Relentless Indigenous Woman

Us. I love us ❤️‍🔥

This photo was taken last month at the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards in Montreal, where Alex was nominated for Emerging Artist in Accessories.

And now they’re at Fashion Art Toronto in the main event area for the week, where folks are going crazy for their SACRD THNDR pieces.

I honestly think they’re the coolest person everrrr. And it’s funny because I’m such a nerd, but we somehow complement each other in every possible way.

We’re like a remix of art and articulation.

Us ❤️‍🔥

One of the biggest misconceptions I see in solidarity spaces is the idea that Indigenous Peoples are the only ones who can live in deep relationship with the Earth.

I am not talking about pretending to be Indigenous (aka pretendians). We already have that problem --and I'm glad we're in a time of that being called out.

I am also not referring to ancestry tests of North American Indigeneity from over 100 years ago, self-appointed identities, or borrowing ceremonies that do not belong to you.

I am talking about something so much older and meaningful. A type of remembering where your OWN people came from and what was stripped away through conquest, assimilation, patriarchy, and religious domination.

Long before churches, empires, and nation-states spread across the globe, communities everywhere developed ways of belonging to place. Ancestors carried stories tied to mountains, rivers, coastlines, forests, deserts, and grasslands. Kinship extended beyond human beings. Responsibility shaped daily life.

Across continents, countless cultures understood themselves as part of a living world rather than detached observers moving through it.

-

To read the rest of the discussion post, join the RIW Patreon Community (Tier 1), where you get weekly resources and thought -provoking pieces to deepen your understanding of solidarity and interconnection.

All tiers are currently 50% off:

patreon.com/u71040194

A lot of people think accountability happens in conversation. And sometimes it does.

But more often, it starts before that...quietly, privately, with a notebook and the willingness to be honest with yourself.

It looks like writing down the moment that did not sit right. The pattern you keep excusing. The comment you laughed off because speaking up felt harder. The part of yourself that wants to be seen as good more than it wants to do better. This is where the real work begins.

Not in our language and perfect responses. In reflection and noticing. In being willing to let truth interrupt the stories you were taught.

This is such a tender stage for early-stage allies, students, young professionals.

Because moving from awareness into practice requires somewhere to slow down, ask harder questions, and stop outsourcing your growth to public conversations.

Healing can look like being lovingly called in. It can also looks like your own notebook looking back at you like: be honest.

In fact. That is why we made it.

So you can channel collective healing as you grow.

Get yours here:

https://relentlessindigenouswoman.ca/collections/notebooks

HAPPENING TODAY 🌿

We’ll be exploring questions around decolonizing motherhood, reconnecting to Land and community, raising children beyond patriarchy and rigid binaries, nervous system healing, Indigenous ways of nurturing, accountability versus punishment, collective care, and what it means to raise children toward liberation.

About the Mothers on Panel:

Dr. Tasha Spillett is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and scholar of Cree and Trinidadian descent. Her work lives at the intersection of education, storytelling, and community healing. Through her teaching and public speaking, she uplifts Indigenous students and students of colour by creating culturally responsive spaces grounded in relationality, equity, and joy. Dr. Tasha brings her deep cultural knowledge into every classroom and conversation, honouring her responsibility as an Afro-Indigenous woman to foster belonging and liberation. She is the author of the multi-award-winning graphic novel series Surviving the City and the bestselling picture books I Sang You Down from the Stars and Beautiful You, Beautiful Me.

Jenny Sutherland is from the James Bay Lowlands and Omushkegowuk territory of Moose Cree First Nation. As an educator and Truth and Reconciliation Specialist, she is deeply passionate about holistic healing, reconnecting to Land, and restoring compassionate ways of relating to ourselves, one another, and the Earth. Jenny gently holds space for misunderstanding while helping people move toward cultural sensitivity, relational accountability, and deeper connection to spirit and community.

Asha Frost is the bestselling author of You Are the Medicine, an Indigenous healer, oracle deck creator, mentor, and mother. Her work is devoted to helping people reconnect to the medicine already living within them: the spark, wisdom, and power waiting to be reclaimed. Asha is from the Crane Clan (Aji-jaak Dodem) and a member of Neyaashiinigmiing (Cape Croker) First Nation. She currently lives on Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat, and Haudenosaunee territory.

