 So I'm going to read their introductions just so I can make sure I don't miss anything important. So, Candelia Adales-Mosmane, and Ezequiel, an indigenous group in Mojavejico. She is a first-generation college student at Highlight College pursuing a degree in cybersecurity and forensics. She speaks three languages, Spanish, English, and Ezequiel. She immigrated to the U.S. with her parents and her siblings in 2014. She just returned from an incredible internship at the University of Texas in Austin, where she used data science to study the impact on water sources for indigenous people. She is very involved in the internship here on campus. She is excited for her future, her main goal is to earn her master's degree or Ph.D. in computer science. Teisha Kukui Akana is native Hawaiian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Spanish from Hawaii. She is in her last quarter at Highlight College and will be graduating with honors. During her time at Highlight, she has been a leader in the Anapisi program as a student ambassador. She also tutors and mentors students in the Highlight School District. She came to Highlight from Hawaii to play for the Highlight College women's valuable team. And she is proud to be a native indigenous POC. You also can see her on the A-line buses. Um, Anosa Nepsia Rodriguez is an undocumented and an unapologetic mother of two, committee member and scholar. Um, she was born at the Mochila, which is in Mexico City, correct in Mexico City. Um, and was raised on occupied Jawanish, Muckleshoot, and Piala Bland. Her maternal grandfather was from the Tenec tribe of the Ovaesca region in San Luis, POC, Mexico. She is actively seeking to honor and reconnect with indigenous roots. She graduated from Highlight College last spring with her Associates of Arts with an emphasis in diversity and globalism. She hopes to pursue a bachelor's degree in youth development at Highlight by the fall of 2020. She hopes to broaden the conversations about the displacement of indigenous people of Latin America, settler and conglomialism, anti-indigeneity and anti-blackness and heal the intergenerational traumas caused by conglomialism in honor of her ancestors. Um, her children and the strong women of her life. Um, and the future seven generations that she does this work for. Uh, Leslie Jimenez is an indigenous scholar, spoken word artist and cultural steward. Her works focus on issues pertaining to indigenous resilience, survival, ways of knowing, knowledge systems, indigenous women's strength, colonials and cultural genocide and decolonization. Uh, she was raised on occupied Tumonca and Chubash territory, California. She creates to honor the memories of her mother, Maria Colos, her grandmother, Elisa and her great-grandmother, Ismael Chutepan. So, uh, Lopez, uh, uh, is our panel's opinion. Ismael's grandparents began coming to the Northwest uh, in the 1950s from Texas. They settled in the 1980s and not burn in. Uh, respect was held with his family. We're farm workers, um, and are now passed to health issues. Uh, he has dedicated his life to working, uh, to address systemic racism, equity, environmental justice and cultural survival of previously colonized communities of color. He worked on the farm worker solidarity committee for ten years and is currently, um, uh, and was involved in the statewide mobilization for the May 1st general strike from 2006-2011. Uh, he created an after-school empowerment program for Chicanex students who were deemed at risk based on indigenous culture, community engagement and intergenerational healing. He has been involved in fighting for organizing and organizing for undocumented displaced workers and families. He is dedicated to teaching about indigenous Mexican culture as a means to address issues that we are facing today. He believes that until we heal from the original trauma of colonization, we cannot begin to deal with the issues we are facing. Uh, it is important to understand that the greatness of indigenous resiliency, creativity and genius in order to find these qualities within ourselves. Um, he quotes Malcolm X who said that only a fool would allow for their enemies to teach their children. He believes that our lack of empowering history was designed by the system of white supremacy as an institutional by-product of the school system built to keep us powerless. He is currently working with the State Board Health and Creative Office of Equity in the State of Washington, as well as working to support the Environmental Justice Task Force. He holds space every Monday at Centro de la Casa for Aztec dancing and philosophy as well as lead workshops in local middle schools and high schools. Um, I would like to give an introduction to myself so I can translate into one bit and then work over services and I'll be facilitating the panel today. Uh, I just wanted to give you all some guidelines that you don't have to answer every single one question, but don't not answer any questions. Um, so any one or two. Um, and then we just got feedback that question number two is a little dense. So we're going to leave that question til the end. Um, so we'll have time. But yeah, there is one microphone so if you want to pass it back and forth and then just also like this is just to highlight the stories of different indigenous communities outside of Toro Island, which is now North America. Um, and anyone can start to grab the mic. Uh, so the first question, what does indigeneity mean to you? Um, so for me it means I would say our indigeneity. Um, I can express myself by speaking my own language, my first language, which is mystical. So I can write a letter in my own language and it feels very powerful and it feels unique. To me, indigeneity means um, being a walking survivor of more than 500 years of ongoing colonialism in genocide. Um, and being an apologetic about the historical indigeneity in the truth that is within each one of