WE ARE KNOWLEDGE KEEPERS.
WE ARE STORYTELLERS.
WE ARE INDIGENOUS EDUCATORS.
We are a community by and for Indigenous educators who are actively disrupting settler colonial education, re-centering Indigenous languages and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in the education of children and families, and restoring the connection between how we educate our children with the most sacred values of our ancestors, our languages, our cultures, and our peoples.
Everything about Indigenous Peoples Rights and Movements starts and ends with how we educate our children and families.
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OUR MISSION
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We Disrupt
The dominant early childhood narrative is a harmful lie. We work to disrupt this lie right from the beginning of a child’s education and through all future educational settings. We do this by re-centering Indigenous Languages and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) — which hold critical knowledge about children, parenting, and the role of all the generations in raising and educating children.
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We Elevate
We elevate Indigenous Educators who are guided by critical consciousness and action in contemporary educational settings. We hope that this platform helps our community grow. Together, we must support current and future Indigenous educators who equip present and future generations to fight the good fight – whether that be around land rights, water rights, language revitalization, sovereignty, and other critical issues that impact all of us.
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We Support
We are a community of support for Indigenous Educators who are working to restore and reimagine Indigenous education. We also support those who seek to follow the lead of Indigenous-led education, and work in a way that contributes to helping all Indigenous children realize their whole selves. Together, we will create a new narrative about the education that our communities wholly deserve.
Families and the community are our historical and first teachers.
Indigenous Languages and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) must be front and center in the creation of culturally sustaining educational settings. As fellow educators, we support one another as we reclaim the holistic, integrated education of our children in schools, classrooms, and programs. We celebrate and uplift one another along the way!
Our Lands, Our People, Our Languages
Nominate an Educator
Nominate yourself as an Indigenous Educator or nominate a fellow Indigenous Educator.
— We Will Feature & Center
This Indigenous Educator will be featured on our Instagram page and will receive an Indigenous Educator sticker, mug, and a $20 gift card for coffee, tea of their choice.
Support Indigenous-led Education
Every quarter, Indigenous Educators will feature and highlight an Indigenous-led education initiative or school. Please consider sharing your support.
Hearts Gathered works to revitalize Okanagan Salish (nsəlxcin) by operating the Waterfall School, a language immersion Montessori school located on the Colville Reservation near Omak, Washington. We serve children ages 2.5 to 12 years old in two classrooms: a Primary Classroom (ages 2.5-6) and an Elementary Classroom (ages 6-12) with wrap-around child care.
The Waterfall School is creating a beautiful new category of speakers -- the emerging speakers.
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