Spokane Alliance's Truth and Transformation Team formed in 2020 to bring together faith, labor, and nonprofit leaders to build reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities. Over the past five years, this work has grown from education into sustained partnership. More than 130 Spokane area leaders have completed the 16 hour Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization training, alongside participation in Indigenous led cultural events, historical tours, and ongoing learning.

We are continuing this work by bringing the Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization Training back to Spokane.

This work is grounded in three commitments:

• Building relationships between Indigenous and non Indigenous communities
• Truth telling and learning from Indigenous perspectives
• Taking action to address the ongoing legacy of colonization

Indigenous organizations in Spokane are leading efforts to revitalize language and culture, strengthen Indigenous identity, and advance solutions rooted in their communities. At the same time, many non Indigenous institutions want to build relationships with Indigenous communities but lack the historical understanding and practices to do so accountably. Without confronting the ongoing legacy of colonization and assumptions embedded in dominant culture, partnerships can unintentionally reproduce inequities.

Our work brings these pieces together: building understanding, strengthening relationships, and creating opportunities for collaborative action that supports Indigenous led efforts and a future in which all can thrive.

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Information about the Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization Training from the IAFNW:

Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization is a multi session training for leaders from labor, community, and faith organizations that are part of Spokane Alliance. Participants are invited to join others from their organizations in reflection and learning around the truth of colonization and its ongoing impact in the region where we live.

The training is an initiative of the IAF Northwest and is offered locally in conjunction with Spokane Alliance.

The IAF Northwest's Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization initiative is anchored by a 16 hour process developed by a talented team of US Native Americans, Indigenous and First Nations Canadians, Aboriginal Australians, and Maori New Zealanders.

It is designed to take leaders from faith, labor, healthcare, and community organizations through a process that sets the stage for right relationships and meaningful action with Indigenous people in their own communities.

Our goals for Wrestling sessions:

1. Share the history of Indigenous people and colonization while using participants' own experiences as a way to relate and build empathy.
2. Help participants wrestle with the role settler people and institutions play in maintaining systems that disadvantage Indigenous people and advantage themselves.
3. Show participants ways they can confront individual biases and prejudices, both within themselves and in others, and collectively become agents for systemic change in partnership with Indigenous people.
4. Secure commitments from participants and their member organizations to engage in respectful, long term partnerships with Indigenous leaders, elders, and organizations to remedy injustices of the past and present and forge a new future.

With a foundational appreciation of colonization from an Indigenous and Native American perspective, Wrestling participants are better equipped to engage others from their organizations and to partner with local Indigenous leaders and organizations.

Participants also gain a deeper understanding of how the forces of colonization and racism have been driven by larger economic and institutional interests, rather than individual behaviors alone. Addressing these forces therefore requires organizing together, building collective power, and working toward systemic change.

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Continuing the Work

The Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization training is one part of Spokane Alliance's broader Truth and Transformation work. Through leadership development, relationship building, political education, and shared action, we are working to strengthen relationships between Indigenous and non Indigenous leaders and create the conditions for collaborative action.

Our goal is not simply to learn about colonization, but to use that understanding to build accountable relationships and support Indigenous led efforts that advance the common good.

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How to Participate:

Registration information and upcoming training dates will be posted on the Spokane Alliance events calendar.

If you are interested in participating in the training or would like information about taking Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization through one of our IAF Northwest affiliates, please contact us.