Past Projects:

Diné Bina’nitin Dóó O’hoo’aah - Community Teaching and Learning

“The People’s Teaching and Learning” started with a year long process to create our own school as Diné (Navajo) People. We were able to teach over 300 students in our summer school in subject areas such as Diné Botany, Traditional Architecture, Moccasin Making, Blue Corn Recipes, Kinship Systems, Weaving and Sheepskin Tanning.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we still gathered for online webinars. The late Philmer Bluehouse taught us how to give earth offerings in a traditional way.

We continue to collaborate with community leaders and knowledge keepers. We are lucky to support an upcoming hoghan plastering workshop. This will be a service learning event to help a traditional medicinal practitioner. Once renovated, this structure will give him a safe, beautiful and comfortable place to conduct his traditional healing ceremonies.

Txáche (Sweat Lodge) Construction

We were lucky to build a community network to construct a very important space for Diné cultural longevity: the traditional Txache (sweatlodge). This structure is instrumental for the male coming of age ceremonies in the community. This was a shorter, successful endeavor that welcomed about 40 students from across Diné Bikeyah in a healthy, family friendly environment. It was also very fun. With the guidance of knowledge keepers, we learned the proper timber to use, the proper way to plaster, and the ways we could support our people’s healing.

Nihizhí, Our Voices: Indigenous Solutions Podcast

Nihizhí (Our Voices) is a new podcast shining light on grassroots Indigenous Voices carrying solutions for our communities and the world. We interview individuals and groups who are on the ground creating change with innovative projects. We are honored to have highlighted such efforts as the A Gahering Basket: Multi-Media Cookbook from the i-collective, the #landback and rematriation work of The Sogorea Te Land Trust, and the work of Indigenous Language Revitalizationists who have raised fluent speakers witin their own families.

We hope that this podcast with inform, inspire and mobilze other native communities as we work to heal and thrive. We also hope that this podcast (with over 1000 downloads and counting) can give a boost to each of these efforts through increased attention, funding, volunteering and praying that listeners may be inspired to offer them.