-

You do not have to be a mother to attend. This space is also for people who are childfree but curious about the sacred role of mothers, people who hold nurturing roles within community, educators, aunties, helpers, partners, caregivers, or anyone wanting to learn how to better support mothers and children in a good way.
Our children deserve more than inherited survival patterns. They deserve worlds rooted in safety, belonging, tenderness, truth, and freedom.

I’m so excited to gather with you all soon! 🤍

-
Thursday, May 28
2 PM MST / 4 PM EST
Via Zoom

The webinar will be 90 minutes together:
• 45 minutes of panel discussion
• 45 minutes of audience Q&A

To join, sign up for the RIW Patreon Community (Tier 3) using code RIWSALE for 50% off:

patreon.com/u71040194

4 myths about decolonizing motherhood:

Myth #1: Decolonizing motherhood means becoming a “perfectly traditional” mother.
Myth #2: It involves only ceremonial elements
Myth #3: Burnout is just part of being a good mother.
Myth #4: Motherhood should revolve around sacrifice instead of community support

What if many of the struggles mothers carry are not personal failures, but inherited colonial systems that disconnected parenting from kinship, nervous system safety, ceremony, and collective support?

We change the world for our kiddos, who in turn, become empowered adults.

I am so excited to announce this week’s webinar discussion: Decolonizing Motherhood with Dr. Tasha Spillett, Jenny Sutherland, and Asha Frost.

We’ll be exploring questions around decolonizing motherhood, reconnecting to Land and community, raising children beyond patriarchy and rigid binaries, nervous system healing, Indigenous ways of nurturing, accountability versus punishment, collective care, and what it means to raise children toward liberation.

-

You do not have to be a mother to attend. This space is also for people who are childfree but curious about the sacred role of mothers, people who hold nurturing roles within community, educators, aunties, helpers, partners, caregivers, or anyone wanting to learn how to better support mothers and children in a good way.
Our children deserve more than inherited survival patterns. They deserve worlds rooted in safety, belonging, tenderness, truth, and freedom.

-

Thursday, May 28
2 PM MST / 4 PM EST
Via Zoom

The webinar will be 90 minutes together:
• 45 minutes of panel discussion
• 45 minutes of audience Q&A

To join, sign up for the RIW Patreon Community (Tier 3) using code RIWSALE for 50% off:

patreon.com/u7104019

Early-stage allyship can be a lot of feeling unsure what meaningful action looks and feels like.

You’ve immersed in the reading, are following the conversations and feel like you’re preparing to show up well. But when it comes time to speak, shift power, challenge systems, or move beyond symbolic gestures, you are learning that awareness and practice are not the same thing.

The Indigenous Solidarity Performance to Action Assessment Toolkit was created to help people move from performance to action. We move beyond guilt into honest reflection, relational accountability and real questions about power, responsibility and reciprocity.

Solidarity is measured by the change we create when we are willing to act.

If you have been trying to figure out how to move beyond good intentions, this is a good place to begin.:

https://relentlessindigenouswoman.ca/pages/toolkits

A new episode just dropped! 🎧

Body reclamation and reconnecting to the Land--it's all part of the same thing.

Join us for this deep convo with Steph Littlebird and Dr. Candace Manitopyes (RIW) as they discuss the collective responsibility to nurture our relationship with the Earth and our bodies.

-

Steph Littlebird is an artist, author, curator, and enrolled member of Oregon’s Grand Ronde Confederated Tribes. Steph earned her BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in Portland, Oregon. She currently lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

Steph’s first children’s book, My Powerful Hair (2023), made in collaboration with NYT bestselling Indigenous author Carole Lindstrom, earned the 2024 Carter G. Woodson Book Award. Steph has also been commissioned by brands like Lucasfilm/Star Wars and Yahoo, and featured by media outlets like PBS News, NPR, and ArtNews.

Beyond this badassery, she also just illustrated AND wrote her first book You Are the Land (2026). Check it out!



-

Listen wherever you find your podcasts or at
relentlessindigenouswoman.ca

Today was my final speaking engagement (until the fall) after a few of months of travelling around the country to speak 🥹🤍

- Toronto, Ontario to offer a keynote on the technology of hope
- Montreal, Quebec to share my workshops on meaningful and authentic solidarity, and the road to collective actualization
- Sudbury, Ontario to offer a keynote on supporting Indigenous students in post-secondary transition
- Chilliwack, British Columbia to provide a full-day, immersive workshop on eco-somatics for early learners
- Thunder Bay, Ontario to give a keynote on Land-based education

To end my “tour” (😅), I hung out with some Niska (geese), white swans, and other birds by a pond to re-ground myself after such a busy couple of months. I sat there for 3 hours just soaking it all in.