our plans despite the ongoing displacement that's happening. It also means coming back now to reclaim the honor, resist and embrace more than 500 of our ancestors before us but also working to sustain and bring more indigeneity and people are going to be here still in the present and in the future so thinking about more ahead of us. So indigeneity means that in indigeneity it means living past these geopolitical borders that are man-made but are colonizers to separate us and to segregate us. So for us as indigenous people there is no border. That's what indigeneity means. It means to remember who we are, where we come from and where we will continue to be. To me, indigeneity I'll speak it in terms of language. So I'm Hawaiian and our word views is Kanaka Maui and in New Zealand, also known as Aotearoa, they say Maui. So the main focus here is Maui and Maui which means the true people or in other words the native people and another term is like for Tahiti is and New Zealand is Tangata Fenuam which means people of the land. So how I see indigeneity is being people of the land and being carrying the responsibility of being the protectors of the land as like my peers have said is where for me indigenous means like when my home is my home and my people are threatened I'm the front of the line because we know the mourn that's being taken which has been taken in the future what will be left especially for our children like growing up we already lost a lot of things being displaced but just imagine like if this is a reality for a lot of indigenous people as well just being able to hear or read about places but never being able to experience it is really heartbreaking. To me indigeneity means relearning my traditions relearning the language also going back to and giving back to the land I feel like I was displaced twice so my mom was that guy who was displaced and then as a form of protecting me she didn't teach me or my sisters any of her traditions and then being brought over here to the US I feel like it was another form of displacement and a way of like my peers have mentioned cultural genocide so now I want to be able to teach my children these traditions in a way that's appropriate and I'm not appropriated from other indigenous cultures so also being very aware of that and then acknowledging that I'm a guest on like indigenous land this is not my land my people's land is what is now Mexico and so being also very aware of that I'm a guest on Duwamish land next question so we keep hearing this word buzzing the colonizing almost like the word diversity has been co-opted with the intention of actually taking action so in a new words what does the colonizing mean to you especially when we speak about it in the context of indigeneity without borders for me the colonizing has become some people have come to term it as a buzzword it means not just decolonizing in the aspect most people think of taking back all the land that was stolen but it means decolonizing holistically so it decolonize in all seven directions which means like mental emotional, physical, environmental and your consciousness in all seven directions you can work to then restitch yourself back together on what's been torn and dismantling and questioning how you've been conditioned to think and be and live and your way of knowing it means that and also it's going past a land acknowledgement it's going to take action to not just acknowledge the land but also do your work and for instance I'm a visitor on Duwamish land on Coast Salish territory so as an indigenous person myself I'm a visitor and I have to acknowledge that but also give back to the community whose land you're currently occupying and acknowledge your own privilege that you are reaping benefits from the land because your presence there is a displacement to those people so learn their history learn their ways, honor them ask them how you can be a cultural steward but also honor them as a visitor so it means decolonizing not just yourself but it means decolonizing all of the spaces that have been captured by disease of colonialism and because if you don't start healing this now you're going to feel the effects seven generations from now you're going to pass that on to our future generations so it means decolonizing even within this ivory tower the curriculum the policies, the classrooms and our own self and acknowledging if you're not indigenous acknowledging that you're a visitor to Turtle Island and hold yourself accountable your ancestors might have done what they did but how are you going to change that and think about future generations I was speaking with the permission of the ancestors and the ancestors of these lands my elders I just I guess I see it a little differently as far as decolonizing and indigeneity I think I think when we think about decolonizing it's become something that is like very popular and very decolonize this decolonize that it's something that's really like a term that's being I think in my humble opinion overused and I think we have to understand and the colonization begins in the mind in the spirit of the person and the process to decolonize begins there with our mind with our spirit with our everyday walk of life and so I think as an indigenous person like for me before I try to decolonize anything I need to work on myself because I still find myself thinking with my colonized mind I still find myself questioning things that I know in my heart are true part of our tradition of Mexica we understand that the tonali or what could be is the tonali is the sun rays that exist within us and it resides in our in our stomach it resides in our what they call the solar plex and so they say that when we feel something when we sense something this is our spirit talking to us and so I have trouble communicating with my spirit with myself with understanding and understanding what I need to do as a person and how I need to