nice to be back really nice to be back
so when I was asked to give this talk
the first thing that I thought about was
what does synergy especially what’s the
actual with a definition of synergy and
the second thing I thought about was
whatever it means I got to talk about
the plant and the plant is a talent that
I’m connected to on the Cheyenne River
Reservation in South Dakota
I’m turning some potent around why I
found out that synergy is these two
components that come together that
create an awesome outcome that could
have been achieved how do they remain
separate so it’s like Metro boomin at
2170 or jean-michel Basquiat and Andy
Warhol or even Mike Wazowski and selling
their really good on their own but when
they come together if you’re
game-changers
but what would happen if if one side of
those pears drop the ball or what would
happen if one half repeatedly messed up
and didn’t meet up with the other side
or what if one half of those Paris
tricked the other side into thinking
that they were working together but
somehow always ended up going too short
stick basically what if the dealer was
stacking the deck at someone else’s
favor not yours and that kind of broken
relationship something I would not call
synergy is a lot like what the
relationship between our country’s
history and our government and Native
American folks in this country looks
like so LaPlante is right under that
orange arrow this is a map of the
Cheyenne River
raishin in South Dakota on the bottom
right hand corner you can see a map of
the united states and where the shrine
reservation is located in South Dakota
and the size of it it’s roughly the size
of Connecticut it’s one of the largest
reservations in the United States and it
was set up in the late 1800s by the
United States as part of their efforts
to combine to confine Native Americans
to reservation land and to combine many
different tribes making up the Lakota
Sioux into one space my connection to
little on begin in 2015 this is a photo
that I took when I went out there my
friend and I we moved out there right
after he graduated college to carry out
a project that we designed called Lakota
you to speak and it’s a restorative
justice project that we created to
partner with Lakota professionals and
this nonprofit simply smiles that has
been welcomed into the community to
engage the teenagers in the town there’s
a disproportionately high rate of
suicide among adolescents on the
Sheinberg reservation and we created
this project specifically to address
recent deaths in that community my
connection to this town actually began
in this room with a man named tio person
goes tourists who came for a cultural
arts program and I was about 10 years
old and he plays the red cedar flute
he’s also an activist and a radio host
and has been really crucial for
indigenous rights in the United States
I met him when I was in fourth grade and
I remember speaking to him and we kept
in touch via email and then 16 years
later I reached out to him said hey I
had this project
he was like you got to do it a lot so I
moved out there in 2015 to do this
project and the reason that I wanted to
create a blue coating this week and the
reason I wanted to partner with
teenagers and work with these amazing
amazing young people is because I wanted
to create a space for play a space for
hope
a space for reparations and a place
where people could feel safe they could
just forget about what was going on that
was really quite at home summertime is a
really difficult time on the reservation
because you don’t have school to
distract you
there’s not something that’s going to
take up your time so we created look how
do you speak because playtime is really
critical for people of all ages even if
you don’t think so maybe your past play
time you’re over the hill plays really
important and the first couple weeks no
one showed up
the teams were like no we’re not
interested in hanging out with you and
make it hard and we don’t want to do
this and I knocked on every single door
at every house that I knew had a
teenager in that town and I was like
you’ve got to come to this thing and
then they were like we’re not getting
out of bed and so I had changed that
meeting divert of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
because no teenager wants to get a bed
in the summer at 10 a.m. to meet and
talk about identity they’re just gonna
happen to know I’ve got my lesson there
and slowly but surely the project gained
traction and they started showing up and
but building trust and forging
partnerships with these teenagers has
been really difficult for my friends in
LaPlante the history of distrust between
white folks and folks on the reservation
cuts deep unfortunately as white folks
in our government have broken more than
our fair share of promises to our
digitus brothers and sisters so asking
before these teens to trust us to trust
that this project was a partnership and
that I was there for the long haul and I
wasn’t going anywhere and that I’m
genuinely caring about them was a huge
challenge because when you have to take
care of your siblings because your
guardian is at work all day or when your
science book is so old that your mom’s
name is it or one of the money that your
family has has to go to food not
watercolours and paper when you don’t
have time to just be a kid and play
you’re gonna grow up with this kind of
this kind of toughness this grit that
and that’s why we created look what do
you speak these are images that I took
this past summer of some of the
participants from one of our workshops
and I wanted to amplify these teenagers
voices I wanted to stand next to them
and hold up a megaphone and say we need
all of the listening ears that you can
get eat all of the speakers that you can
get I wanted to partner with them to
give them access to resources that I
grew up with access to art education and
farming opportunities and steam programs
and field trips and outdoor trips
overnight stuff I learned here I wanted
to give these teenagers the exact same
opportunities and stack the deck just a
little bit higher for them and achieving
these goals has been really difficult
I’m not going to paint it like it’s them
in this easy picture we’re entering our
fourth summer now of this project and
the fundraising has been completely self
driven sometimes the day-to-day is
really difficult and it’s just about
taking a little victory like a hub a
complete painting it’s not a big win
every day and it’s really hard to stay
positive and feel like it’s not just
this little small thing where it’s me
and my project partner Elian and these
