The Truth and Transformation team is focused on taking meaningful action with Indigenous organizations on issues of concern to us all, from a place of right relations. Our goals are to understanding the truth and ongoing impacts of colonization, build right relationship with Indigenous people and communities, and identify collective action for the common good.

This Fall, we are excited to bring the Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization Training to Spokane!

The history of colonization is a wound that strikes at the very heart of this land and those who call it home. This leaves us with the question of how can we help heal this wound. We are approaching this by:

• • • Building relationships between communities
    • Truth-telling
    • Taking action to address the ongoing legacy of colonialization

It is time that we face the truth of our colonial past and how it has impacted all of us. We must not just face our past, we also need to build new, life-giving relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people so that together we can shape a relationship in which all can thrive. 

---

Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization is a 5-session virtual training beginning on November 14th, 2023. Following the training, we will host 3 in-person sessions with local Indigenous leaders and Organizations.

This training is designed for labor, community, and faith organizations that are a part of Spokane Alliance. You along with others from your organization are invited to join in reflection and learning around the truth of colonization and its ongoing impact in the region where we live. Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization is an initiative of the IAF Northwest and is offered locally in conjunction with the Spokane Alliance.

Click HERE for more information, and to register.

---

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

The IAF Northwest’s Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization initiative is anchored by a five-session, 10-hour process that was developed by a talented team of US Native Americans, Indigenous / First Nations Canadians, Aboriginal Australians, and Maori New Zealanders.  

It has been 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. 

The overall aims of the Wrestling sessions are to: 

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 that 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 to forge a new future. 

With a foundational appreciation of colonization from an Indigenous / Native American perspective, Wrestling graduates are both more motivated to engage others from their organization and better equipped to partner with local Indigenous leaders and organizations.  They also gain a deeper understanding of how the Power Over forces of colonization - and racism more broadly – have been primarily driven by larger economic and institutional interests rather than individual behaviors. It needs to be addressed, therefore, through organizing together  – Power With – for systemic change around larger social, political, and economic issues.

---

How to Participate:

Click HERE to view the events calendar.

If you are not able to attend the Spokane WWTTC training and are interested in taking the training at one of our affiliates, please contact us.