Many of the struggles of Indigenous Peoples are due to severe historical trauma, ambiguous loss, and environmental disruption. Whiteswan Environmental, WE (One mind for the Purpose of the Work) practices Indigenous Public Health by addressing the root causes of trauma through connections, collaborations and honoring the diversity of the First Peoples of the Americas and the Indigenous Peoples of the earth who have a long history of their worldviews and connection with the natural environment being oppressed and dismantled.
As an Indigenous-led organization, WE are taking charge of needed change by building equitable and collaborative networks that dismantle systems of oppression by implementing the following practices:
As an Indigenous-led organization, WE are taking charge of needed change by building equitable and collaborative networks that dismantle systems of oppression by implementing the following practices:
- Seek guidance from our elder traditionalists for support and intergenerational connections.
- Ensure Indigenous voices are at the table when making decisions that affect Indigenous peoples.
- Equitably employ traditional providers and Indigenous peoples to lead, direct and staff programs.
- Move beyond anthropological curiosities in order to restore our heritage with a living culture and knowledge system unknown to common schools today.
- Ensure Indigenous history, culture, law, sovereignty and psychospiritual orientations are being are included in educational programming, community and regional planning sessions, and project development.
- Preserve Strait Salish dialects through immersion and exposure.
- Access, use, and build transboundary relationship to our sovereign territory and resources to better understand who we are and where we come from and practice our inherent birthrights.
- Prevent epistemicide of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and natural laws as WE re-cultivate our homelands using the 13 Moon Calendar to guide additional science, technology, engineering, arts, and math curricula that will support a reciprocal way of life once again.
- Promote multi-cultural integration and respect into our programming, while being respectful of needed community healing and trust building.
- Create value by being open to ways in which WE perpetuate the systems of oppression by keeping basic character strengths at our core.
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Whiteswan Environmental relies on donations from the community to make this vision a reality.
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