Episode 78: Taté Walker--a Two Spirit feminist

On today’s episode, our guest is Taté Walker, a Lakota citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. They are a banner-waving Two Spirit feminist, Indigenous rights activist, and a published and award-winning storyteller for outlets like Everyday Feminism, Feminist Humanist Alliance, Native Peoples magazine, and Indian Country Today. Taté uses their 15 years of experience working for daily newspapers, social justice organizations, and tribal education systems to organize students and professionals around issues of critical cultural competency, anti-racism/anti-bias, and inclusive community building.  We speak with Taté today about their work in using storytelling and art to create social change.

During our conversation, Taté and I referenced the following resources and topics:

• The book, "Fierce:  Essays by and about Dauntless Women" by Karyn Kloumann, in which Taté's essay "Origins" appears
• The concept of "two-spirit"
• The gender unicorn
• Rates of violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women
• The movement and the organization helping to bring awareness to "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls"
• Native Americans have the highest rates of enlistment than any other ethnic group in the United States
• The movement to end Native mascots in professional sports
• Netflix's American Son and the Opportunity Agenda's Discussion Guide on the film
• Taté's book coming out in 2020:  "Thunder Thighs and Trickster Vibes:  Essays on Immigration, Gender, and Equality"
• The Lakota concept of "Mitakuye Oyasin" which reflects the interconnectedness of life
• The Native concept of "seventh generation sustainability"

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