communicate and and tread softly on land that is not mine and the land doesn't belong to us we belong to the land but there were people who belonged here first and so to tread gently on the land that we walk recognize that beneath each foot steps are the blood, sweat, tears and bones of the ancestors and the and just to be conscious of that and raise our consciousness because sometimes when we speak about indigeneity or about decolonizing we think oh we just think we think of the Hollywood Western Native American right we don't think about the African indigenous person we don't think about the islanders we don't think about Mexico we don't think about all these other places that have indigenous people but everywhere we go around the world you're going to find a fire you're going to find a dance you're going to find songs and stories of those people and so to me that's what decolonizing is is learning those dances learning those songs listening to those stories being close to the fire learning those ways not unlearning these things because when we think about today it's indigenous people's day we okay it's indigenous people's day but it's still based on a date that's based on colonial history right so when do we celebrate a day based on our own history based on our own people many of us bring traditions and celebrations from other parts of the world where we're indigenous from and I think we should celebrate those things as well so I'll just say about that much okay so yeah so you make the right point I will say that it's true when I at home I have to teach to my nephew and niece to speak Miss Deco but I also need to teach them how to speak Spanish and English so they have to grow with this knowledge because we are knowing the land that we this is not our own land it's all of us lands and so we need to to learn every every place where we go we need to learn these things the cultural language and the way we're acting so we need to respect each other so I grew up with the family where we have to respect each other like for elders to youngers so we'll still try to do this every day to me decolonizing means to break down like the barriers that we were taught or like challenging the perceived reality that most people think in the constructs of colonialism so one thing for me is like teaching they use to like love themselves love themselves for like how they look for you know their curly hair, the color of their skin the fact that they might have accents because the we're taught through colonialism and like Eurocentric values that something what we are is not valuable or desirable so like to first like teach yourself and to teach the youth because they are going to carry on your message but to teach them to love each other and like heal themselves as what's said earlier I think that's really what decolonizing is because colonialism has hurt a lot so the first step would be just to heal and just break down the barriers like oh I can't do this because of this I shouldn't do this because I look like this or I sound like this you once you start loving yourself and breaking the barriers you'll see like okay we might look different but you're my brother, you're my sister like we're connected even though they might label us as different because of these borders well in reality not in our reality but like in other in the indigenous reality those borders are non-existent thank you okay so the next question question number four it's not uncommon knowledge that the islanders across Oceania and the Pacific have been in constant communication with each other especially when you see shared words, navigational system and canoe design however people may now know that Pacific Islanders and the indigenous people of North America have also been in community way before Christopher Columbus as we've seen through chicken bones and indigenous plants in the respective place what does this connection and shared knowledge mean to you I think that this touches on the aspect of a shared connection whereas indigenous people were all more than there's more than 585 590 something fairly recognized tribes there's non-recognized tribes by the government that they have imposed that system so we as indigenous people have known that we're indigenous and we've communicated even through canoe through travel and you can see these through the stories if you go up to like the southwest some of their stories are the same are similar to those down in Mexico if you look Alaska Native or like First Nations Canadian Native stories they're very similar even in our art Coast Salish territories and food so even till this day we do cultural sharing as a cultural exchange not cultural appropriation but cultural exchange and something that you notice is when you go back and when I say go home you go home to the non-systems that were hibernating they were exactly extinguished but these memories their genetic memories that come back and sometimes someone from a different nation we teach you did you know that your ancestors they grew corn and this is how you grow corn and they themselves are not from Mexico or they're not from the southwest they're from a different tribe but they share this knowledge with you does someone share that with you something that's similar to across most indigenous people is the 7th generation prophecy or the 7th Irish prophecy so things like that it's the reason that they share connection is because like we mentioned before these are geopolitical borders that the white men that the colonizers came and brought with them but we had contact in all different ways before these borders were formed so I think that that's the shared knowledge that we share even though we're not all identical as indigenous people the reason there is a connection is because we would share stories and exchange that was our form of currency when I first moved here from Hawaii I saw a city called people call it Kalama but in