Compiled by Dawn Clark, NAAFA Board Member

Each month, we will feature educational resources on the NAAFA Community Voices Blog to support our community in taking action to combat racism. Some resources will be historic information about systemic racism. Others will be resources on doing the internal work of understanding ourselves and how we play a part in that system. 

The word “decolonization” comes up more and more frequently, but what does that mean? The definition of decolonization is: “to free from the dominating influence of a colonizing power especially to identify, challenge, and revise or replace assumptions, ideas, values, and practices that reflect a colonizer's dominating influence and especially a Eurocentric dominating influence.”

As we finish up Latinx Heritage Month and move into Indigenous Heritage month, I have been working on learning more about decolonization.

Below are some resources I have found. 

• I have been going through the different resources offered here: Fundamentals, Core Concepts, Decolonization Theory and Practice (racialequitytools.org)

• Note: I have not finished them all. It does seem that the resource owners are willing to listen to feedback on the language used.

• If you have young people in your life, I found this great blog full of resources on how to talk to kids about Indigenous peoples and common questions and misconceptions kids have. 

• I started watching Reservation Dogs based on a recommendation from a friend. I am really enjoying it and unlearning many stereotypes I grew up with about Reservations. It is the first major TV production with all Indigenous writers.

• There is a good TED talk from Sean Sherman, an internationally renowned chef, on why there are not more Indigenous Restaurants in the US and what to do about that.

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