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Sunsetting Honor Native Land

“Acknowledgment by itself is a small gesture. It becomes meaningful when coupled with authentic relationship and informed action. But this beginning can be an opening to greater public consciousness of Native sovereignty and cultural rights, a step toward equitable relationship and reconciliation.” (USDAC attribution)

With more than 45,000 downloads,the USDAC Honor Native Land (HNL) toolkit and accompanying materials have powerfully and purposefully amplified the practice of land acknowledgement—with significant impact across many sectors. From 2017 to the present, the HNL work contributed to a burgeoning field of solidarity, understanding, and decolonization. When authored in 2017, the HNL toolkit filled a void. Today, land acknowledgments are almost commonplace, and have shifted in ways we did not always anticipate. Our intention has always been to use acknowledgments as a starting place for much more significant and bold solidarity action. With gratitude and deep reflection, we are sunsetting our HNL programs. Numerous organizations exist to support the movement from acknowledgement to action and we now defer to them.

The USDAC trajectory with land acknowledgements began with non-Indigenous allies, at the encouragement of and with deep consultation from numerous Indigenous individuals and groups. Specifically, the USDAC convened Indigenous activists, artists and culture bearers on the forefront of many movements. This deepened and broadened our understanding and scope for land acknowledgements and the sphere of operation they should inhabit. Land acknowledgements are beyond statements, they have dimensions beyond geographic, academic, political, Indigenous and colonial realms. 

The USDAC is deeply committed to the shifts and potential impacts for those who are touched and reached through thoughtful land acknowledgements. As land acknowledgements become more commonplace, the impacts have become more complicated. We recognize ever changing landscapes require deliberate and informed ongoing action.  Because of these and other circumstances, we have made the thoughtful decision to sunset USDAC Honor Native Land programs. The toolkit and other resources will continue to exist, but It is time for others with a strong pulse on the spheres enveloping land acknowledgements and those better equipped and staffed, to proactively lead the charge. 

The foundation of the Honor Native Land campaign goes beyond naming the humans who inhabited and continue to steward the land. HNL is an assertion that we are all connected to the earth, the water, the air, the cosmos, and each other. Our destinies are intertwined in this moment of change. We join together, as collective liberators, promoting and creating change that honors all living beings. We lead with hearts, minds, and creativity, knowing that policies and governments will follow. The USDAC will always Honor Native Land, and the program we set on behalf of such. 

We remain grateful to the previous members of the USDAC team who created and evolved USDAC’s HNL work—Adam Horowitz, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Arlene Goldbard, Gabrielle Uballez, and Jaclyn Roessel—and to the many partners and advisors who helped us forge and walk this path! With gratitude, we acknowledge and thank them. (Biographies below)

We encourage you to utilize these land acknowledgement resources, and always seek and contribute to liberation!!

Resources on Land Acknowledgement:

Deep gratitude to everyone who has downloaded and forwarded the toolkit and assisted with our vision and efforts. Particularly, we thank the following key contributors to the USDAC Honor Native Land efforts:

FAQ’s:

Why are you sunsetting your efforts?

Our dreams for HNL are being manifested by others and frankly, we do not have the manpower to take it to the levels and realms we envision. 

What are the USDAC dreams beyond Land Acknowledgements?

We envision broad understanding that land acknowledgements are central to understanding complicated histories of people and regions. We emphasize the necessity for including perceptions beyond land and people. The realms for these understandings include air, water, plants, animals, birds, spirit, memory, and more.

How can I help move land acknowledgements to new levels and realms?

Educate yourself and others about sovereignty, Indigenous rights, Land Back, and Indigenous reparations. Support these movements. Our resource list can assist with your connections. 

Who else should we connect with for Land Acknowledgment guidance?

Several great resources are listed and linked above, along with a few articles that will lend information about the changing landscape of land acknowledgments. 

Where are the people who used to lead this program?

They are still part of our valued network. We have put links to their websites in the thank you above. 

Are your resources still available for use?

Most definitely. We believe the work produced through this effort is valuable so the toolkit will remain available on our website. 


What can I do if I need more assistance than is offered in the toolkit?

For a donation to our non-profit, the USDAC team is available to consult with your organization. We can lend expert advice on how to craft your specific acknowledgement. Just ask!

How will you continue to prioritize Indigenous voices in your work?

The USDAC holds Indigenous rights as central to all social justice work. Our work is now focused on supporting and connecting cultural organizers to movement spaces. This means we honor, support, and include Indigenous expressions and actions.

