Feminists Around the World: More Women Led Indigenous Organizations

In this episode, we highlight more organizations doing great work led by Indigenous women.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha, all of them stuff.
I never told you a production by Heart Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome back to another activist around the world. And
we promised to continue with more indigenous organizations around the world.
So we are Aha, I kept the promise. Look at me.
So we are starting up with Mayamaia just in case
you wanted to look that up, which is a women
led organization based out of Guatemala. So Maya has been

(00:39):
around for quite a while, I believe this two thousand
and eight, and has done so much for the community
and the young indigenous girls from the area. So originally
they were known as the Impact School, and then they
changed their name to Maya, named after one of the
brightest stars. If you know astronomy, I think you probably
know there's a whole legend. There's all these stores. I

(01:00):
love the stories about stars and planets not you. Yes,
but we'll come back to that later. That gonna be
a fun episode on I'm just look at.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh yeah, that would be cool.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Okay, anyway back to but yes, so it is named
after the brightest star Maya, and they did this in
twenty eighteen. So from their site Maya Impact dot Org,
we are an organization led by Indigenous women for Indigenous girls,
empowering generations of young Indigenous women through an educational model
that embraces academics, culture, socio emotional intelligence, personal development, and

(01:33):
family engagement. Together, these elements form the bedrock for nurturing
a generation of powerful female leaders who will drive transformative change.
And if you can't tell, we are big fans of
programs that mentor young people because obviously, as I feel
like we have seen as of the last couple of elections,

(01:56):
mentoring young people is really important.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
So their site also talks about the different pillars of
goals they have for their people, including offering leadership skills
for growth, learning to achieve economic autonomy and stability, educational growth,
and being able to choose when a family is right
for her. So specifically under that they write MAYA graduates
will postpone marriage and pregnancy until they reach an average

(02:20):
age of twenty five, ensuring they are in a stable
position to support a family. Currently, fifty seven percent of
young Indigenous women in Guatemala are married or have become
mothers by the age of twenty. So they've been actually
featured on other sites like the site Girls not Brides
dot Org for this type of commitment. And I don't know,
I think it's been a long while since we've talked

(02:42):
about Young Child Brides, because I know we've talked about
it a couple of times. I think Kristen and Caroline
did an episode, right.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yes they did, but you and I have discussed coming
back to it because there's a lot of stuff to
talk about that's new.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Actually again, that's in the United YEP States are like
yad school, No, no, we go. We don't need we
don't need laws against that.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, so that's another future episode that won't be as
fun as the Astronomy one hopefully will be You never can,
You Never Can.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
But yeah, So they do focus on issues like that,
and their programs have earned a lot of accolades, including
the MIT Solve in twenty twenty ORG Impact Award and
was the finalist for the World's Best Schools. So they
definitely still do impact schools. It exists now, but again,
they have a whole different lot of programs that they're

(03:36):
committed to and projects under the Maya Organization. So something
to look into next. We have the Indigenous Foundation, so
the organization works with the Indigenous community throughout Turtle Island,
and I think we've talked about it previously, but when
it comes to territories, it does expand through North America.
When we talk about territories like Turtle Island, because I

(03:58):
believe expands parts of the North US as well as
south of Canada. So it kind of embarks a lot.
So as a person who was newly studying these the
last five years, that's my best explanation. I know people
will come back and talk to us and be like,
you need to do better. Agreed, But for four and
four now for this short segment. So the organization was

(04:20):
founded in twenty twenty, and the organization was founded by
Mera Boswan and Sena y Neelmez who wanted to uplift
the stories and voices of the Indigenous people. So this
is from their site, the Indigenous Foundation dot org. When
discussing what motivated us to start the Indigenous Foundation, we
had different individual stories but a common goal. In November
twenty twenty, we decided to both do research studies on

(04:42):
Indigenous rights in Canada. Mira wrote about the crisis of
MMIWG and police brutality against Indigenous women. Sina wrote about
the lack of clean drinking water, and Indigenous communities. Although
we both had knowledge about these topics, when diving into
the research aspects of this, we were able to learn
so much more at the topic of indigenous right. This
is something that is not discussed often enough in school

(05:04):
textbooks curriculums. History is often whitewashed and completely leaves out
the struggles Indigenous communities went and still go through. After
learning in more depth about these topics, we were compelled
to do more and take action. Later that month, we
decided to create our Instagram account as a way to
spread awareness and reach others. So with their social media
account up and running, it's the Indigenous Foundation you can

(05:26):
look at them up. They have also added many other avenues,
including podcasting. They have one called Unrooted, which they described
like this on their site. Unrooted as a podcast by
the Indigenous Foundation focused on centering Indigenous voices and stories.
Through Unrooted, we hope to dismantle systems of oppression, uproot
the deeply ingrained issues and racism that exist against Indigenous

(05:49):
peoples to this day. We hope to share intersectional, holistic
perspectives through our discussions with Indigenous and Afro Indigenous advocates
and change makers. So their most recent episode was released
in September, so they're pretty current, so you definitely should
go and check them out if you haven't already, and
I police they have like seven episodes but several episodes out,

(06:13):
so you should definitely go and listen. They have amazing
stories and a different look at what's going on in
the Indigenous community through Turtle Islands, so go check that out.
Then we have Indigenous Justice Circles, So this women led
organization works to help the Indigenous community through programs that
will help connect people through different organizations, empower them to