my head I was like oh I lived by a beach called Kalama back at home I remembered it and then I have an auntie who told me oh yeah the Hawaiian our Hawaiian people came here and they exchanged with the native people and they stayed here because they liked it and so they named the place in honor of the connection that they had and what I think is so amazing is that so what people don't know about the pacific is like there's a big ocean and on maps they don't show you all the little islands on it so there's like probably hundreds of islands and on these islands are people well how did the people get there they traveled through canoeing and navigation and what I find like so amazing is that the pacific islander people traveled to probably not just North America as I said earlier we probably traveled everywhere and had our exchanges of stories, dances and plants and food and we made a connection and probably carried on through the generations and it's just I think it's what's cool but also irritating is like they talk about Christopher Columbus all these other European navigators but they don't talk about you know the great triumphs that the native people have done what long before that we've been navigating across this vast expanse of ocean we've been living in the native people have been living in North America, South America doing fine, living great having whole communities flourishing and that's not what it's talked about what's talked about is like the downfall so knowing how amazing our people are and have to persevere and to continue having these connections even past our ancestors I just find it it's good to know these things and this is a part of decolonizing is the stories that were taught to us from our perspective from my experience I would say that I still have that story from my grandfather because they're not 16 right now they're passed away but something that I learned from then is that keep sharing this knowledge keep sharing this music keep sharing these plans for medicine keep sharing experiments because they did a lot to bring us here so I keep asking if I can have the opportunity to meet these people who are already 16 in back home and this is what happened if if you know something you need to share it in everywhere you are so this is amazing learning from each other it's very great so we're getting close to the ending of the panel so does anyone from the audience have any questions this would be a great time and I can't go to you with the microphone thank you so much for sharing and for being here today a question for you would be what would you tell people who want to be allies and not indigenous what would you say is and I heard some of us at the beginning but if you had a really strong message for us what would you urge us to do to consider thanks I would say my experience I have been teaching my nephew to talk about our culture and our language so I'm not afraid to speak whatever I go in the store I talk to my parents this is something that I own and this is something that I carry everywhere where I go so I learned new different part like when I was searching for internships there were questions that were asking about what part of indigenous I am so I just I don't know how can I prove this even if I tell them oh this is my book you can test this and tell me if I'm right or wrong this is something that I still figure it out but if I have the power and knowledge to say that I'm mistaken Mexican I would say an essay and mistaken and tell them who teach me this language how long did I speak this language what we do what is a custom so all of this I think it's very reasonable to say that I'm real indigenous I think that the first thing to do is if someone wants to be an ally or a co-conspirator is to begin doing research to begin questioning and dismantling and analyzing one's own not just privilege but going past that and acknowledging and recognizing the history the true history of what your ancestors did and what other communities did but also of the things that whosoever land you're residing on really learn who's land you're on not just by an acknowledgement a vocal acknowledgement by a self acknowledgement and through action and what I mean with action you actually have to be asked get to a point where you're asked to do something by that specific community don't just invite yourself and take up space and know how much space to take up when to go out and also start reading some of the literature but not just reading it and also doing finding a mentor someone who will because it's not their job indigenous peoples our job is not to really educate all the single time because what's going to happen if there's only so few indigenous people is going to cause a burnout so say that you're white and there's someone who's white and is doing something racist or is cultural appropriating be unafraid to call them out and explain why and also another way is if you read Linda T. Smith's decolonizing research methodologies or research ceremony or even Brady's sweet grass those are three key foundational textbooks that you can start looking at but not just read and become a philosopher or an academic but actually take action because there's someone that needs you to write a grant for them use your writing skills and the way that that community wants and involve that community the entire way to then write that grant that they need and be okay if they don't give you credit don't wait there expecting to get credit or compensation don't ever expect indigenous people to do your work for free either because think about it how much do you put a place value for that knowledge system that they're bringing that survive more than 500 years of colonialism and cultural genocide and the boarding school system think about that what price range do you give for that okay you want a lesson okay here it goes no I think I think one of the things that is important is to to be