Dispatches from Borikén and Providence: Shey Rivera Rios

Introduction: Shey Ri Acu Rivera Rios is a Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist and community organizer based in Providence, RI. In this blog post, they introduce us to their practice and urge us to support the people in Puerto Rico who are experiencing the ramifications of Hurricane Fiona, and Hurricanes Maria and Irma from years prior. To learn more about their practice, view their presentation during our 2022 Fall Network Gathering here.

PHOTO CREDIT: CAT LAINE, PAINTED FOOT STUDIO

Tai karaya, hola a todes, hello everyone. 

I’m Shey Ri Acu Rivera Ríos, born and raised in the island of Boriken, and otherwise known as the settlement of Puerto Rico, land of Taino people and of AfroCaribbean resistance. 

And I live in Providence, RI, land of Narragansett and Wampanoag peoples, and a long lineage of Black leaders. 

I come from a land of mangoes and rainstorms, of wet soil, and warm seas. My people are warriors and healers. My people understand the power of joy in times of hardship. My people are proud. My people can knock down colonial governors and sustain movements of self determination across time, against hurricane winds, snapping skirts at the beat of drums under the canopies of the fiery red flamboyan trees. Today I am a person with a heart that is split between two geographies and has learned to call this abundance. 

I’m a multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. I’m a 2012 Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) alum. I use performance, visual art, and storytelling to imagine better futures for and with the communities I’m a part of. I am an independent artist and founder of Studio Loba, a storytelling lab that uses art to strengthen social causes. I’ve worked with many amazing organizations, including AS220, an arts and culture organization in Providence, First Peoples Fund in Lakota territory, and One Square World, - a climate justice org in Boston. And I’m the Co-Director of an abolitionist futures project called Moral Docs alongside co-director and arts facilitator Vatic Kuumba. 

My practice is informed by my experience in the arts, community development, and social practice. But most of all, it is informed by my family and growing up in rural Borikén, and the experience of colonization. I use whatever medium I can, to create stories to imagine decolonial possibilities. And I’ve been on a long journey that has led me in the path of using art and creative practice to impact policy. Whether it’s imagining abolitionist futures that invest in and center community care; or imagining a liberated future for Borikén where Black, and Indigenous,  women, and nonbinary folks are leading the way into new governance models; or writing poems of queer love. I’m here for the possibilities of being better together. 

I want to uplift the experience of the people of Borokén right now, at the 5th anniversary of the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma, and the very recent trail of Hurricane Fiona. And the humanitarian crisis that reminds us how the climate crisis is connected to colonization and white supremacy. And uplifting the people on the ground in Borikén who have long been doing the work to shed light on the injustices and the problems, those who ground us in hope, and those who lead the way and take risks to engage us in bold reimaginings. 

This can only happen with intercultural and intersectional coalition building. It can only happen with truth and vulnerability and risk to walk in our truth and learn from others.  

The Art Worlds We Want: Solidarity Art Economies

Guest Blog by Nati Linares and Caroline Woolard

 

[USDAC Introduction: Last year, we launched A People’s WPA, a bold reimagining of labor. New Economy Coalition has been at the forefront of reimagining economic systems for artists. This is an excerpt from a piece written by art.coop’s Nati Linares and Caroline Woolard in 2021 for Nonprofit Quarterly. Read the entire piece. Through our blog, we are excited to continue to bring you reflections and provocations from our partners in the field.]

We are two mothers, listening, learning, in a pandemic, writing to you from the United States, on unceded Nipmuc, Podunk, Tunxis, Wangunk, and Sicoag land on the East Coast. Here—and likely where you are—artists and culture bearers are innovating models for liberation. We tuck in our babies, hold their small hands through the virus and tear gas, and continue the intergenerational work. We are Nati Linares and Caroline Woolard—a cultural organizer and an artist—and we believe that every cultural worker should be able to feed their children and pay their rent. We believe that culture is the key to reimagining the collective vision of what’s possible. As you read this, we invite you to sense the heartbeats that flow through it. This is one effort among many. This is an invitation to join a long process of transformation—together.

Recently, in an Anticapitalism for Artists workshop,1 musician Clara Takarabe said: “I have asked, as you have probably asked: Is there a place in this world for me? Today, I would reframe that question as: Is this the world we deserve?”2 Takarabe reminds us that together we can join and organize the worlds we deserve—in the arts and beyond. In fact, the people who have been most harmed by our current system of neoliberal and racial capitalism are creating community-controlled, hyperlocal economies that move us beyond capitalism. The systems that artists want are not only possible, they already exist—and they can be strengthened and cultivated with intention.