(06:33):
advocate for justice and equity and protect their people and land.
So they do a lot From their site indigenousjc dot org,
The Indigenous Justice Circle is a Native female led organization
that seeks the empower, connect, and support Indigenous leaders and organizations.
Our mission is to advance gender justice, increase health equity,
combat the MMIWGTS epidemic, and renew cultural lifeways and systems

(06:58):
for Native Americans and Indigenous peoples. So one of their
biggest focus is to help the younger generations connect with
their community and have programs that bring intergenerational mentoring and opportunities,
again something we absolutely love and think is so important.
So in their program they have several specific setups for this,

(07:19):
including the image in program where image n Here's some
more information from their site. The Indigenous Adolescent Girls Empowerment
Network IMAGEN is a coalition of tribal and Native led
organizations that honors Native lifeways by renewing and sustaining girl societies.
Our local, matrilineal intergenerational mentored groups strengthen Native girls in

(07:42):
their collective power to thrive and help cultural survival. IMAGEN
is building girl societies across Native America to strengthen the
rising generations of girls and to SLGBTQ to transform health,
economic and political systems for the benefit of Indigenous communities.
When with these programs, they have created powerful projects, including

(08:05):
their award winning documentary The Lakota Girls, which I guess
we're gonna have to add this to this list our
ever growing list. Here's some information about that film. So
they write the documentary film about the women and girls
of the Aglola Lakota Nation in South Dakota, in the
community dealing with the effects of persistent structural racism and
attempts to erase Native culture. The women chronicled in this

(08:26):
film work to make the future better and brighter for
girls age ten to eighteen by creating a network of
girls societies across the districts using tools designed by the
Indigenous Adolescent Girls Empowerment Network or IMAGING. So Girls Society
is also a part of their project. So they have
a lot and I'm excited because we definitely need to
watch this documentary less seeing people being built up. And

(09:00):
lastly for this segment, the Network of Indigenous Women in
Asia or the NIWA. So this was established in twenty nineteen,
created through an initiative through the AIPP or the Asia
Indigenous People's Pack. So the group includes fourteen different Asian
countries coming together to help empower Indigenous womens to embrace
their ability for self reliance and protecting their land and

(09:22):
making sure that's sustainable. On their site under AIPP net
dot org, they list four objectives for the group. So
I'm just quoting this off Empower and build agencies of
Indigenous women and intersectional groups within Indigenous women to raise
and amplify their voices and concerns at all levels, Strengthen
self organizing and solidarity among Indigenous women and their organizations

(09:44):
at all levels. Promote participation and representation of Indigenous women
in policy process and decision making at all levels. Build
collective action and engage in alliance building, advocacy and lobby
for the indigenous women's rights at all levels. I feel
like that at all levels has to be said repeatedly.

(10:04):
M yeah, lets me know why. Anyway, if you want
to see more of their work, they have a pretty
active Facebook page Network of Indigenous Women in Asia that
you should follow. I think they just updated some things
from September, so they're definitely on there. And we haven't
focused a lot about indigenous people in Asia. I know
it features a few. We've featured a few, but not

(10:27):
as much as I do typically on the western side.
But according to the International Labor Organization, two thirds of
the world's indigenous population live in Asia, and with that
they are most likely to be the poorest and most
marginalized population. So this is from their report International Labor Organization.
They say two thirds of the world's indigenous people are

(10:47):
estimated to live in Asia. In other words, approximately two
hundred and sixty million people representing two thousand distinct civilizations
and languages. The different terms used to refer to them
at the national level ranges from hill drives and indigenous
nationalities to tribal people's ethnic minorities and natives, and testify
to the variety of their experiences in the region. Yet

(11:09):
such diversity, notwithstanding the situation of these people, shows important
commonalities and consequent similar challenges concerning their persistent marginalization, which
has cultural, social, economic, and political dimensions. The fact that
Indigenous people continue to be among the poorest of the poor,
even though sustained growth and poverty reductions efforts of the

(11:30):
region have significantly contributed to declining poverty rates is a
stark reminder of the unique challenges based by Indigenous women
and men. I know that's added, why would we add
this in, But I think it is something that we
need to be reminded. This is a world issue, and
this is an economic issue, This is a political issue,

(11:53):
This is an ecological issue, and we know the people
who are the forefront standing in trying to put tech
the lands, trying to protect the climate, all of these
things are Indigenous people. So and the fact that they
are the ones that are most likely suffering or have
the least amount of needs met is atrocious, so something

(12:16):
for us to remember. I hate to say that downloade,
But with all of that, we do want to come
and talk about the marginalized indigenous communities more and the
works that are being done. Again, we know they have
they are the leaders and they continue to do work
and voice their concerns. So if you don't have any
specific people you should let us know.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yes you should, so please, If you have any organizations
you would like for us to talk about, let us know.
You can email us at Hello, Stuff, Woe Never told
You dot com, which, by the way, I am really
behind on the sturmail, I'm aware, but we do get
your emails, we do read them. Responses are forthcoming, but yes,

(12:56):
very behind on that one. And you can find us
on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram
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get your books. Thanks as always too, our Christina, our
executive preducer, and our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks

(13:17):
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