it's real currency, love. Money is just paper now. There is another way to pass along goods and services, a money alternative: giving to people. The art of giving, the way the Diné (Navajo) people exchange with one another, is explained by visionary artist and System Buster Bahe "Buddy" Whitethorne Jr. When inspired, he gives away his stunning paintings and won't accept money in return.
Mon, May 14, 2018
The explosion of poverty porn, where a newscaster or filmmaker myopically dives into an impoverished area to share only the sad conditions of that poverty, while perhaps innocent in nature, instead of helping those individuals is doing them a great disservice. This portrayal of minorities, in media and film, Native Americans and others, feeds the misunderstanding, pity, and judgment of them, as the viewer only sees one small slice of life, which comes through the filter of someone who has spent limited time among them. A couple living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Oglala Lakota people, those represented in Dances with Wolves, and part of the larger Lakota tribe which includes Standing Rock, have a solution - start a film school. With little space or money, they have built a small school and have been making documentaries and narrative films. Reel Jobs Film School, an endeavor in their Cloud Horse Arts non-profit, is showing that even with very little, we can change public perception.