Origin reGroup
“The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.” — Wilma Mankiller, activist, community organizer, social worker, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
KABF learned of Origin reGroup, an Indigenous activist nonprofit located in Arizona from our friend TJ of the Navajo Nation’s Rural Utah Project. We were honored to award Origin reGroup a grant in 2022.
Origin reGroup’s purpose is to reconnect with and organize Indigenous communities according to their own traditions. As we learned from their co-executive directors, Eric Descheenie and LivA’ndrea Knocki, “Indigenous Peoples since the origins of time have lived by way of kinship systems as conveyed from origin stories. For many, kinship identity or clanship was central to virtually every aspect of life – including planting, raising a family, governance, or defending life. This was a significant source of our power, until colonial arrangements in certain areas of life took precedence.”
Origin reGroup tackles issues such as housing instability, food insecurity, and climate change through Indigenous Peoples’ own solutions. They recognize that misogyny and sexism have contributed to these problems. They understand that in order to bring about positive change, women must be in leadership positions. As co-executive directors, Eric Descheenie and Liv Knocki told KABF, “Men have had many chances. It is not to say that male leadership is necessarily the problem, it is to say that their counterparts – women – have gifts, talents, perspectives, power and more that are critical to the wellness of society, and they have by and large been neglected to our collective detriment. Lastly, it is not only a sex or gender issue, or sex or gender issue at all in certain instances, it also goes to challenges of conflicting philosophical thought, lacking ethics in sciences, and social fallibility. It would be naïve and myopic to assume anything will change by keeping the status quo given our collective track record, and with urgent issues like the climate crisis, where the window to effectively respond narrows rapidly and mercilessly, we cannot afford any more trial periods. It is necessary we reassess leadership in fundamental ways, reach for alternative possibilities in both theory and in practice, and chart new paths rooted in philosophy wildly and celebratorily different than that which has guided mainstream society since a century ago. And we need to do so immediately.”
“Indigenous Peoples since the origins of time have lived by way of kinship systems as conveyed from origin stories. For many, kinship identity or clanship was central to virtually every aspect of life – including planting, raising a family, governance, or defending life. This was a significant source of our power, until colonial arrangements in certain areas of life took precedence.”
Origin reGroup sees the way forward as organizing through matrilineal clans. Focusing first on four major issues:
1. Increase voter registration and civic engagement among Indigenous Peoples.
2. Effectively respond to the violence against Indigenous Women, including the Missing and Murdered.
3. Empowering Native youth (ages 15-35) to serve as leaders.
4. Addressing the Climate Crisis through organizing by Diné clanship.
For more information visit their website at: https://onearizona.org/