New to me - Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery w/Sarah Augustine [View all]

Event is over, but you can watch the video


I remember thinking during the GW years, "Can we just give the country back to the Indians?" The idea of leading and living in ways that make the World better for 7 generations to come sounds a lot better than profit over people.

Sarah Augustine, Executive Director of the national Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition and Pueblo author of The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery, and her colleague Katerina Gea, an organizer with the Coalition and coordinator of the Repair Network of congregations.

Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition.

Sponsored by Calvary Baptist Church, Faith Mennonite Church, Showing Up for Racial Justice - Faith, and Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute.




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I don't know how I stumbled upon this, but I have been searching for the Taos NM Indian community that held my Mother in safety when she was young and her family was at times violent and abusive to her. She ran away to the Indian Reservation and they took care of her.

Possibly around the same time, Sarah's Father was taken from his people. I'm learning more about the type of people they were/are and I just want to lay on the floor and sob my heart out.

Many of the things that I loved about my Mother were possibly influenced by her time with them. She had a lot of affinity with animals. Indigenous attitudes toward animals seem very on point with me.

My Mom and her siblings made a "pet" of the baby Brahma bull and worried he would be too cold so "hid" him behind a mattress in their bedroom overnight. As he got older, they rode him to town with nothing more than a long twig to tap him so he would bend down and let them get on his back. Not a buffalo, but still amazing.

She had a pet "spider" a trap door spider that lived under her sink when she was in her 20's. She would tap on the pipe before she did dishes as there were leaks and the spider probably got wet and surged up the first time and startled her. But if the Tiwa and/or Hopi stories of Spider Grandmother were told to her, maybe that is why she was happy to share that space.

Since I was young birds have come to me when my heart is heavy and when I am lost in my work. Sparrows sat on the line I used to hang out our clothes to dry. I found a sparrow that had fallen out of a nest, maybe? Mom helped me make a hamburger, cracker, water slurry to feed it every few hours. He got big enough and actually flew away after about a week. People say you shouldn't do that, but I couldn't let him die.

A dove showed up one night when I'd had about 10 different things go wrong and had to be up in about 4 hours to perform in the Rose Parade with my school.

Lately, it's been Eagles. For the last few years.** I live in a major city and also commute to suburbs for work, but I have seen one show up in both places. Maybe it's simply because of Covid and/or their regular habitats being over run. But it helps my heart.




** I have seen them more in the last 3 years than the rest of my entire life, including times I went to Raptor Center and took river cruises to watch them in their own territory. Including one that sat on the telephone pole near the driveway of my house.