Indigenous Insights & Decolonization with Kanyon Sayers-Roods

03/02/20 • 40 min

Kanyon Sayers-Roods "Coyote Woman" (Mutsun-Ohlone, Chumash, EuroMutt) is a two-spirit steward of Indian Canyon, an artist, activist and educator. Kanyon teaches truth in history and envisioning indigenous futures to diverse audiences. Kanyon's work has been featured at the De Young Museum, SOMArts Gallery, Gathering Tribes and many indigenous powwows and gatherings.

Episode Highlights

Kanyon shares how she first started her business, Kanyon Konsulting, to provide education on decolonization and reindigenization for non-native people, particularly in the Ohlone territory (San Francisco Bay Area, California).
Kanyon helps us understand what it means to do the work of decolonization and reindiginization.
She shares about the practice and importance of land acknowledgement and recognition.
We also talk about the practice of offering “land tax” donations to help native peoples get land back.
Kanyon shares why it is important and helpful to get familiar with the native peoples in your own territory.
We break down the label of “two-spirit” and other labels native folks use to talk about their queer experience.

Web links

Find more at KanyonKonsulting.com
You can also find Kanyon on Instagram, Twitter & FaceBook
Weaving Spirits Festival of Two Spirits Performance - Yelamu (San Francisco), March 6-8th, 2020
All My Relations podcast
Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits
Two Spirit Society of Indian Canyon
Native Land map website | Mobile app
If you are not Indigenous to the place you live, please consider paying your land tax/offer a gift to the people whose land you are on. - NYC: mannahattafund.org - Seattle: realrentduwamish.org - SF Bay Area: sogoreate-landtrust.com/shuumi-land-tax

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Join the Queer Spirit Community Facebook group to continue the conversation and stay up to date on new episodes.

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Episode Highlights

Kanyon shares how she first started her business, Kanyon Konsulting, to provide education on decolonization and reindigenization for non-native people, particularly in the Ohlone territory (San Francisco Bay Area, California).
Kanyon helps us understand what it means to do the work of decolonization and reindiginization.
She shares about the practice and importance of land acknowledgement and recognition.
We also talk about the practice of offering “land tax” donations to help native peoples get land back.
Kanyon shares why it is important and helpful to get familiar with the native peoples in your own territory.
We break down the label of “two-spirit” and other labels native folks use to talk about their queer experience.

Web links

Find more at KanyonKonsulting.com
You can also find Kanyon on Instagram, Twitter & FaceBook
Weaving Spirits Festival of Two Spirits Performance - Yelamu (San Francisco), March 6-8th, 2020
All My Relations podcast
Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits
Two Spirit Society of Indian Canyon
Native Land map website | Mobile app
If you are not Indigenous to the place you live, please consider paying your land tax/offer a gift to the people whose land you are on. - NYC: mannahattafund.org - Seattle: realrentduwamish.org - SF Bay Area: sogoreate-landtrust.com/shuumi-land-tax

Grab your FREE Guide - Needs, Boundaries & Self-Care for Queer Folks. Download it here.

Join the Queer Spirit Community Facebook group to continue the conversation and stay up to date on new episodes.

And follow us on Instagram!

Join our mailing list to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

Previous Episode

Stirring Up Spiritual Atmosphere in Song with Ron Ragin

Ron Ragin: “I write, sing, compose, and make interdisciplinary performance work that integrates sound, text, and movement. My creative practice incorporates music of the African Diaspora, embodied ancestral memory, improvisational creative processes, liberation aesthetics, and the development and maintenance of spiritual technologies. My artistic work centers around the role of sound, and the un-amplified human voice in particular, in transforming our environment, our selves, and each other. I grew up in Perry, Georgia, and received my earliest musical training at the Saint James Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. I live in New Orleans, make a mean red velvet cake, and can throw down on some biscuits.”

Episode Highlights

Ron tells the story of how he first discovered his love of music and voice as a child singing in church and the backseat of his family car.
He shares more about the different music and singing technologies that came out of Black American churches, and his documentation of this into the Spiritual Technologies Project.
Ron tells us how the Spiritual Technologies Project started and its mission to document and transmit unifying performative practices.
We talk about the power of collective singing as a way of “stirring up the spiritual atmosphere.”
He shares about his work facilitating vocal workshops with people who don’t consider themselves singers; and how healing it can be to empower your voice again.
Ron discusses his upcoming solo show which concerns intimacy and physical touch between Black men, particularly in the context of families.

Web links

Find more at RonRagin.com & SpiritualTechnologiesProject.org
You can also find Ron on Instagram

INNER PEACE: A Free Online Winter Meditation Circle To Comfort Your Queer Heart - Sign up HERE

Grab your FREE Guide – Needs, Boundaries & Self-Care for Queer Folks. Download it here.

Join the Queer Spirit Community Facebook group to continue the conversation and stay up to date on new episodes.

And follow us on Instagram!

Join our mailing list to get news and podcast updates sent directly to you.

Next Episode

Facing Fear Courageously with Julie Dreyer

Julie Dreyer (she/her) is a board certified hospital chaplain who helps patients, families and staff meet their emotional and spiritual needs. She completed a Masters of Divinity at Maitripa (a Tibetan Buddhist college), where she teaches classes, facilitates meditation and music practices. Her sense of the world has been shaped by practicing within various spiritual and embodiment traditions. In search of wholeness, Julie spent four years traveling the world sharing sacred music with people on the streets, in nature and with intentional communities. She is grateful to all her teachers who continue to inspire her to be with what is.

Episode Highlights

Julie explains what a chaplain is and how she fulfills that role now in a hospital.
She tells about her spiritual journey to become a chaplain, moving from a career in computer engineering to exploring music and yoga for her own healing.
Julie talks about how her sisters cancer diagnosis and death lead to her to confront her own relationship to death, and eventually supporting others as they face their own mortality.
She shares how music and songs help to express emotions and support others through challenging times.
We talk about the important challenge of confronting and engaging your fear when facing illness and death.

Web links