When Lakota Youth Speak, We Need to Listen | Marina Sachs | TEDxTheCountrySchool
[Applause] nice to be back really nice to be back so when I was asked to give this talk the first thing that I thought about was what does synergy especially what's the actual with a definition of synergy and the second thing I thought about was whatever it means I got to talk about the plant and the plant is a talent that I'm connected to on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota I'm turning some potent around why I found out that synergy is these two components that come together that create an awesome outcome that could have been achieved how do they remain separate so it's like Metro boomin at 2170 or jean-michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol or even Mike Wazowski and selling their really good on their own but when they come together if you're game-changers but what would happen if if one side of those pears drop the ball or what would happen if one half repeatedly messed up and didn't meet up with the other side or what if one half of those Paris tricked the other side into thinking that they were working together but somehow always ended up going too short stick basically what if the dealer was stacking the deck at someone else's favor not yours and that kind of broken relationship something I would not call synergy is a lot like what the relationship between our country's history and our government and Native American folks in this country looks like so LaPlante is right under that orange arrow this is a map of the Cheyenne River nation in South Dakota on the bottom right hand corner you can see a map of the United States and where the Cheyenne River Reservation was located in South Dakota and the size of it it's roughly the size of Connecticut it's one of the largest reservations in the United States and it was set up in the late 1800s by the United States as part of their efforts to combine to confine Native Americans to reservation land and to combine many different tribes making up the Lakota Sioux into one space my connection to the plot began in 2015 this is a photo that I took when I went out there my friend and I we moved out there right after he graduated college to carry out a project that we designed it's called Lakota you to speak and its restorative justice project that we created to partner with Lakota professionals and this nonprofit simply smiles that has been welcomed to the community to engage the teenagers in the town there's a disproportionately high rate of suicide among adolescents on the Scheinman reservation and we created this project specifically to address recent deaths in that community my connection to this talent actually began in this room with a man named tio kazoo ghost tourists who came for a cultural arts program I was about 10 years old and he plays the red cedar flute he's also an activist and a radio host and has been are really crucial for indigenous rights in United States I met him when I was in fourth grade and I remember speaking to him and we kept in touch via email and then 16 years later I reached out to him said hey I had this project he was like you got to do it so I moved out there in 2015 to do this project and the reason that I wanted to create a little coding this week and the reason I wanted to partner with teenagers and work with these amazing amazing young people is because I wanted to create a space for play a space for hope a space for reparations and a place where people could feel safe they could just forget about what was going on that was really hard at home summertime is a really difficult time on the reservation because you know have school to distract you is that something that's gonna take up your time so we created look Oh to you to speak because playtime is really critical for people of all ages even if you don't think so maybe you're past the play time you're over the hill play starts really important and the first couple weeks no one showed up the teams were like no we're not interested in hanging out with you and make it hard we don't want to be listen I knocked on every single door at every house that I knew had a teenager in that town and I was like you've got to come to this thing and then they were like we're not getting out of bed and so I had changed the meeting diver today a.m. to 2 p.m. because no teenager wants to get a bed in the summer at 10 a.m. to meet and talk about identity there just wasn't gonna happen to know I've heard my lesson there and slowly but surely the project gained traction and they started showing up and it's still going but building trust and forging partnerships with these teenagers has been really difficult for my friends in LaPlante the history of distrust between white folks and folks on the reservation cuts deep unfortunately as white folks in our government have broken more than our fair share of promises to our digitus brothers and sisters so asking for these teens to trust us to trust that this project was a partnership and that I was there for the long haul and I wasn't going anywhere and that I genuinely cared about them was a huge challenge because when you have to take care of your siblings because your guardian is at work all day or when your science book is so old that your mom's name is it or one of the money that your family has has to go to food not watercolours and paper when you don't have time to just be a kid and play you're gonna grow up with this kind of this kind of toughness this grit that just can't be shaken easily and that's why we created the Buddy you speak these are images that I took this past summer some of the participants from one of our workshops and I wanted to amplify these teenagers voices I wanted to stand next seven pulled up a megaphone and say we need all of the listening ears that you can get eat all of the speakers that you can get I wanted to partner with them to give them access to resources that I grew up with access to art education and farming opportunities and steam programs and field trips and outdoor trips over night stuff I learned here I wanted to give these teenagers the exact same these and stack the deck just a little bit higher for them then achieving these goals has been really difficult I'm not going to paint it like it's the pin this easy picture we're entering our fourth summer now on this project and the fundraising has been completely self driven sometimes the day-to-day is really difficult and it's just about taking a little victory like a hug a complete painting it's not a big win every day and it's really hard to stay positive and feel like it's not just this little small thing where it's me and my project Parker Elian and these teenagers and simply smiles the nonprofit we partner with against the United States priorities and our history of broken treaties and the fact that there's a pervasive hopelessness on the reservation that feels inescapable to the one in every ten girls who attempt suicide it's really hard not to feel like I'm going up against this big thing that can't be conquered but that's why I have to show up for them and that's why people who have access to resources who had really awesome role models and play time that's what you guys have to show up live to and I'm not blaming everyone for this or for these issues it's not your fault that the book you learn US history from didn't tell you the whole truth or that we still celebrate Thanksgiving largely as this peaceful coming together of cultures at this one in history I really don't think it's about blame I think it's about facing our history it's about ownership and it's about standing as allies with the most vulnerable members of our communities so if you are privileged whatever that means to you educating yourself is a really big first step and then showing up is another so the next time you go shopping if you like to shop do some research support and indigenous owned company or business there's a lot of really awesome native fashion designers and clothing brands out there right now nice he has a partnership right now with a lot of Native American artists if you have access to a library borrow books written by named American authors there's some really good graphic novels out there right now and children's literature this one particular that's the true diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie is so funny and totally inappropriate and it was captures the nuances of reservation life and I think humor why bring up humor is because it's really important to get through more times he was a really big really good thing and it creates resilience in us this book is brand-new it's a compilation of different Native American folk tales and folklore in graphic novel style so if you don't read a lot of words this is the book for you also you have Spotify or SoundCloud or if you want you to or if you have a phone and you liked on the internet there are so many Native American musicians and artists and app developers and websites if you're carrying around a computer in your pocket I think there are endless resources for you to be a great Ally and I just want to leave you with some images from a photography project that I did with the participants and look what it used to be plus summer I asked them to photograph what they see everyday to capture the images of their lives and this was the first time that any of these teenagers had seen a film camera or used one so I gave them all disposable cameras and a couple prompts and I just asked them to capture their their daily lives and I think the fact that they had never used film cameras before it makes these images even more powerful this is one of the really successful art initiatives that I started that we're going to continue next summer and indefinitely until these kids are in college and feel a greater sense of hope and belonging and have the opportunity is that I believe Lee so so deserve these majors are honest they're powerful and they speak for themselves [Applause]