teenagers and simply smiles the
nonprofit we partner with against the
United States priorities and our history
of broken treaties and the fact that
there’s a pervasive hopelessness on the
reservation that feels inescapable to
the one in every 10 girls who attempt
suicide it’s really hard not to feel
like I’m going up against this big thing
that can’t be conquered but that’s why I
have to show
and that’s why people who have access to
resources who had really awesome role
models and play time that’s what you
guys have – chocolate – and I’m not
blaming everyone for this or for these
issues it’s not your fault that the book
you learn u.s. history from didn’t tell
you the whole truth or that we still
celebrate Thanksgiving largely as this
peaceful coming together of cultures at
this one in history I really don’t think
it’s about blame I think it’s about
facing our history
it’s about ownership and it’s about
standing as allies with the most
vulnerable members of our communities so
if you are privileged whatever that
means to you and GPT yourself is a
really big first step and then showing
up is another so the next time you go
shopping if you like to shop
do some research support and indigenous
owned company of business there’s a lot
of really awesome Native American
fashion designers and clothing brands
out there right now
Nike has a partnership right now with a
lot of Native American artists if you
have access to a library borrow books
written by Native American authors
there’s some really good graphic novels
out there right now and children’s
literature this one particular that’s
the true diary of a part-time Indian by
Sherman Alexie is so funny and totally
inappropriate and it was captures the
nuances of reservation life and I think
humor why bring up humor is because it’s
really important to get through our
times it was a really big really big
thing and it creates resilience in us
this book is brand new it’s a
compilation of
different Native American folk tales and
folklore in graphic novel style so if
you don’t read a lot of words this is
the book for you
also you have Spotify or SoundCloud or
if you want you to or if you have a
phone and you liked on the Internet
there are so many Native American
musicians and artists and app developers
and websites if you’re carrying around a
computer in your pocket I think there
are endless resources for you to be a
great ally and I just want to leave you
with some images from a photography
project that I did with the participants
and look what it used to be plus summer
I asked them to photograph what they see
every day to capture the images of their
lives and this was the first time that
any of these teenagers had seen a film
camera or used one so I gave them all
disposable cameras and a couple prompts
and I just asked them to capture their
their daily lives and I think the fact
that they had never used film cameras
before and makes these images even more
powerful this is one of the really
successful art initiatives that I
started that we’re going to continue
next summer and indefinitely until these
kids are in college and feel a greater
sense of hope and belonging and have the
opportunity is that I believe Lee so so
deserve these measures are honest
they’re powerful and they speak for themselves thank you
so when I was asked to give this talk
the first thing that I thought about was
what does synergy especially what’s the
actual with a definition of synergy and
the second thing I thought about was
whatever it means I got to talk about
the plant and the plant is a talent that
I’m connected to on the Cheyenne River
Reservation in South Dakota
I’m turning some potent around why I
found out that synergy is these two
components that come together that
create an awesome outcome that could
have been achieved how do they remain
separate so it’s like Metro boomin at
2170 or jean-michel Basquiat and Andy
Warhol or even Mike Wazowski and selling
their really good on their own but when
they come together if you’re
game-changers
but what would happen if if one side of
those pears drop the ball or what would
happen if one half repeatedly messed up
and didn’t meet up with the other side
or what if one half of those Paris
tricked the other side into thinking
that they were working together but
somehow always ended up going too short
stick basically what if the dealer was
stacking the deck at someone else’s
favor not yours and that kind of broken
relationship something I would not call
synergy is a lot like what the
relationship between our country’s
history and our government and Native
American folks in this country looks
like so LaPlante is right under that
orange arrow this is a map of the
Cheyenne River
raishin in South Dakota on the bottom
right hand corner you can see a map of
the united states and where the shrine
reservation is located in South Dakota
and the size of it it’s roughly the size
of Connecticut it’s one of the largest
reservations in the United States and it
was set up in the late 1800s by the
United States as part of their efforts
to combine to confine Native Americans
to reservation land and to combine many
different tribes making up the Lakota
Sioux into one space my connection to
little on begin in 2015 this is a photo
that I took when I went out there my
friend and I we moved out there right
after he graduated college to carry out
a project that we designed called Lakota
you to speak and it’s a restorative
justice project that we created to
partner with Lakota professionals and
this nonprofit simply smiles that has
been welcomed into the community to
engage the teenagers in the town there’s
a disproportionately high rate of
suicide among adolescents on the
Sheinberg reservation and we created
this project specifically to address
recent deaths in that community my
connection to this town actually began
in this room with a man named tio person
goes tourists who came for a cultural
arts program and I was about 10 years
old and he plays the red cedar flute
he’s also an activist and a radio host
and has been really crucial for
indigenous rights in the United States
I met him when I was in fourth grade and
I remember speaking to him and we kept
in touch via email and then 16 years
later I reached out to him said hey I
had this project
he was like you got to do it a lot so I
moved out there in 2015 to do this
project and the reason that I wanted to
create a blue coating this week and the
reason I wanted to partner with
teenagers and work with these amazing
amazing young people is because I wanted
to create a space for play a space for
hope
a space for reparations and a place
