Dear Relatives, Friends, and Community,
When my mother passed, I cut my hair. It is our tradition, and one I dreaded for a decade while I decided to allow my hair to grow long again. Fun fact, I always kept my hair short, as a professional educator, because I thought having “long hair” was “too sexy and unprofessional”. Until, one day, in my early 40s, one of my nieces exclaimed, “That’s BS. What is wrong with being sexy and professional?” From that day, I began letting my hair grow.
Every day now I touch my shoulder-length hair and quietly say, “I miss my long hair.”
In our way, hair holds memory. Cutting it was part of my grieving. What I didn’t expect was how caring for my short hair would become a daily teaching. And, truly what I am being reminded to do is grieve, because I miss her. I miss my mom.
When my hair was long, I could braid it or pull it back. Now, I must tend to it every day. I cannot ignore it. I must be present with it.
And every morning I am reminded: Grief needs tending. Love needs tending. Legacy needs tending.
This is the same tending I am being called into through SISTERHOOD.
Recently, I had the privilege of meeting four of the five First Nations girls of Visual Dreaming that I will be spending two weeks with in Wagga Wagga and Melbourne, Australia.
Sitting with them, listening to their voices, I could feel their strength, their gentleness, and their deep care for each other. They reminded me why this work matters so much. Our focus is on how they are learning to lead TOGETHER, how they are learning to care not only for themselves but ONE ANOTHER, and the strength in SISTERHOOD.
In the film SISTERHOOD, I will be with them on the journey from their homelands to the Women Deliver conference. They will be part of a 150+ member delegation led by June Oscar and the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) movement. Yet, I get to spend my time listening to, watching them absorb the spirit of powerful womxn, and audiencing their evolution. I get to be a person they tell their excitement to!
Through my journey there, I will share my journey on social media as I get to learn how girls’ voices, grounded in culture and relationship, can shape global change. Yes!
Here is a link to Visual Dreaming and the work they are doing for young First Nations girls and Instagram post about their work, too.
To fully participate in this next phase of filming and relationship building, I am working to raise $8,900 by April 15th to support travel and production costs connected to my role in the film.
I am not asking any one person to fund this alone. I am asking you to help carry this story forward by:
• Sharing this with people who believe in girls’ leadership
• Contributing if you feel moved
• Helping expand the circle of support around this work
Can you make a financial contribution now and SHARE this with others, too, who might believe in the power of teaching First Nations girls that they have the power to lead with ONE ANOTHER, FOR ONE ANOTHER and FOR THEIR DESCENDANTS.?
If you would like to talk directly with me about the project, you can pick a time and I will be there. Yes, you can bring your friends, too!
What I am learning in this season of grief is this:
- Tending is love in action.
- Tending my hair.
- Tending my grief.
- Tending my mother’s legacy.
- Tending the voices of girls who are already shaping the future.
Thank you for helping me tend this work.
With Gratitude and Trust,
P.S. If you are not in a place to financially contribute, one of the most powerful ways to support this work is simply to share this email with 4, 7, or even 28 people who believe in Indigenous leadership and girls’ voices. Community amplification is how stories like this reach the people meant to support them.
Will you share this with the people in your life?
P.P.S. If you feel called to contribute, even small gifts help build the path forward. This is how community carries stories together — one relationship at a time.
The photos of me are my grief; my 50th birthday that my mom and I were planning for a year, it is me at the beach she went to when my grandmother passed. The other photo is the memorial tattoo I got for her… the same frog and turtle image that was on the back of her neck. Then the photo of the Visual Dreaming girls.
The photos of me are my grief; my 50th birthday that my mom and I were planning for a year, it is me at the beach she went to when my grandmother passed. The other photo is the memorial tattoo I got for her… the same frog and turtle image that was on the back of her neck. Then the photo of the Visual Dreaming girls.
I have shifted the way to contribute to allow less percentage be taken from the donations:
