On December 1st, Anita presented the Keynote address to 6000 teachers, administrators and students in the Anaheim Conference Center plus livestream audiences at 80 schools around the world for the National Association of Independent Schools’ 30th Annual People of Color Conference. After a long standing ovation, more than six hundred stood in line to get her signature on their copies of The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. “You have changed my life” was heard over and over again.
Anita, the Pachamama Alliance. Session today was fantastic. I am a writer and cultural historian led by the spirit. Ojibwa on my Dad’s side….Ancient DNA on my Mom’s side from both Sami and Berber people. I am finishing my gifted certificate in New Mexico where we have these amazing cultural education standards that were adopted into the CCSS-ELA by law in 2010, and require cultural education for all K-12 students. The state Public Education Department, unfortunately, has buried them, even it has a district court decision against it for denying the Constitutional education rights of Indigenous, bilingual, and SPED students. I would like to talk to you about getting an intermediary organization to stand for the tribes because last year the PED closed the Indigenous Curriculum Initiative I was a part of and 350 lesson plans that were funded to be in the public domain.