Decolonizing Changemaking: Becoming Accomplices in Indigenous Wisdom and Liberation

On decolonization and indigenization as frameworks to understand and value systemic change and changemaking

Indigenous peoples around the world have always thought about intertwined systems, while settler colonialism and capitalism have made decisions that are not about integration.  

Holistic ways of thinking about interconnected systems, biological systems, human systems, ecological systems, and energy systems are now adrift. Indigenous people have always tried to find a way to build systems and implement their Indigenous knowledge, understanding that every single time they made a decision here, it affected something elsewhere, because they understood the interconnectedness of all things. That's why, in most Indigenous languages in the world, you will find a word that says we are all related or that we are all connected, we are all relatives. In Lakota, this word is "Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ" which means we are all related. 

What has happened through settler colonialism is a move away from that concept. As a result, it has only created environmental destruction and increased global climate change. It has expanded the separation between the rich and the poor. It has generated a more violent world, a world where we don't steward our natural resources in ways that keep up with our means. 

And so, when we talk about decolonization and the implementation of traditional Indigenous knowledge, we aren't talking about doing it just for Indigenous people. We're seeking a solution for everyone. The decolonization component here is that much of our Indigenous knowledge that we have developed throughout history, we have gotten by observing the environment. In most Indigenous cultures, they're observing what is happening in the natural environment, and therefore they're implementing solutions based on ecological knowledge, because they understand that human beings are not a separate thing from it. Therefore, we're going to treat our plants, our animals, like relatives. 

In the colonization paradigm, systems were built for extraction – the theft of land, destruction, extracting resources from Mother Earth. They also created political and legal systems to protect these actions, to ensure that extraction has more rights than humans do. This is why so much of this work, like what we talk about in the Land Back Movement, is an abolitionist movement. There are many frameworks and systems that must be abolished and rebuilt. Some of these cannot be reformed. We must build new systems because intent is embedded within them. That's the part that's missing, as if all of this were just about politics and economics; this is also about connection to spirit. Therefore, intent matters in solving global problems as it relates to things that impact all systems, and that's why I believe this is imperative. 

The other thread that is imperative is that a huge majority of Indigenous cultures were matriarchal. Settler colonialism destroyed matriarchal societies and the role of the matriarch has been deprioritized. This contributes to the problem because the matriarchs were the regulators in many Indigenous cultures around the world. Indeed, Indigenous cultures were complex civilizations. This idea that we were savage people who did not understand complex systems, who were not capable of building complex, sustainable, and regenerative civilizations is wrong. 

So, part of what I talk about so much in our work is that it's not just about decolonization and indigenizing, it's also about rematriation. Rematriation is a very important part of decolonization and an essential part of healing Mother Earth and building new systems grounded in Indigenous values. 

On innovation, newness and entrepreneurship as the pathway to solutions to social issues 

Despite colonization and settler colonialism, right now Indigenous people are stewarding 80% of the world's biological diversity. Eighty percent. And they are doing it on behalf of others. This is a key component to solving global climate change. So, is this an innovation? I would say to the climate funders of the world that it is: they should start writing checks to Indigenous people to solve these problems. It happens that these Indigenous “innovations” are the implementation of thousands of years of intellectual knowledge and spiritual wisdom, cultural knowledge and ways of knowing. They're being implemented at a time when innovation is needed to solve a massive problem. The field of social entrepreneurship needs to think differently: instead of always trying to find the next Plymouth Rock or shiny widget that's going to “solve the world's problem”, they should look to Indigenous people’s answers. As an organizer and as an Indigenous person, I know these solutions live amongst the people. They're in the pain and lived experience of people who have been most impacted by colonization. What Indigenous people are doing right now has to be lifted up. If we want to shift in this moment, we must understand that Indigenous people's self-determination is the mechanism to do that. Meaning that we don't need people to save Indigenous people. Indigenous people are already saving you all.  