There are many examples. A leading Native artisan co-op in the country, Qualla Arts and Crafts, has been led by culture bearers since 1946.3 In Boston, a democratically managed investment fund, Boston Ujima Project, places Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) arts and cultural organizing at the heart of its work.4 A leading national community loan fund that invests in U.S. worker co-ops, The Working World, was started by artists.5 Artists in Belgium founded Smart, the co-op that gives 35,000 freelancers the benefits of full-time employees (including unemployment insurance).6 Smart’s model is now being piloted in the United States by the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives’ Guilded.7

Why should culture and economic innovation go together? Because, right now, we have a superstar system in which the winners take all and the rest are left with crumbs. Because, just like art, housing and dignified work are human rights. Because artists are the original gig workers. Because culture making and political organizing go hand in hand. Because we want a world in which everyone’s needs are met, so that everyone can participate in the remaking of culture and society. Because an artist living in a community land trust in New York City will have twenty-seven hours a week to make art, compared to an artist in market-priced housing who will have four hours a week for artmaking.8 Because we must repair centuries of injustice.

While practices of equitable and sustainable self-determination and community control are rooted in a myriad of ancestral and community norms, the term solidarity economy is relatively recent. The term emerged in Chile and France in the 1980s,9 gained popularity in Latin America in the 1990s as economía solidaria, and then spread globally as an interdependent movement after the first annual World Social Forum in Brazil, in 2001, which popularized the slogan “another world is possible.”10

The solidarity economy is now recognized internationally as a path to valuing people and the planet over profits and to uniting grassroots practices like lending circles, credit unions, worker cooperatives, and community land trusts to form a base of political power and transform our economy and world. Most people are aware of the discrete practices and models that comprise the solidarity economy, but do not know that there is a framework that holds these concepts together, or that these practices are supported holistically in other countries around the world.

The following are some examples of arts and culture groups and initiatives that are part of the solidarity economy in the United States. It is important to note that all networks and infrastructure in the solidarity economy—regardless of emphasis or not on arts and culture—aim to support artists and culture bearers.11

Read the entire piece for examples.

To support the solidarity economy with integrity in the United States and beyond, a slow process of relationship building between culture bearers, solidarity economy organizers, public sector workers, and arts and culture grantmakers must begin. Lasting impact will not be made if (1) solidarity economy becomes a buzzword, popular only for a short time, or (2) if newcomers with visibility are supported instead of community-based groups who have been doing this work for decades.

It’s clear that artists need a solidarity economy if we are to overcome our status as exploited workers. Likewise, the solidarity economy movement needs artists if it is to prevail. We believe that culture—visual arts, music, culinary arts, sports, video games, literature, theater, television, Web content, TikToks, and more—is the key to sparking the collective imagination of what’s actually possible when there is community control of our economies and resources. There have never been radical movements without radical artists and creators at the helm—so let’s get busy resisting, building, and creating.


Envisioning Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty

IMG_5896.jpeg

By Amber Starks (aka Melanin Mvskoke)

 

“What is Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty?” I ask myself this question regularly and have spent countless hours reading and digesting the works of scholars and academics, thought leaders and activists, community organizers and peers. Folks who do and live/have lived this work, who dream/have dreamt up technologies of resistance, and who have translated those ideas into research, books, opinion/think pieces, art, and community-led movement. 

It is in this question that I have developed my politics and have gained a greater understanding of what sovereignty and liberation are.  And it is by regularly returning to this question that I’ve found the boldness to speak to this idea of an authentic, sovereign Indigenous future and a fully realized, Black liberated future.  Not, however, as an authority on either subject but as a Black and Native person who is deeply invested in both of my communities.  As a willing participant in these movements of refusal.   Ultimately, it is my hope to contribute something genuine to the discourse and something tangible to the work that progresses us forward towards that which is actually possible.

Therefore, my present understanding of Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty is grounded in the notion that white supremacy, settler colonialism, and racial capitalism must be interrogated and dismantled. That an authentic sovereign Indigenous future is rooted in the fundamental belief that Indigenous peoples (globally) have the inherent right to self-governance, self-determination,  and political and social autonomy. That the contemporary “Land Back” movement is an articulation of our absolute right to be in relation with the land and to steward it as in the days of our ancestors.  Where the land is set free from capitalism and commodification. Where it is no longer deemed private property as a means of delegitimizing Indigenous people’ relationship with it. A  sovereign Indigenous future is also one where our epistemologies and understandings of the  natural world are honored and respected as legitimate, scientific knowledge. It is also a future  where the violence of white supremacy and the ongoing policies of settler colonialism no longer  contribute to the erasure and genocide of our tribes, nations, communities, or families. 

