Acknowledgements
Living on Teejop - Indigenous Land
I live on land known to most as Madison, WI, but taken from the Ho-Chunk people and known to them as as Teejop. I'm grateful to the Ho-Chunk, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Myaamia, Sauk and Meskwaki, Peoria, and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) people who have loved and tended the land I now love and tend for thousands of years. I'm grateful for the strong presence of Ho-Chunk and Ojibwe (Chippewa) communities in and around Teejop today. There are 12 Indigenous Nations of Wisconsin: Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Brothertown Nation (not federally/state recognized), Forest County Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk Nation, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Oneida Nation, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Sokaogon Chippewa Community, St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, Stockbridge-Munsee, Community Band of Mohican Indians. I am grateful to be a part of their community and sorry for the suffering they have endured and continue to endure under colonialism.
Wa’įnįįgįnapšąną - Thank you.
Black Lives Matter
Stories shape our worldview, the stories we choose to hear and the stories we choose to tell.
Stories open our imagination to new ideas, places, cultures, and people. Stories deepen our empathy and understanding.
George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, and the world took notice, but he was not the first, nor the last BIPOC* murdered by police. (*Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color)
We can choose to hear this story of injustice, of systems built out of slave catching.
We can choose to seek the stories of Black and Indigenous people and all People of Color.
Historical and current. Of tragedy and triumph.
We can use our imagiNATION to imagine a better nation.
We can choose to seek the stories we are not told.
Witnessing Injustice
Injustice surrounds us. It is built into our systems, but we don't have accept it.
As a cis, white, able-bodied woman, I carry privilege, but I no longer carry guilt. I am not responsible for what happened before me, but I am responsible for what I do with it now. I make mistakes, but that is part of being human - being a human who wants better for our nation.
Please join me in recognizing systems of oppression and changing how we interact with them - from understanding the racial history of our country, to acknowledging trans people in their full humanity, to learning to interrupt hate, to not putting down our bodies (especially in the presence of children), to discovering our ancestral and family stories. There's a lot to do, but there's a lot we can do if we take it one step at a time. Thank you.