Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva

Author:Edgar Villanueva [Villanueva, Edgar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Economic History
ISBN: 9781523091416
Google: N-0OzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler
Published: 2021-11-15T23:47:11.565915+00:00

The motto of the Human Library is “Unjudge someone,” and currently they’re working toward a global event called Unjudgment Day. I love it.

For Native Americans, our modern-day genocide is invisibility. By sharing our stories, we remind people that we’re still here. It’s a way of bringing visibility to Native issues, and it can disrupt stereotypes and inaccurate ideas that people have about Native Americans.

You might be telling yourself that your story is too ordinary, but I can’t emphasize enough how meaningful it is to come out and stand in the light so others can see you, take heart, and take courage. Those were the words of my “auntie” Tia Oros Peters, who runs the Seventh Generation Fund and has committed her life to supporting Indigenous people, especially women. She opened my book launch party with a blessing and a prayer: “We are coming out and standing in the light around the change that needs to be made.” Her words were so powerful, they still give me chills.

I never could have imagined how many people my story would touch. When I got into philanthropy, it felt like I gained access to significant power to heal people, yet that hardly holds a candle to the power that came with sharing my story.

It all started at the book launch party on October 15, 2018, in New York. I wanted it to be not just a celebration of the book but also a way to elevate my community. Everything came together beautifully, like it was ordained. We secured the Highline Ballroom in the Meatpacking District, and then we booked Anthony Ramos and Jasmine Cephas Jones, who were both in the original cast of Hamilton and have since become Hollywood stars. I reached out to Jeremy Salazar, a Navajo artist based in Albuquerque whom I’d been following on Instagram, who paints portraits of Native warriors. He’d never been to New York City and we’d never met in person, but he agreed to ship a bunch of his paintings on ahead so we could fill the entire upstairs of the ballroom with his work. “You better believe there will be price tags on them,” I told him. “It’s New York freaking City. Charge people. Sell your art.” The comedian and activist Baratunde Thurston agreed to be our emcee. I reached out to Tony Duncan, who is a San Carlos Apache and Hidatsa world champion hoop dancer and toured with Nelly Furtado. The night of the launch, dressed in traditional Indian regalia, he performed to techno music. Mind-blowing.

Tickets sold out, and when the doors opened that night, there was a line down the block to get in. I had recruited young people from the Center for Native American Youth to be our social media ambassadors and to sell the #decolonizer T-shirts that premiered that night and went huge. Right there in the middle of noisy New York City, we created a spiritual grounding that was undeniably Indigenous, and everyone could feel it. A lot of people said they’d never experienced anything like it.

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