I may be done travelling for work, but the work still continues on-the-ground.

For the summer, I’ll be working on client-based projects with my associates, such as creating a language curriculum, and a project on Indigenous-led health systems.

I’ll also be working on my book(s), developing a scholarship program (announcements in the coming months), and playing in the sun and mountains whenever possible ⛰️☀️

In between it all, I’m soooo grateful for the Land to hold me whenever I need reminding of who I am and why I do what I do 🤍🌿

So much of motherhood has been shaped by colonial systems that taught women to mother through exhaustion, isolation, perfectionism, disconnection from Land, and self-sacrifice.

But what happens when we begin remembering motherhood through relationality, community, nervous system safety, ceremony, softness, accountability, and Indigenous ways of being?

We reclaim the Matriarchy.

I am so excited to announce this week’s webinar discussion: Decolonizing Motherhood with Dr. Tasha Spillett, Jenny Sutherland, and Asha Frost.

We’ll be exploring questions around decolonizing motherhood, reconnecting to Land and community, raising children beyond patriarchy and rigid binaries, nervous system healing, Indigenous ways of nurturing, accountability versus punishment, collective care, and what it means to raise children toward liberation.

About the Mothers on Panel:

Dr. Tasha Spillett is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and scholar of Cree and Trinidadian descent. Her work lives at the intersection of education, storytelling, and community healing. Through her teaching and public speaking, she uplifts Indigenous students and students of colour by creating culturally responsive spaces grounded in relationality, equity, and joy. Dr. Tasha brings her deep cultural knowledge into every classroom and conversation, honouring her responsibility as an Afro-Indigenous woman to foster belonging and liberation. She is the author of the multi-award-winning graphic novel series Surviving the City and the bestselling picture books I Sang You Down from the Stars and Beautiful You, Beautiful Me.

Jenny Sutherland is from the James Bay Lowlands and Omushkegowuk territory of Moose Cree First Nation. As an educator and Truth and Reconciliation Specialist, she is deeply passionate about holistic healing, reconnecting to Land, and restoring compassionate ways of relating to ourselves, one another, and the Earth. Jenny gently holds space for misunderstanding while helping people move toward cultural sensitivity, relational accountability, and deeper connection to spirit and community.

Asha Frost is the bestselling author of You Are the Medicine, an Indigenous healer, oracle deck creator, mentor, and mother. Her work is devoted to helping people reconnect to the medicine already living within them: the spark, wisdom, and power waiting to be reclaimed. Asha is from the Crane Clan (Aji-jaak Dodem) and a member of Neyaashiinigmiing (Cape Croker) First Nation. She currently lives on Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat, and Haudenosaunee territory.

-

You do not have to be a mother to attend. This space is also for people who are childfree but curious about the sacred role of mothers, people who hold nurturing roles within community, educators, aunties, helpers, partners, caregivers, or anyone wanting to learn how to better support mothers and children in a good way.

Our children deserve more than inherited survival patterns. They deserve worlds rooted in safety, belonging, tenderness, truth, and freedom.

I’m so excited to gather with you all 🤍

-

Thursday, May 28
2 PM MST / 4 PM EST
Via Zoom

The webinar will be 90 minutes together:
• 45 minutes of panel discussion
• 45 minutes of audience Q&A

To join, sign up for the RIW Patreon Community (Tier 3) using code RIWSALE for 50% off:

patreon.com/u71040194

Last month inside the RIW Patreon, we were live with Patty Krawac (author of Becoming Kin) talking about performative engagement and the difference between being seen caring and actually being in relationship.

So many people show up when the work is visible, socially rewarded, or easy to post about, but disappear when accountability becomes inconvenient and discomfort enters the room, or when solidarity asks for consistency instead of applause.

Patty shared a powerful reflection from her own reading “interns, not allies.” Allyship turns into this label people claim. An intern shows up to learn, listen, be corrected and stay accountable.

That is the difference.

People often have care but they are lacking relationship. They want to move with integrity, but they are trying to do it from a distance, safely. That distance keeps people stuck between good intentions and real action. Solidarity is not measured by how visible it is but by who stays when the work gets real.

We must focus on building direct connections with Indigenous voices and leadership.

If you’re ready to stop second-guessing and start engaging authentically, we invite you to join us:

patreon.com/u71040194

[or link in bio]