Indigenous Solidarity: Cultivating Relations Within and Across Communities

• In Event: Beyond the Engagement Paradigm: Family and Community Leadership in Co-Designing Educational Justice

Abstract

Everyday enactments of Indigeneity and processes of decolonization and renewal matter for the wellbeing of Indigenous families and communities. In spite of the assimilative imperatives inflicted on Indigenous families (e.g., Author et al., 2018; Calderon 2014; Grande 2004; Shear et al. 2015; Tuck & Gaztambide-Fernández 2013) there are also promising new practices and models for family engagement that begin with Indigenous families as the foundation for healing and education. This paper highlights solidarity-driven co-design practices and findings from a collaborative of Indigenous communities in Chicago, IL.

The Chicago Global Indigeneity Project is working to cultivate intergenerational learning opportunities to support Indigenous knowledge, identities and practices. This project utilizes co-design to identify community-desired learning opportunities, design youth and family programs, and measure learning and change in the community. A key aspect of this project is the co-design of programs for Indigenous youth and families across many different tribes to tell their stories and share their cultural practices in ways that promote cultural thriving and solidarity. Stories and storytelling are a driving medium of social dreaming and changemaking (Espinoza, 2008) in this project and manifest in multiple ways, from the creation of digital stories, Veteran’s circles, writing workshops, etc. Stories are an important form of Indigenous resurgence. Stories contain knowledge about how the world works, ways of being, social interactions with others, and cultural history (e.g., Archibald, 2008; Kovach, 2008; Smith 1999).

This site pursues solidarity as a primary theory of change and measure by which to reflect on changemaking processes. Through co-design with the core investigative team and other sites, a solidarity metric was co-created and piloted. This metric, taken at the end of a programmed activity or design meeting, asks participants to consider the designed activity system and reflect on how it cultivated solidarity.

Findings reflect on design and implementation data, including audio/video recordings, transcriptions, meeting minutes/field notes, and metrics. Preliminary findings suggest that these solidarity metrics have been helpful community based measurements, created from family and community members’ lived experiences and therefore, created more impactful ways of measuring community progress and success.

Authors

• Cynthia Soto, The Spencer Foundation

• Heather Miller, American Indian Center of Chicago