A special subcommittee of the Indigenous Awareness Working Group has been on a journey of truth and healing along with community partners at St. Catherine University and the Pastoral Minister of the Church of Gichitwaa Kateri and the Archdiocesan Office of Indian Ministry. The CSJ Community Assembly affirmed a joint CSJ and St. Kates community Land Acknowledgement along with related actions. This has been a journey of listening, learning, building relationships, advocating for and with our Indigenous neighbors. We will continue to share additional community education and actions, such as this simple recording of one CSJ informal educational session called “A CSJ Journey for Truth and Healing: learning our history with the land.”
Members of the Indigenous Awareness Working Group continue to seek ways to support the critical work and advocacy for and with Indigenous Communities. We support advocacy and truth telling for Indian Boarding Schools. See some of the current CSJ advocacy actions here.
We continue to support the work of the Minnesota State Task Force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women as well. The MN State Task Force collected data and released their 2020 report to better understand the impacts of violence on Native Women in Minnesota. Check out the Task Force report.
Please see the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition list of recommended books for children and young adults about boarding school experiences.
The Indigenous Awareness Working Group aims at raising consciousness and increasing knowledge about Indigenous culture, especially in Minnesota. We study the history and special challenges experienced by Indigenous who remain marginalized in contemporary society. We share this Journey of Truth and Healing with each other, with other Sisters, Consociates, interested others and take action when appropriate.
To carry out this mission, the Indigenous Awareness Working Group hopes to focus on:
Special Community Partners include:
For more information contact Marty Roers at mroers@csjstpaul.org.