Season 2 Episode 4:The Big We: Indigenous People’s Day Edition with Kevin Killer & Sarah Eagle Heart
In this special Indigenous People’s Day edition of the Big We, we talk to our friends Kevin Killer and Sarah Eagle Heart who recently returned from a trip to Ghana as part of a truth and healing project to commemorate the 400 year anniversary since 1619, the year the first ship with enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. They share their perspectives on what their travels from Oglala, Lakota lands to Oguaa, West Africa taught them about history, memory, culture, and home. Kevin and Sarah describe a visit to the "Point of No Return," the last place many enslaved ancestors saw before the Middle Passage. What they witnessed was an answer to the ancestors' prayers - 400 years later - as they watched the descendants of enslaved ancestors reuniting with their lands and their people for the first time.
Anasa and Calvin ask - what are the memories that live in our bodies and how can we reconnect to the indigenous cultures and lands we come from? What does it actually mean for our ancestors prayers to be answered 400 years later?
PLUS: have your sweet potato pie and eat it too! Inspired by Indigenous People’s Day, Anasa reminds us that we can invent our own traditions based on our values. Start planning your own version of a “Family Fantasy Extravaganza” or the holiday Anasa invented to replace the colonizer holiday formerly known as “Thanksgiving." As Anasa says...it is our sacred duty to CREATE!
#YearofReturn #Ghana #1619 #400Years #Sankofa #IndigenousPeoplesDay #FamilyFantasyExtravaganza #Lakota #Oglala #Oguaa #Thankstaking #afrofuturism #indigenousfuturism
About our Guests:
Sarah Eagle Heart
Sarah Eagle Heart is an Emmy award winning storyteller focused on uplifting Indigenous Peoples worldview. She is also an internationally accomplished executive with a diverse background in tribal, corporate, and non-profit organizations. She founded Eagle Heart Collectiv in 2019 focusing on narrative change, leadership development and social justice storytelling.
Ms. Eagle Heart recently served as CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy, a national nonprofit that focuses on investment in Native American communities. In four years, she created narrative change endeavors amplifying truth and healing, history and contemporary issues raising over $10M. Her partnerships include: Anne Hathaway, Dispatch, Indigenous Women Rise, John Legend, Mark Ruffalo, Obama White House and Taboo of The Black Eyed Peas. Her partnership with John Legend on "Crow: the Legend" led to an 2019 Emmy as a Consultant Producer in Outstanding Interactive Media.
Prior to this role, she served as the Team Leader for Diversity, Social Justice and Environmental Ministries and Program Officer for Indigenous Ministry at The Episcopal Church, New York, NY. Under her leadership, The Episcopal Church became the first major denomination to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery in 2009 and presented oral interventions at the United Nations in 2012.
Ms. Eagle Heart has been a public speaker for over a decade, sharing her traditional cultural knowledge to raise awareness and build strong networks. Ms. Eagle Heart won the 2017 American Express NGen Leadership Award as an emerging leader under age 40 who has already demonstrated significant impact in addressing society’s critical needs. In 2014, she was awarded the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s top 40 under the age of 40 from across Indian Country who have demonstrated leadership, initiative, and dedication and made significant contributions in business and in their community. Ms. Eagle Heart is currently writing a book on healing, leadership and advocacy with her identical twin sister and psychotherapist, Emma Eagle Heart - White titled “Warrior Princes Strikes Back: How Lakota Twins Triumph Over Oppression and Heal” to be published in 2021 by Feminist Press. You can follow her on social media at @ms_eagleheart.
Kevin Killer
Kevin Killer, a member of the Oglala Lakota / Kiowa tribe, served 10 years in the South Dakota legislature, representing a district that includes the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He is a cofounder of Advance Native Political Leadership, which seeks to train the next generation of Native leaders to run, manage, and lead successful campaigns at all levels of government.
He attended Oglala Lakota College and was the first Tribal College Fellow of a progressive youth leadership development organization, Young People For. Killer expanded Young People For’s tribal college network into an independent, Native American-led organization called the Native Youth Leadership Alliance in 2009.
Killer serves on the board of the People for the American Way Foundation and has served as a member of the National Indian Education Association, the Oglala Lakota College Board of Trustees, the Young Elected Officials Network, the Quad Caucus, and the National Caucus Native American State Legislators. He was a 2015 Bush Fellow.