a to be a good ally I think I guess before you you know maybe before you read the colonizing methodology but maybe start with talking about being anti-racist and doing work around anti-racism right because it's not enough to not be racist you have to be anti-racist right and I think that will bring about a lot of like consciousness and awareness in how you deal with people outside of your culture especially from the dominant culture so I guess I would start with that I think that we have to look at ways to bring resources into communities that are needed a lot of the funding around the grants a lot of the work that needs to happen in communities of color in general in indigenous communities you can't necessarily pay somebody for running a sweat lodge even though that sweat lodge is providing a service and a benefit for the community that person cannot receive a pay so then how are ways that we can support this work right if there's elders that are going to be going to events and providing and giving their knowledge how do we how do we support them how do we think of creative ways that exist outside the colonial funding structures to empower communities to provide solutions to their own problems we see for example around the other areas it's a super fun site they have other sites that need to be changed but the government comes in and tries to alleviate the issue but we haven't thought about participatory budgeting where we allow the communities themselves to come up with solutions to their problems and empower them to do that work I think if you have a skill if you have a skill whether it's in grant writing, whether it's medicine or whatever maybe teaching indigenous people those skills that will help them because they're going to bring something that the education cannot give you that's growing up and being a part of you know of this resistance when you're born you are born into the resistance you don't have it you don't choose and I think that's a lot of people we get to our adolescents and we do make a choice to assimilate or to remain connected to our communities and I think it was Corqui Gonzalez he was talking about in his poem Iron Walking he said we have to choose between assimilation and a hungry stomach and so I think that these issues are things that we're facing and I think the the solutions need to come from the communities that are affected themselves and I think the most powerful thing that people could do is get out of the way, step out of line, let people you know take leadership role let them not just be in an advisory position but in positions that really have control over over budget because in this colonial system that's where they really show value and I think that a lot of times we're left in in token positions and not really giving the power to make decisions over the things that will affect our everyday life so I will cut that there because I'm going to go forever so do you still have an answer so specifically talking about like high language that's where I feel like like an expert I was here like for four years before I graduated so like what I've seen like last year for the native students success of it I like Tanya Powers mentioned the budget was cut in half so how can other folks on campus that have like the authority to actually do something be helpful in that sense where like okay how if they're not if people are not willing to like give money for this type of summits that are bringing in like native indigenous students so like how like if you have higher power can you help that community manage its way to getting more money and then going beyond like the knowledge what are you actually actively doing to help students on campus succeed because I know like about two years when Maya Bo graduated she was like the only native student that was able to graduate and with me and Maya and then Geneva that she's not here right now try to you know make her presence know like for indigenous peoples club but it was very hard because the access was not there to students I feel like the students are there but it's just hard to reach them when like there's no space that we can like you know be able to reclaim as our own it's like we had to be like in different type of spaces and then yeah like I should have said just getting out of the way and if you really want to be another like help put like other indigenous folks in like those positions where they can advocate for our own community um and really don't speak for us would be another thing like always make sure that like if it's anything that has to do with indigenous students or indigenous people make sure that those people are leading it and you're just like they're like quiet don't try to speak for us or take credit um for like the name of the students like some in like the past five years Tonya Powers and uh so you know making sure that the school doesn't like take credit for that sometimes I know they can hire institutions when things start working out and are successful they tend to try to take credit for that and take uh that you know for folks or other people of color depending on what it is so just like yeah just stop taking up space I could mostly say lead indigenous people's lead okay so we're going to end it due to time but I just want to thank every single one of you for coming here participating and answering all the questions um we got like I wrote like 10 questions I think that was a little ambitious but thank you all so much for being here and to all of you so this is our final event for the day but as we continue you know a lot of them share their knowledge and I just want to tell you that there is like numerous opportunities to get involved in campus but also outside in our communities uh it just takes literally Google is free just like googling things that you can do um but yeah once again thank you for being here, thank you for everyone and then okay have a wonderful day