Some examples of this involved the Sicangu Lakota Oyate people. They were suffering from diabetes because of lack of access to healthy food. So, they worked to get their land back that traditionally had enabled a food and economic system built around the Buffalo. Buffalo are way better stewards of Mother Earth than so many other innovative ideas. They repurposed about 22,000 acres of their land on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and reintroduced the Buffalo. This became the largest tribally managed herd in the world, creating access to healthy food and creating solutions to solve climate change. Another example I’d mention is the Indigenous-led kelp farming in Alaska by Ashoka Fellow Dune Lankard. His work is about creating a diversified strategy to maintain a subsistence lifestyle because if they have revenue from kelp farming and fishing, they can continue to live on the land in a sustainable livelihood.  

On White Supremacy as the sickness infecting social innovation and well-intentioned people and organizations 

If we had to point to the main sickness that keeps the world from thriving, it would be White Supremacy. It’s what fuels settler colonialism and one of the greatest contributors to violence in the world against people and environmental violence against Mother Earth. It’s one of the biggest contributors to climate change. 

One of the reasons why settler colonialism and capitalism in this form can continue to have the power they hold is because of White Supremacy, or due to the perpetuation of White Supremacist culture. If you look at the history of the field of entrepreneurship, both corporate and social, there are a lot of white guys who discovered the solution, right? I think this can create a savior mentality: “Social Entrepreneurs are finally going to save us all.” But the reality of our situation is that, to achieve any serious change, you must distribute decision-making power back to the people who are being impacted, the people whose power has been taken from them, in most cases illegally. If we’re trying to build a world where everyone is a changemaker, then let’s not try to engineer a world, or “widget” our way to an everyone a changemaker world. Let’s stop thinking that we’re going to solve things in a social entrepreneur’s boardroom somewhere. Let’s recognize that we’re going to solve those problems in the soil, in the streets. We need to walk arm in arm with the people working in their communities solving problems every day. These individuals need to be valued as the social entrepreneurs of today, because they are the ones who are going to help us get out of the situation that we’re in. We need to be thinking less like social entrepreneurs who are trying to create widgets to solve problems to instead think more of ourselves as revolutionaries who value everybody in society to equip them all with the tools, they need to exceed their own expectations of themselves to build a better world. The thing that we must remember is that it takes everybody to dismantle White Supremacy and White Supremacist culture. People need to stop getting offended when we say we need to get rid of White Supremacy. White guys need to stop getting offended by this. We need you white guys! There’s a revolution going on and you have equal footing in dismantling this system. Stop getting your feelings hurt and freezing up. Instead, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. This isn't about you. It’s about we.  

I think the good thing about this approach is that we’re solving the problem where everyone is valued. The white guy who has benefited from White Supremacy is also valued. But he needs to understand that we don't need allies, we need accomplices. And there's a difference. Accomplices take risks. They're willing to use the positional power that they have and use the resources that they have acquired as a result of a White Supremacist system. They need to start giving decision-making power to impacted people and to stop assuming that giving up decision-making power is somehow going to result in things being worse. I don't mean they give up power to anyone, there must be shared values and principles. There must be an agreement about where we're trying to go as humanity. 

NDN has invested $80 million in 945 Indigenous partners and grantees throughout North America since we started the organization. Philanthropy has never done that. For the many years philanthropy has been around they've never built anything like that before. Of course, we’re not investing in Indigenous people to build prisons, or in tribal governments to drill oil and gas. I'm not investing in tribal nations to decrease LGBTQ2S+ rights. We have a shared approach around regenerative solutions that are deriving from Indigenous cultures that are not perpetuating White Supremacy. Because colonization also made an impact here, so there are Indigenous cultures who are perpetuating White Supremacist structures and systems. The dismantling of White Supremacist structures and systems requires everybody, not just white people, because people of color can perpetuate those systems too. 

I think that the solution is distributed power and resources, and trust. There’s an Ashoka Fellow who said, “partnerships move at the speed of trust.” Well, movements also move at the speed of trust, and liberation moves at the speed of trust.   

On scaling and new ways of leadership 

I think we should rethink scaling. A lot of times, we think of scaling as increased numbers, but imagine thinking about scaling as people staying more local. If you're thinking about people building deeper roots. 

