A key partner in RPA’s nationwide to promote healthy equity in planning is the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation in South Dakota, an organization aimed at empowering Lakota youth and families to improve the health, culture, and environment through the healing and strengthening of cultural identity.

TVCDC is one of thirty members of the Healthy Regions Planning Exchange, a peer-to-peer learning network which includes organizations from ten regions across the country working to improve health outcomes via equitable transportation, land use, housing and community development policies.

RPA and other Planning Exchange partners recently had the opportunity to attend the 2nd annual Lakota Media Summit hosted byTVCDC with a goal of learning how to better center indigenous voices in our collective work.

TVCDC created the space for Indigenous relatives and allies to come together for cross-cultural and inter-generational learning through stories and narrative shifts. The Summit provided the platform for dialogue, education, and the exchange of ideas that are crucial for bringing light to the past harms experienced by Indigenous people as well as uplifting stories of perseverance and thriving. Our group was deeply moved by the discussions, workshops, and connections made during the summit. It reinforced our belief in the power of collaboration and the importance of creating spaces for diverse voices to be heard.

The Summit hosted three different tracks of breakout sessions: allies in media, Indigenous community, and youth. Sessions shared a focus on the use of different forms of media as tools for storytelling, resistance, and healing. In the following sections, we outline the lessons learned and the helpful resources that our partners shared. This blog post cannot cover all the speakers and those who shared stories and wisdom. The full program is available online.

Media and and the importance of ensuring ​“visual sovereignty”

Filmmaking is often employed in the telling of Indigenous stories, but not necessarily with the inclusion of Indigenous points of view. This is important to understand as it helps frame the significance of the work of Dr. Justin de Leon. Dr. de Leon runs a program called the ​“Creative Sovereignty Lab,” an apprenticeship and training program that invites filmmakers to take part in reflective workshops and discussions during the production of a film. The program creates space to speak openly about the intended purpose of a project and to understand each individual in the production process as a person who exists beyond their role on a set. Dr. de Leon invited us to interrogate non-Indigenous understandings of what it means to tell Indigenous stories without being exploitative. He highlighted that relationship building and trust are primary elements in the production of any type of media–especially with media aiming to tell Indigenous stories.

An important piece of this narrative shift is the concept of visual sovereignty in the production of any visual media. Visual sovereignty can be described as the obligation that Indigenous creatives and communities be involved in the telling of their own stories and experiences. The intention of the media maker(s) must be to portray the complexity of Indigenous histories and challenge existing narratives around histories that have been primarily told and created by non-Indigenous people. In practicing visual sovereignty, makers of media must step outside of mainstream indicators of what it means to make a ​“successful film.” Specifically, acknowledging that making a film extends beyond the site of production and that the rippling effects of success can also be measured by the ability of those involved to practice care and community building throughout the filmmaking process.

Film as a pathway for highlighting the stories and experiences of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ people and other Indigenous communities

Indigenous filmmakers and creatives deliver groundbreaking works that showcase the power of storytelling and, importantly, truth telling. Below is a summary of films shown at the media Summit. These films were informed and guided by Indigenous people, who in some cases continually experience the direct impact of the events they describe.

We Ride for Her, directed by Prairie Rose Seminole and Katrina Lillian Sorrentino, is a community-led documentary film created by the Red Sand Project. The documentary represents a larger movement calling out the shortcomings of the colonial settler justice system in protecting and defending the lives of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and relatives (MMIW). The film tells the stories of these missing women and those who have survived the traumas of human trafficking. It also introduces us to The Medicine Wheel Riders, a group of Indigenous women motorcyclists who have traversed different regions advocating for their relatives.

Lakota Nation vs the United States is a 2022 documentary film written and partially narrated by Oglala Lakota poet, Layli Long Soldier. Together with directors Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli, several Očhéthi Šakówiŋ activists, elders, and present day visionaries tell the story of the theft of their tribal and ancestral lands, the Black Hills, located in a region that is now referred to as ​“South Dakota.” The film calls out the ongoing cultural violence in and around the Black Hills and the work of Indigenous people to counteract colonial settler actions via movements like the Standing Rock DAPL protests and Landback.

The power of indigenous youth on social media

In the breakout session ​“VIDEO4EARTH: Strategic Storytelling Using Mobile Phone,” Victor Ribeiro, Senior Program Manager at WITNESS, and Samela Sateré-Mawé, Media Coordinator for the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), discussed the use of cell phones and cameras by Indigenous youth to communicate their identities and lived experiences, and the multi-cultural connections they form in their advocacy work. Sateré-Mawé, who was able to join us virtually, spoke of her intent to use social media as an instrument to globally demonstrate the work of her community as well as share acts of struggle and resistance, sometimes in collaboration with other Indigenous women.

In 2021, Sateré-Mawé engaged in the second National March of Indigenous Women in Brazil, ​“Original women: Reforesting minds for the healing of the Earth,” which assembled over 4,000 women from 150 recognized peoples at Brazil’s National Arts Foundation. The march was held virtually in 2020, and the National Articulation of Ancestral Warriors Women (ANMIGA), who organized the movement, made broadcasts of the 2021 march globally and publicly available on their website. The significance of this relationship between present day, indigenous led movements and the emergence of online/digital social networks is best articulated by Sateré-Mawé in her article, ​“A Born Activist”: ​“Indigenous youth are protagonists in the fight with contemporary weapons–technology allied to the defense of the territory…cameras denounce the attacks, violence, and violations that affect the people.”

The Summit highlighted the significant role that younger generations play in shaping global understandings of cultural and political movements within Indigenous communities via social media. These tools enable us to learn from young people who have extended their presence to online platforms.

Moving forward: the responsibility of allies to educate themselves

As Executive Director of Oatly Futures Lab, Heidi Hackemer, put it in her breakout session, ​“How to show up in Indigenous spaces and not be an idiot,” decolonization begins with education. Throughout breakout sessions and keynote speeches, our speakers extended their own knowledge to Summit attendees, but also advised that the duty to learn the history of Indigenous land and its original inhabitants cannot lie solely on the shoulders of our Indigenous communities. Shared learning resources, like films, books, and other media, are essential components in the process of healing. It is expected that non-Indigenous allies seek these resources out.

Here are some works on the histories of Indigenous people of Turtle Island and the original harms that have taken place on their ancestral lands:

• If You’ve Forgotten the Names of the Clouds, You’ve Lost Your Way, Russell Means and Baynard Johnson, 2012

• Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States, Audra Simpson, 2014

• Our History is the Future, Nick Estes, 2019

• Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America, Pekka Hämäläinen, 2022

In the spirit of turning vision into action, the Healthy Regions Planning Exchange is committed to highlighting Indigenous work and movements led by our partners and uplifting research and data which highlight the actions and solutions lead by Indigenous communities. Giving visibility and attention to Indigenous work is an actionable step that goes beyond the minimum of land acknowledgements.

We will continue to share progress within the Planning Exchange as our partner groups work to advance equitable development, public health, and vibrant communities. The Lakota Media Summit was a testament to TVCDC’s work towards the liberation and empowerment of their nation. We can take their example and transform how we can move as planners, practitioners, and people to center health, healing and equality in our everyday work.