“ A  sovereign Indigenous future is also one where our epistemologies and understandings of the  natural world are honored and respected as legitimate, scientific knowledge.”

Additionally, a fully realized Black liberated future, in my opinion, is one rooted in the  fundamental belief that Black people (globally) are also sovereign and have the right to self determination and autonomy. Where our bodies and our lives are no longer commodities of  white supremacy and racial capitalism, but instead belong to us, to do as we please with them.  Where our health outcomes, quality of life, and life expectancies are not determined by our  positionality within this racialized hierarchy. Where our indigeneity to the lands of our ancestors  is also recognized and affirmed. Where proximity to whiteness is of no value and European  beauty standards don’t supersede our acceptance of Black beauty and love for self. Where we  bask in our cultures and ways of existing while rejecting the gaze and limitations thrust upon us  by those who rather see our demise than see us free! And finally, where our humanity fully is realized. 

Additionally, I fundamentally believe our arrival at Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty will certainly require us to remember who we are outside of our oppressors’ institutions, ideologies, and  imaginations. It is a future that will ask us to internalize and embody the notion that  subjugation is neither our birthright nor our inheritance. It will demand that we forfeit any loyalties to our current positioning and divest from any misguided belief that this is our lot. It is  not! Our destination of freedom will also challenge us to see ourselves and one another as worthy of something better than this!! 

If we expect to achieve this future, it will be our responsibility as Black folks and Native peoples to continue the work of those who came before us. To deconstruct the colonizer and the oppressor in our hearts, in our communities, and in our understanding of the world, with intentionality. To dismantle institutions that dehumanize us and to refuse ideologies of systems that seek to commodify and profit off our oppression. It is imperative that we remember that both of our peoples have  always been the authors of our liberation and the architects of our deliverance. That our ancestors were never passive in their subjugation but instead active participants in their fight towards freedom. That is the legacy we have been entrusted with. So as contemporary stewards  of this work, it is our responsibility to continue imagining the future fought for by our  predecessors while simultaneously envisioning a world and a future more brilliant than what our  oppressors have planned for us.

“It is our responsibility to continue imagining the future fought for by our  predecessors while simultaneously envisioning a world and a future more brilliant than what our  oppressors have planned for us.”

It is also my hope that as we build this future, prepare to inhabit it, and leave it to our descendants as  an inheritance that we understand the value of solidarity and community. Within community and between communities. As I absolutely believe that Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty are compatible movements of freedom. Black and Native folks have had to navigate this white supremacist, settler colonial, racial capitalist project for hundreds of years both independently and also in cooperation. Without romanticizing our past, we understand that there have been moments of authentic solidarity as well as moments of lateral harm and violence.  There have been moments of victory and moments of failure. 

Both of our peoples understand that existing within these systems has been hard. It has been brutal, unrelenting work. And through it all, our oppressors have always sought to pit us against one another. They have at times even required us to stand in for them against one another. These are the realities we must be honest about and it is our responsibility as Black folks and  Native peoples to acknowledge and address these harms. To talk through them. To try and see one another instead of erasing one another. To contextualize all this so that we can find a way to empathize with one another. Ultimately, we should want more for one another  instead of seeking to  replicate the evils and violence of our oppressors, as we understand what it means to have to endure under these systems and should, therefore, want no person to ever share in such misery. 

And while I believe it is for Black folks and Native peoples to lead the way and be active participants in the building of our futures, I think it’s equally important for non-Black and non-Native peoples to participate as well. Everyone has a responsibility to divest from anti-Blackness and to respect Indigenous sovereignty (and specifically tribal sovereignty). And for those who carry the political, legal, and social currency of whiteness and benefit from these systems that oppress and attempts to stifle the future of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, I believe it is their responsibility to use their currency to dismantle said systems with the intention of forfeiting their privilege and positionality within this hierarchy.

Finally, I will admit I am sometimes an overly hopeful person but I have learned to temper that hope with reality. So while I have hope in Black folks and Native peoples, I don’t expect perfection from us. I understand that in an attempt to build community and consensus we will be challenged. Doing this together will absolutely be hard work! We will undoubtedly make mistakes and will disagree. There may even be times where we don’t like one another. But none of those obstacles are reasons to stop pursuing what we deserve, Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty! 

So here’s to our future!

 
Amber Starks-Melanin Mvskoke Headshot2.jpg

Amber Starks, (aka Melanin Mvskoke) is an Afro Indigenous (African-American and Native American) activist, organizer, cultural critic, decolonial theorist, and budding abolitionist. She is an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and is also of Shawnee, Yuchi, Quapaw, and Cherokee descent.

