Land Reparations: A Journey of the Heart

Recent webinars on Land Acknowledgement (available here) highlighted and underscored the significance of understanding that the land on which we live, work, and worship is land to which its original inhabitants belonged and from whom it was stolen. We emphasized that acknowledging this systemic land theft was only a first step in healing the injuries a pervasive settler-colonist culture inflicted on the Indigenous peoples.

This webinar extends our conversation from Land Acknowledgement to Land Reparation. Our Indigenous colleagues wisely counseled that reparation is a journey of the heart. We are now at the crossroads of an incredible opportunity to shift our consciousness from “we-them” to “we-us.”  It requires relationships, collaboration, ongoing dialogue, and the recognition that it is primarily an inward journey of deep reflection and learning from each other.

The next in our series of seeking right relationship with Indigenous peoples offers an opportunity:

• for Friends to get to know one another in exploring what right relationship calls forth from their hearts as we discuss Land Reparations;
• for facilitated self-and group reflection and discernment, and;
• or interaction with a panel of Indigenous people committed to ongoing dialogue in rebuilding a culture of interdependence with peoples, the Earth, and its creatures.

Leader(s)

tom kunesh and twelve siblings were born to a Standing Rock lakota tribal member mom and a white lawyer dad, and grew up good-and-catholic in Minnesota on what had been dakota & anishinaabe contested land. He joined the Navy for adventure and the GI Bill, became a linguist, served in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and Spain, and studied religion. He works today at being a dad, protecting and educating about indigenous sites in Tennessee, attends Nashville Friends Meeting, and hangs out at the intersection of religion, decolonization, atheism, and quiet.

David Raymond grew up in Ottawa, Ontario and attends Ottawa Monthly Meeting. His mother has roots to the Mi’kmaq of Natoaganeg First Nation in Sigenigteoag, Mi’kma’ki and he is reconnecting to that community. He has been researching Canadian Quakers’ historical attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples into European culture. David works as a paralegal for the Canadian government.

Nia To Go There grew up on Turtle Mountain Reservation, her father’s reservation, in North Dakota. Her tribal ancestry is Cree. She has a Ph.D. in literacy (as viewed from the disciplines of cognitive psychology and linguistics). Her adventures as teacher are many and varied, with Professor of Indigenous Studies at Augsburg University being the most life-changing for her. Her recent experiences in teaching about historical trauma for Indigenous peoples have placed her within the painful context of the loss of an Earth-People’s voice that must be resurrected for the benefit of all. In acknowledgement of her name To Go There, she is a sojourner, intent on making visible the web of relations that binds us all. She writes poetry and is drafting some thoughts that hopefully will result in a book about living with mamatowisin – a Cree sense of living within the Tao.

Financial aid may be available. If you are seeking funds to participate in this program, click to review and complete our Financial Assistance Application and a Pendle Hill staff member will follow-up with you shortly (please do NOT register online). Thank you for your interest.

Travel directions to Pendle Hill.