Webinar – Disability in Indigenous Communities
Date: Thursday, November 14, 2024
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
Click here for a transcript of this webinar.
Three in ten Indigenous people are living with a disability in the United States. However, funding for disability rights and justice represented only one cent of every $10 in foundation grants awarded in 2019, and only 0.46% of grant dollars awarded by U.S. foundations in 2016 explicitly benefited Native Americans. Philanthropy must take action to consistently and significantly fund inclusion, rights, and justice led by disabled Indigenous communities.
In this webinar, disabled Indigenous leaders shared their knowledge and lived experiences at the intersection of disability justice and Indigenous self-determination and unpacked:
- the violent and colonial origins of philanthropy’s wealth,
- philanthropy’s perpetuation of anti-Native racism and oppression which create disproportionate poverty and lack of access in Native communities,
- the innovative and community-oriented approaches that disabled Indigenous leaders create in the face of these oppressions, and
- direct, concrete ways for philanthropy to consistently and significantly fund social justice efforts led by disabled Indigenous communities.
Learn how philanthropy can follow the leadership of disabled Indigenous people in order to support justice for Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, and everyone who exists at the intersection.
CART and ASL interpretation were provided. This free webinar was presented by the Disability & Philanthropy Forum, in partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy.
About the Panelists
Moderator: Carly Hare, Portfolio Director and Senior Director of Advancing Equity, The Colorado Health Foundation
Carly Hare (Pawnee/Yankton) is committed to advancing equity and community engagement. She is a proud mother, daughter, sister, auntie, partner, friend, and equity advocate. Her Pawnee name is <i kita u hoo <i ]a hiks, ‘kind leader of men’.
Carly serves as a portfolio director and senior director of advancing equity at the Colorado Health Foundation. Previously, Hare navigated the intersections of philanthropy and equity as the National Director of CHANGE Philanthropy and led Native Americans in Philanthropy as its Executive Director.
Panelist: Jen Deerinwater, Founding Executive Director, Crushing Colonialism
Jen Deerinwater is a bisexual, Two-Spirit, multiply-disabled, citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and an award-winning journalist and organizer who covers the myriad of issues hir communities face with an intersectional lens. Jen is the founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism and a 2019 New Economies Reporting Project and 2020 Disability Futures fellow. Jen is a contributor at Truthout and hir work has been featured in a wide range of publications, including several anthologies, such as Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty First Century and Crip Authorship: Disability as Method. Jen is currently editing the anthology, Sacred and Subversive (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).
Panelist: Héctor Manuel Ramírez, Inter-Tribal Disability Advocacy Council
Héctor Manuel Ramírez (they/them) is a member of the Inter-Tribal Disability Advocacy Council (IDAC), established in 2023 by the Native American Disability Law Center (NADLC) and Borealis Philanthropy, they amplify Indigenous American voices with disabilities. Héctor is of Apache & Mexican descent, Two-Spirit, Autistic, DV & psychiatric survivor, hard of hearing, & Long COVID. Héctor resides in Tongva (Los Angeles, California)-unceded ancestral lands of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. Héctor serves on the California Commission on Disability Access & Los Angeles County Commission on Disabilities and is an emeritus board member with the National Disability Rights Network and Disability Rights California.