Her passion is the intersection of Black and Native American identity. Her activism seeks to normalize, affirm, and uplift the multidimensional identities of Black and Native peoples through discourse and advocacy around anti-Blackness, abolishing blood quantum, Black liberation, and Indigenous sovereignty. She hopes to encourage Black and Indigenous peoples to prioritize one another and divest from compartmentalizing struggles. She ultimately believes the partnerships between Black and Indigenous peoples (and all People of Color) will aid in the dismantling of anti-blackness, white supremacy, and settler colonialism, globally.

She earned a Bachelor’s of Science in General Science (emphasis in Biology and Anthropology) from the University of Oregon. Her pronouns are she/her.


 

Press Release: U.S. Department of Arts and Culture launches “A People’s WPA” calling for a publicly funded artist works program

Wheatpaste action in Richmond, VA by Free Bangura

Wheatpaste action in Richmond, VA by Free Bangura

U.S. Department of Arts and Culture launches “A People’s WPA” calling for a publicly funded artist works program

This Labor Day, a new, vividly Illustrated book launches with a public “wheatpasting” poster campaign across 4 U.S. Cities, as US Congressional Representatives propose a new WPA style program.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM; CHICAGO, IL; DETROIT, MI; and RICHMOND, VA, September 6, 2021— On Labor Day, The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) will unveil 4 large-scale public “wheatpasting” poster campaigns in several US cities to coincide with the launch of A People’s WPA, a bold proposal (and book!) that aims to uplift essential forms of cultural work, and offer guidance on how to  build an inspiring vision of our shared future. The USDAC is a national people-powered network (not a federal agency) composed of artists, activists, and allies inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of equity, empathy, and belonging.

The richly illustrated publication, A People’s WPA, calls upon policy makers to institute a publicly-funded artist works program – reenvisioning the WPA of the past – that recognizes the ways that artists contribute to society along 7 themes: DEEPENING DEMOCRACY, HEALING, LIBERATION, NOURISHMENT, REGENERATION, REMEMBERING, and TRUTH TELLING. Over the course of a year, USDAC collaborated with 25 projects across the US that embody these ideas in action, and commissioned 25 poster artists to illustrate the power of their work. USDAC is excited to release a publication featuring these works, along with essays, toolkits and policy ideas that can help pave the way forward. 

Four artists/artist collectives in four different cities will deploy public wheatpasting campaigns of the WPA-style posters included in the book to promote the work.  They are: fronteristxs (Albuquerque, NM), William Estrada (Chicago, IL), Sacramento Knoxx (Detroit, MI), and Free Bangura (Richmond, VA). In addition to coinciding with A People’s WPA launch, the wheatpastes also coincide with the introduction of HB #5019 Creative Economy Revitalization Act (CERA) by Representatives Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) and Representative Jay Obernolte (D-CA), along with Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Ted Lieu (D-CA).

“A recovery from the pandemic must include culture at its core.” said Raquel de Anda, The USDAC’s Minister of Bridge Building. “A People’s WPA builds upon existing pieces of legislation and public works programs to affirm the role that artists play in repairing society and moving us all towards a more just, sustainable and enriching future,” 

For a complete list of posters and collaborators, visit usdac.us/peopleswpa 

Schedule of Events:

  • Twitter townhall lead-up event - Wednesday, September 1st

  • Poster campaign - Labor Day Weekend

  • Book launch - Labor Day

About the US Department of Arts and Culture

The USDAC is a network of artists, activists, and allies inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of equity, empathy, and belonging.

The USDAC affirms the right to culture and pursuing cultural democracy that:

  • Welcomes each individual as a whole person

  • Values each community’s heritage, contributions, and aspirations

  • Promotes caring, reciprocity, and open communication across all lines of difference

  • Dismantles all barriers to love and justice

Unearthing Truths: Reckoning with Our Nation's Indigenous Boarding School History

By Jaclyn Roessel, USDAC Director of Decolonized Futures & Radical Dreams

Ben Nelms/CBC: Memorial at the Kamloops Indian Residential School

Ben Nelms/CBC: Memorial at the Kamloops Indian Residential School

As a Diné child, I relished the time spent traveling to lectures that my dad delivered to museums and universities about his work as a photographer. The old Kodak projector slides dropped into focus with the rhythm of his lessons: Navajo people are the land, Navajo culture is Navajo survival. Native culture is Native survival. 

