Greetings <<First Name>>, We hope you enjoy the February edition of our DEI Newsletter. This month our theme and focus of education is all about Cultural Appropriation. |
We encourage you to pass along this newsletter to other camp professionals in your organization or outside of WAIC. Feel free to forward the email or hit subscribe below to add email addresses directly. |
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Campwire Podcast: Cultural Appropriation at Camp: We Need to Stop Doing Harm
Honest Conversation with WAIC Members Yatiel Owens and Liz Kimmelman (moderated by ACA Western Region Professional Development Manager, John Beitner) |
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To Newsletter Readers,
To build a place of true belonging at your camp, owners and directors must learn to assess their programs and communities for systems of oppression, bias, and inequity. A critical component to this process is identifying, understanding, and acknowledging cultural appropriation in your programs. Cultural appropriation refers to a particular POWER DYNAMIC. Members from a privileged culture, such as white people, take elements from a culture of people who have been systemically oppressed by that group. Basically - you are taking what makes a person who they are, using it as your own, and benefiting from it. If you are trying to create a space where folks feel that they truly belong, they must show up as their true selves. And thus, if your program contains culturally appropriated elements that have stolen some part away from someone, they never have a chance of showing up as their authentic selves. By assessing, understanding, and addressing cultural appropriation areas within your camp, you are finally setting the groundwork to make a space where all can feel supported and welcomed.
We do not feel we are experts in any way. We are passionate about this work and join you as amazing colleagues interested in building strong youth leaders and putting our good where it does the most. We know this is hard, complex work that often challenges world views and long-held personal beliefs. You will make mistakes, and you will feel like you are failing, but know that each step forward in correcting these challenges brings you closer to making your camp whole. We welcome open dialogue and honestly believe that we, together as WAIC members and then ACA members and then community members, are the change that our elders have been calling for!
Best,
Yatiel Owens & Liz Kimmelman
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What is Cultural Appropriation? |
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Need some basics? Need a tool to provide shared understanding of the topic of cultural appropriation (like for your staff)? Join Danielle Bainbridge in this 10 minute video to answer these important questions. What is culture? Can it even be appropriated? Is there a difference between appreciation and appropriation?
Written and Hosted by: Danielle Bainbridge
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios
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All My Relations is a podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation) to explore our relationships— to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another.
Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native peoples today as we keep it real, play games, laugh a lot, and even cry sometimes. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or directly from the website.
In particular, the WAIC DEI Committee recommends: Season 1 Episodes #3, #7, and #10; Season 2 Episodes #7 and #8.
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26 Indigenous Instagram Posts to Follow |
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Broaden and challenge your understanding of beauty, politics, style and culture by following these content creators.
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ARTICLE What's Wrong with Cultural Appropriation? These 9 Answers Reveal Its Harm
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Recommended by Yatiel Owens as part of her podcast resource list, this easy to read article provides nine very relatable answers to the question posed in the title. Author Maisha Z. Johnson walks us through the answers and provides actionable steps for change.
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| This Land is their Land By David J. Silverman |
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This Land is Their Land shows that it is time to rethink how we, as a pluralistic nation, tell the history of Thanksgiving. Published ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story.
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Learn how Disney is approaching their historic appropriation and trying to educate and partner with other organizations. It's a quick and interesting and inspiring video and a webpage full of additional information. "Because happily ever after doesn't just happen. It takes effort. Effort we are making."
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IDEA LAB: March 4th at 1:00pm WAIC DEI Committee led conversations about implementing your IDEA's (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access) in your personal life and individual camp cultures. |
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2021 (Virtual) Spring Leadership Conference April 13th - 16th
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