We must think about scaling as building capacity and how you sustain a model. How can a changemaker stay in their community and deepen their impact over a long period of time? I think you must think about scale as extending deeper roots into communities for longer periods of time to develop long-term leaders there. This is why I run this international organization from my homeland – I never left. I'm going to create a way to ensure that our model is successful here. And yes, we can create modules and ways for people to come learn here and be here. It's about building a relationality because relationships help scale change in the world and go about scaling in that way. 

So, we must start thinking about scaling as doubling down, not extracting leaders from the communities. I think about this a lot as it relates to Indigenous people even in the business model of NDN where our staff members get to stay in the communities they're from. I don't make them come to New York City or wherever. People get to stay there because they're valued there, they're networked in that community, and they can make sure that their community has access to the resources we are bringing for the purpose of changemaking into those communities. 

We also must really think about intergenerational models. I believe most changes actually happen with intergenerational organizing and intergenerational solutions. In the same way that we invest in young people, I think we should be finding ways to resource our elders, regardless of the complex tax limitations that exist in colonial governments, both in the United States and globally. We should be valuing them and finding creative ways to build multi-generation collaboration within changemaking. I think resourcing multi-generational work needs to be fundamental when we think about scaling because it creates longevity and impact on that scale. 

A message for philanthropists on how they can support Indigenous and First Nation’s changemakers 

“Move money and decision-making power into the hands of Indigenous people.” The institution of Philanthropy is a byproduct of capitalism. Capitalism has been one of the means that helps perpetuate and extend settler colonialism, so they're bound up with one another. Philanthropy has always thought they can solve society’s problems without ever sitting at the table with the people who are directly impacted by the wealth that they have in the first place. Philanthropy has wealth because at some point in time in history, somebody in their family benefited from stealing Indigenous people's land, from slavery, from the exploitation of workers, from the exploitation of Mother Earth. 

If a philanthropic cause is to improve the social determinants of health, I recommend we take the social determinants of health and overlay them with Reservations in America, and you will find the worst health conditions that exist in the entire country. The most underinvested people in America, including in the field of philanthropy, are Indigenous peoples. So, philanthropy needs to invest in Indigenous people, and it needs to invest in levels of reparations. It needs to stop thinking about programmatic grant-making and start moving assets directly to Indigenous people. I’m talking about entire endowments. I’m talking about moving those billions of dollars into Indigenous people’s hands and communities so that we can have the resources to begin solving these problems. That act is revolutionary. 

Don't try to make your foundation the most diverse, the most equitable, and the most inclusionary. Question your structure, question the origin of your money and the impact of that money, and look back at what you're not doing to impacted people. There are Indigenous people everywhere, and we have survived this settler colonial project; even though we have the lowest life expectancies in the Western Hemisphere, even though we have such a stark income and equality gap between white people and Indigenous peoples. For every $1.00 that a white person has, an Indigenous person has 8 cents. That represents a 92% racial wealth gap, and they are over here talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion and how to implement that in their foundation. Instead, talk about moving assets and resources to Indigenous people, be courageous and be brave to think about giving up money and decision-making power to impacted people. 

Think about the healing you create when you do that. Think about the burden that you let go of when you do that. This becomes your story; this becomes your legacy in philanthropy. And some of the things that money goes to are going to be extremely successful and change the world and, just like every one of your other grantees, some won’t be so successful. Don't be so scared of that, and don't erase us. Don't participate in the active erasure of Indigenous people. Do not pretend, philanthropists, that you are not on stolen Indigenous lands because you are. Don't think that a land acknowledgment is a thing that is going to somehow solve the problem. Return the land and return the assets. 

If you want to do the real work, fund the people and revolutionaries and those who are liberating on the frontline. Join us, be with us. Let’s create this change in the world. But understand you will have to be courageous, and you will have to take risks. It can't be just us out here taking all the risks. It's got to be you too. Philanthropy, we are asking you to become an accomplice! 

Note: Minor edits have been applied for clarity.