where people could feel safe they could
just forget about what was going on that
was really quite at home summertime is a
really difficult time on the reservation
because you don’t have school to
distract you
there’s not something that’s going to
take up your time so we created look how
do you speak because playtime is really
critical for people of all ages even if
you don’t think so maybe your past play
time you’re over the hill plays really
important and the first couple weeks no
one showed up
the teams were like no we’re not
interested in hanging out with you and
make it hard and we don’t want to do
this and I knocked on every single door
at every house that I knew had a
teenager in that town and I was like
you’ve got to come to this thing and
then they were like we’re not getting
out of bed and so I had changed that
meeting divert of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
because no teenager wants to get a bed
in the summer at 10 a.m. to meet and
talk about identity they’re just gonna
happen to know I’ve got my lesson there
and slowly but surely the project gained
traction and they started showing up and
but building trust and forging
partnerships with these teenagers has
been really difficult for my friends in
LaPlante the history of distrust between
white folks and folks on the reservation
cuts deep unfortunately as white folks
in our government have broken more than
our fair share of promises to our
digitus brothers and sisters so asking
before these teens to trust us to trust
that this project was a partnership and
that I was there for the long haul and I
wasn’t going anywhere and that I’m
genuinely caring about them was a huge
challenge because when you have to take
care of your siblings because your
guardian is at work all day or when your
science book is so old that your mom’s
name is it or one of the money that your
family has has to go to food not
watercolours and paper when you don’t
have time to just be a kid and play
you’re gonna grow up with this kind of
this kind of toughness this grit that
and that’s why we created look what do
you speak these are images that I took
this past summer of some of the
participants from one of our workshops
and I wanted to amplify these teenagers
voices I wanted to stand next to them
and hold up a megaphone and say we need
all of the listening ears that you can
get eat all of the speakers that you can
get I wanted to partner with them to
give them access to resources that I
grew up with access to art education and
farming opportunities and steam programs
and field trips and outdoor trips
overnight stuff I learned here I wanted
to give these teenagers the exact same
opportunities and stack the deck just a
little bit higher for them and achieving
these goals has been really difficult
I’m not going to paint it like it’s them
in this easy picture we’re entering our
fourth summer now of this project and
the fundraising has been completely self
driven sometimes the day-to-day is
really difficult and it’s just about
taking a little victory like a hub a
complete painting it’s not a big win
every day and it’s really hard to stay
positive and feel like it’s not just
this little small thing where it’s me
and my project partner Elian and these
teenagers and simply smiles the
nonprofit we partner with against the
United States priorities and our history
of broken treaties and the fact that
there’s a pervasive hopelessness on the
reservation that feels inescapable to
the one in every 10 girls who attempt
suicide it’s really hard not to feel
like I’m going up against this big thing
that can’t be conquered but that’s why I
have to show
and that’s why people who have access to
resources who had really awesome role
models and play time that’s what you
guys have – chocolate – and I’m not
blaming everyone for this or for these
issues it’s not your fault that the book
you learn u.s. history from didn’t tell
you the whole truth or that we still
celebrate Thanksgiving largely as this
peaceful coming together of cultures at
this one in history I really don’t think
it’s about blame I think it’s about
facing our history
it’s about ownership and it’s about
standing as allies with the most
vulnerable members of our communities so
if you are privileged whatever that
means to you and GPT yourself is a
really big first step and then showing
up is another so the next time you go
shopping if you like to shop
do some research support and indigenous
owned company of business there’s a lot
of really awesome Native American
fashion designers and clothing brands
out there right now
Nike has a partnership right now with a
lot of Native American artists if you
have access to a library borrow books
written by Native American authors
there’s some really good graphic novels
out there right now and children’s
literature this one particular that’s
the true diary of a part-time Indian by
Sherman Alexie is so funny and totally
inappropriate and it was captures the
nuances of reservation life and I think
humor why bring up humor is because it’s
really important to get through our
times it was a really big really big
thing and it creates resilience in us
this book is brand new it’s a
compilation of
different Native American folk tales and
folklore in graphic novel style so if
you don’t read a lot of words this is
the book for you
also you have Spotify or SoundCloud or
if you want you to or if you have a
phone and you liked on the Internet
there are so many Native American
musicians and artists and app developers
and websites if you’re carrying around a
computer in your pocket I think there
are endless resources for you to be a
great ally and I just want to leave you
with some images from a photography
project that I did with the participants
and look what it used to be plus summer
I asked them to photograph what they see
every day to capture the images of their
lives and this was the first time that
any of these teenagers had seen a film
camera or used one so I gave them all
disposable cameras and a couple prompts
and I just asked them to capture their
their daily lives and I think the fact
that they had never used film cameras
before and makes these images even more
powerful this is one of the really
successful art initiatives that I
started that we’re going to continue
next summer and indefinitely until these
kids are in college and feel a greater
sense of hope and belonging and have the
opportunity is that I believe Lee so so
deserve these measures are honest
they’re powerful and they speak for themselves thank you
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