His talks would share what it meant to be Navajo. As he shared about his work he would illustrate the legacy of Federal Indian Policy and its treatment of Native people. I still couldn’t imagine at that age what the U.S. government boarding schools had done to attack the very essence of my identity and pride in my culture I held so dear. Each time he delivered a talk, he asked a simple question that rings in my head to this day: “how many schools do you know that have graveyards next to them?”

That question rings in my head again today, and the past several weeks as multiple First Nations and Indigenous communities have uncovered mass graveyards of people— many of them children— at the sites of former residential schools in Canada.

Here at the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, we’ve long stated the importance of providing a land acknowledgement before events, gatherings and meetings. Whether in-person or online, the purpose of a land acknowledgement is meant to restore and name the ancestral and continuing bond between Indigenous peoples and the land, air, minerals, water, vision that we’ve stewarded since time immemorial. We see this as a small first step toward being in right relationship, toward true Native sovereignty. Today, we ask you to join us in recommitting to acknowledging not only the proper stewards of our land, but the specific violence that keeps that space in settler occupation. We ask you to commit to naming and contextualizing the violence that undergirds the places we call home. 

For most Americans, the idea of a boarding school might invoke images of affluent college prep schools, or repositories for disobedient students. For Indigenous people in the US and Canada, the term brings forth terror. Indigenous boarding schools were a tactical experiment, supported by the US War Department and the Department of Interior. After hundreds of years of attempted ethnic genocide, Indigenous people maintained their hard-fought connection to land and culture. The U.S. government made the strategic decision to wage a new kind of war. Alongside the implementation of the Dawes Act of 1887, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was a targeted effort to obliterate the ties children had between their culture and land before they were fully developed.

The continuing slogan of the first boarding school, Carlisle Indian School was “kill the Indian, save the man.” A phrase illustrative of the genocidal agenda at the center of these institutions. The school opened in 1879 and swiftly became a “success” by white supremacist standards as the children were taught Euro-centric education and were severely punished for practicing any part of their culture, language or Indigenous way of knowings. 

According to the National Boarding School Healing Coalition, “between 1869 and the 1960s, it’s likely that hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and the churches. Though we don’t know how many children were taken in total, by 1900 there were 20,000 children in Indian boarding schools, and by 1925 that number had more than tripled.” 

In Canada, from the 1800s to 1996 over 150,000 children were removed from their families and communities. Regardless of which side of the colonial border, Indigenous children were sent away from everything they knew and forced to assimilate into the settler culture. For countless Indigenous children, this meant pervasive abuse, psychological torment, cultural erasure and, as the recent headlines illustrate, murder.

In times like these I think of my dad, the photographer, how do you photograph the invisible? How do you document the erased? The Indian Boarding School Project created ghost generations. I have never wanted to become accepting of this horrific legacy in the U.S. education system. Children “graduated” from these hellish places to find a country that regarded them as subhuman, no matter how hard they’d had the culture beaten out of them. Many tried to return home and found they could no longer communicate with their own families, or practice their most sacred rites. Many lay in graveyards next to these schools, waiting to be found. We see now that the ghosts of this trauma want to be seen.

So how can we begin to be in right relationship? Here are some first steps: 

  • Push for action to fund the U.S. efforts to investigate what happened to the thousands of children who didn’t return home: a call that Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland declared. Contact your representatives and let them know you support this call to action. 

  • Incorporate and specifically name the violence of boarding schools into the land acknowledgements you are already giving. Be explicit about the history necessary for truth-telling. (Check out the USDAC Native Land page if you don’t know how to get started)

  • Research the location of boarding schools near you. Since Carlisle proved to be “successful,” the U.S. and Canadian governments funded the opening of these schools across both countries, many times partnering with churches like the Catholic Church to operate these schools. For these reasons there are hundreds of schools that were opened across the U.S. and Canada.

  • You can access the curriculum of the National Indian Boarding School Healing Coalition to learn more about the history of the boarding school here. 

  • You can teach the children in your life about the boarding school experience. There is a very poignant, child-appropriate episode of Molly of Denali here from PBS. You can read and access questions to help have a generative conversation with the children in your life here. 

  • You can participate in Orange Shirt Day, a legacy project meant to build awareness of the residential school project and its harmful events. 

Indigenous Nations and communities have long carried the living history and trauma of the boarding school era. It is time for allies to help in fighting for justice and truth. Without truth we will never reach the hope of reconciliation. 

