Native Justice Coalition

We are applying for this prize because as a young organization we are growing exponentially in our Great Lakes Native American and First Nations communities.  Native American, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities in the Great Lakes are currently impacted by colonial laws, borders, and racism from all angles.  From being survivors of genocide, boarding schools, forced relocation, and assimilation policies have directly impacted our people for centuries.

Our solution includes a bold and innovative approach to tackle racism that our people and communities face.  The solution has a culturally based and community led plan that strives to heal our people and empower our communities.  Our work is unique because it focuses on Native led racial, healing, gender, and restorative justice.  It is also unique because it intersects with tribal, state, federal, provincial laws, treaty rights, and sovereignty.  

If selected as the winner we would use the funding to grow our current programming, conference, and add new initiatives that would elevate our work.  We would be able to support current staff by increasing hours and salaries.  Additionally, we would be able to hire new staff and focus on sustaining as well as growing the Native Justice Coalition overall.

The Native Justice Coalition was formed in 2016 with the intent of being a platform for healing, social, and racial justice for all Native American people.  We seek to provide a safe and nurturing platform for Native people based on an anti-oppression framework.  We seek to collaborate first and foremost with tribal governments, Native American non-profits, and other Native American led community organizations. Our goal is to bring resources, initiatives, and programming into our tribal communities that are creative, engaging, and transformative.

We work across our rural and remote Great Lakes Native communities. Since we are a new organization we have been successful at launching our work in our rural and remote Anishinaabe communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  The core of our programming is racial justice.  Native-led racial justice is about healing our communities and empowering our people through our programs. We emphasize sharing their voice and stories as a form of greater community collaboration. Additionally, we believe that by bringing healing to our people and communities we can be greater equipped to deal with systemic injustice and racism from the majority culture. Ultimately we hope our efforts will lead to greater self-determination and building community strength.

There is a ripple effect of social and racial justice across our Great Lakes Native communities. We see our Anishinaabe communities restoring traditional governance to addressing water issues in our remote Ojibway communities.  Our MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People) Program was launched in August 2019 and we have been successful with our billboard campaign across the Great Lakes.  We organize, build, and heal together from the Southern Chiefs of Manitoba, Anishinabek Nation in Ontario, and United Tribes of Michigan.  Our work challenges colonial borders, remonstrances colonial law, and advances treaty rights.  We draw inspiration from these collective victories and move forward together for our future generations. Our coalition is a part of the momentum building across Native communities in the US and Canada.

The challenge is to weave these threads together to build power across our Great Lakes Native communities.  We meet this challenge through our annual Anishinaabe Racial Justice Conference and core programming.  We collaborate with over 27 regional Native and non-Native organizations.  We envision systems change that would positively affect Native and non-Native communities. As a result of our work, Native rights and justice would benefit everyone.

Our work has been led and will remain led by our people and communities. This is firmly based in our strong cultural foundations and teachings. Native and First Nations communities have always considered the shorter-term and intermediate future by considering future generations. It is a part of our philosophy and everyday life. Additionally, it is a part of our cultural teachings and beliefs. Through our solution, it is our intention to positively impact Native and non-Native communities. For example, we could have a great impact on legislation in state, provincial, and federal law. While colonial borders may not necessarily be dissolved, we could however achieve a new relationship based on Native Nation's relationships to colonial governments. Current efforts from Idle No More, Land Back, and Native justice across the US and Canada have paved this path for us to walk down.  Boldly, we will build our path to impact with our people and communities emphasizing community collaboration, partnerships, and the community voice. Our work is built upon the amazing resilience of our ancestors and the path they paved for our people in surviving genocide.  Finally, it is our intention to restore our communities so we are all thriving together.

Community partners, organizations, and coalition members have provided important feedback on our work.  They are grateful for the support we provided during the pandemic through our cultural care package initiative, Healing Stories, and our Two-Spirit Program.  They want to see more projects in our Native communities across the Great Lakes.  More connections are being made and our visibility as a very small grassroots organization is increasing daily.  We firmly believe that the community will lead this change and therefore we have a structure for our community engagement strategy. 

Project Goals for 1-5 years: Our goal is to maintain all current programming as well as consider other programming based on funding, staffing, and organizational capacity.

Community Follow Up: We have a strong and solid community outreach and engagement plan to continuously engage our community partners. Evaluation: We will offer a way for participants and community members to provide feedback after the event. 

Continuous Community Engagement: Our work is growing and we want to be ready to grow this work and take it to the next level.  We believe in continuous community engagement based in our culture but seeking community solutions from an innovative and grounded approach.