We practice re-matriation through intentional collaboration with all the beings and land around us. This is a process of re-membering our true nature — to be in mutual benefit with all of our relations. We enliven the old ways, knowing that we all come from peoples who gathered in song, dance, nourishment and storytelling. 

We listen to the heartbeat of the earth beneath our feet, knowing that we are held and cared for by this sentient land. We give effort to learn the names of the native flora and fauna of Place, and we pray gratitude and recognition to them. We honor the indigenous peoples of the land in learning their names, their stories, and their current plights. 

We recognize and name the imbalanced hierarchies of power that have been sustained in Colonialism, Supremacy, and Isolation Culture. We labor to heal these wounds through Collectivity, Equity, and Belonging. 

We uplift the archetype of The Matriarch, taking care to place value and resource in those who sustain the margins and microcosms of life, from the delicate ecosystems we share space with, to the literal mother, to the elder, to the cook, to the child. 

We reflect on the ways that dominant culture has subjected those on the margins — elders, children, those who provide life-sustianing services, women, people of the global majority, non-human life, and the ecosystems of our earth. We seek to find ways we ourselves may neglect and over-look these margins in our daily life. 

We make small, actionable steps towards tangible equity. We create living practices for platforming and protecting those on the margins. We gather in prayer that we may grow farther within this inclusive and nurturing archetype in our communities, understanding this as the foundation for all flourishing. 

We grieve for the ways that colonialism has stripped our peoples of its ancestral practices of Collectivity with each other and with the earth. We understand that all peoples have suffered the wounds of colonialism, and all peoples belong to and can return to the indigenous ways of Reciprocity. 

We honor the term “Re-Matriation” as enlivened by Indigenous Women — “Rematriation is a powerful word Indigenous women of Turtle Island use to describe how they are restoring balance to the world… it means ‘Returning the Sacred to the Mother,’”(rematriation.com). 

We recognize our comradery with and as Indigenous Woman in this labor. We recognize Re-Matriation as a verb and as steps of action — actions honoring people, honoring land, honoring water, honoring air, honoring foods, honoring indigenous ways of being.

We anticipate the internal discomforts that may come from actions that upend the heteropatriarchal systems of settler colonialism, understanding that these ways of dominant culture have subconsciously influenced our minds, spirits, and bodies. 

We make a practice of continually disengaging from the narratives of perfectionism and carceral correction, knowing that mistakes and mutual harm are natural occurrences, that when repaired with attunement, truly benefit the entire community with more resource and resiliency than before they occurred. 

As we re-member and practice Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), we open ourselves to the humility necessary for growth, the trust foundational for belonging, and the prayer that anchors us to the Sacred.