Press Release: Announcing the 2021 Poetic Address to the Nation

The US Department of Arts and Culture joins with The Theater Offensive and MASSCreative to present the Poetic Address to the Nation, April 22, 7pm ET

The event will be the culmination of the 2021 People’s State of the Union

BOSTON, March 30, 2021 — The US Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), The Theater Offensive (TTO), and MASSCreative announced today that they will be collaborating to present the seventh annual Poetic Address to the Nation on April 22nd, 7pm ET. Every year, the USDAC sponsors the People’s State of the Union, inviting community members across the country to host story circles in their own homes, schools, houses of worship, and community organizations, engaging in conversations that reveal the state of our union. The Poetic Address to the Nation invites writers, performers, and activists to present work inspired by the stories. TTO will produce the virtual 2021 Poetic Address to the Nation, featuring exemplary Boston-based and national performers, in partnership with the USDAC and MASSCreative.

The USDAC is a people-powered national action network (not a federal agency) composed of artists, activists, and allies inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of equity, empathy, and belonging. Founded in 1989, TTO is a social change organization that presents liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color. MASSCreative advocates for a well-resourced and equitable creative sector that is essential to the economic and civic vibrancy of Massachusetts.

“The combination of national scope and deeply-local roots is precisely what the USDAC stands for,” said the USDAC Co-Director Jordan Seaberry, and Chief Ray of Sunshine, Carol Zou. “The Poetic Address to the Nation seeks to build radically imaginative interventions across the country, and the values of TTO and MASSCreative are the embodiment of those principles.”

This year, community members across the nation were invited to reflect on the interlocking crises of systemic racism, eviction, poverty, access to healthcare, and more laid bare by COVID-19.

“The Theater Offensive’s deep roots in trans and queer communities of color allow us to bring artists and stories to the forefront that often are marginalized, especially as COVID has revealed some of the structural inequalities that have always marked our neighborhoods,” said Harold Steward, Executive Director and Cultural Strategist at TTO. 

“We stand with the belief that democracy is not a monologue, it’s a conversation,” said Tri Quach, Director of Engagement and Organizing at MASSCreative. “The Poetic Address to the Nation will demonstrate how vital that conversation will be to the future of our union.” 

The Poetic Address to the Nation is historically an in-person event; moving it virtually this year allows partners and participants to expand the event’s accessibility beyond any single space, bridging communities across geographic boundaries. Those connections are the foundation of what Story Circles can weave in communities across the country.

The 2021 People’s State of the Union

April 22, 2021

7 to 8 pm ET

Register by clicking here, or by visiting https://usdac.us/psotu/

About the US Department of Arts and Culture

The USDAC is a network of artists, activists, and allies inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of equity, empathy, and belonging.

The USDAC affirms the right to culture and pursuing cultural democracy that:

  • Welcomes each individual as a whole person

  • Values each community’s heritage, contributions, and aspirations

  • Promotes caring, reciprocity, and open communication across all lines of difference

  • Dismantles all barriers to love and justice

About the Theater Offensive

The Theater Offensive’s mission is liberation. To present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression.

About MASSCreative

MASSCreative advocates for a well-resourced and equitable creative sector that is essential to the economic and civic vibrancy of Massachusetts. Working with its organizational and individual members, MASSCreative advances the public policy, grassroots advocacy learning, and cross-sector alliances necessary to creating a Commonwealth where art, culture, and creativity are a valued part of everyday life.

On the Tragic Passing of Amelia Brown, USDAC Cabinet Member

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“Emergencies not only create new problems but compound existing issues. They also offer opportunities to create new solutions.” 

- Amelia Brown

From Art Became the Oxygen; A Guide to Artistic Response

I’m deeply saddened to report the sudden death of my friend, colleague and fellow USDAC Cabinet member Amelia Ruth Brown. She died suddenly of a heart attack on January 16th at the age of 41. Amelia believed fiercely that art can transform, heal and repair communities, including those devastated by natural and manmade disasters. As an artist, writer, community organizer, activist and consultant, Amelia was a fearless force of nature, bringing light, love, energy and passion into every room she entered. Her heart was as big as her infectious smile; even if you just met her, she’d act like you were long-lost friends.

She traveled the world, sharing her research on the role of the arts and artists in repairing wounds, and advocated for the arts to be fully integrated in emergency relief efforts. From post-Katrina New Orleans to earthquake-devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, Amelia crisscrossed the globe several times, inspiring audiences and bringing practical solutions to light. She founded the nonprofit Emergency Arts, which was her passion, and worked in a wide variety of settings: LISC, AmeriCorps, Forecast Public Art, and the City of Minneapolis, where she helped develop DEI educational programs for city staff. She also led the charge to develop a resolution for the City declaring racism a public health crisis, leading to reallocation of city funds, and leveraged city funding of $100,000 to support artists’ response to the police killing of George Floyd. 

At her memorial service, held on the 23rd, there were numerous words used to describe Amelia: “warrior for justice, big-hearted, energy, spirited, kind, thoughtful, hopeful, caring, passionate, in-the-moment, nature-lover, supportive, soulful, and great hugger.” We need fierce warriors like Amelia—now, more than ever. Her work needs to continue, and I—along with many of you—remain committed to keeping her legacy alive as the world struggles with healing, recovery and rebuilding.  I invite you to read one of her last articles, entitled Art: Creating Possibilities in Emergencies. Rest in Justice, Amelia, and may your legacy live forever!


- Jack Becker, Public Art Mobilizer, USDAC National Cabinet

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A Truthful Indigenous Peoples’ Day

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What does it mean to “shelter-in-place” for people who have been displaced?

What meaning does a “stay-at-home” order hold for people who have been ripped from their ancestral homes? Here at the USDAC, we believe that culture is a human right, and that belonging is critical to community survival. This Indigenous Peoples’ Day, let us acknowledge the land we’re sheltering on, the air we’re filtering through masks, the water we’re drinking. It’s time to move that acknowledgement into action. Take this moment to join us in committing to not just “reopening” our country, but to reimagining it. 

We’ve seen roiling protests for Black Lives and a raging global pandemic that are both reshaping our understanding of grief and connection. Our communities are reckoning with the historical injustice of racism, highlighted by the disparate response to the pandemic, the long-standing need for health equity, fair housing, full employment and so much more. I have been witnessing from my partner’s homelands of the Tamayame, meditating on my people’s sacred stories. Sacred stories ground me. They let me see beyond the profit-motivated decisions to reopen economies, even as our people suffer and die.

On Monday, over 130 cities across this country, 14 states and numerous communities will celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This important action is a powerful method of truth-telling. By renaming this federal holiday, we amplify Indigenous truth and history.

 
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Imagine a turning point this Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Imagine after Monday, your workplace, your local museum, your child’s classroom all begin the day by naming and acknowledging the ancestral stewards of the land beneath our feet, the nourishing water and the air we breathe. As communities decide on reopening, we can decide to do things differently. Don’t let your workplace, your school, your church, your library reopen with business as usual. We can reopen in truth.

In my Dine’ community, our origin stories show us how to live in right relationship with this world. Each story shows us how interconnected we are to each other— plants, animals and all the other creatures on this planet. Indigenous communities like mine hold origin stories at the forefront of our covenant with the Earth and the worlds around us. These stories describe how the worlds came to be, how we five-fingered beings came to be.

We can see small cracks of consciousness opening toward what a world honoring and valuing Black and brown lives could really mean. In the origin of this nation, two factors played outsized roles: stolen land and stolen labor. Both Indigenous genocide and Black slavery are the bedrock’s of this nation’s current wealth and prosperity. Calling those histories forth can help us understand our placement in time, and can help us build a new path forward. 

We’re calling on you to hold your community institutions, elected officials, workplaces, friends and others accountable to the truth.

Use our guide, or any of the many other useful resources, but start the conversation today. Here are some ways you can start:

Commit to learning. As Equal Justice Initiative founder and author Bryan Stevenson shared on a recent episode of the Sunstorm podcast, “Learning is an action item.” As we work toward justice, it’s necessary to build our knowledge and make it accessible to others. (Side note: Stevenson shares much wisdom in this episode illustrating the importance of Black Indigenous solidarity, listen & learn.)

Just as my ancestors emerged into this Glittering World millenia ago, we have the beautiful opportunity to establish a world where white supremacy’s reign can—and will— end. We can co-create this reality. It’s within reach. But it demands that we not be silent. It demands that we acknowledge the truths of the past and move to action.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: The People’s WPA! DEADLINE September 25

Like many of you, we’ve been wondering what is within our unique capacity to respond to COVID-19. Like many of you, we've been inspired by the myriad ways that artists and creative interlopers have rallied to meet the needs of their communities.

Informed by our many conversations with advisors, friends, and YOU, we’re so excited to launch The People’s WPA! Over the course of Fall and Winter, 2020 we'll be embarking on a listening, learning and storytelling project with the goal of convincing policymakers to invest in arts, culture-making and newly reimagined sectors of labor critical to our collective healing and survival. Are you or someone you know working to build a more just, equitable and sustainable world through an existing project? If so, let us know about it and join us in crafting The People’s WPA!

Please nominate yourself or someone you know to be part of the inaugural People’s WPA cohort by September 25, 2020. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION, or visit usdac.us/peopleswpa.

 
People's WPA poster by N'Deye Diakhate

People's WPA poster by N'Deye Diakhate

 
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