![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Lifestyle_20201117_SurvivalisDecolonization_EJimenez_Zoom-Meeting-2020-11-19-12-34-23_Moment2.jpg?resize=696%2C394&ssl=1\")
Native American Heritage Month is an opportunity to honor and pay tribute to the history and rich tradition of the Native Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event was designed to offer a brief analysis of what decolonizing the mind could look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe lifelong process of decolonizing the mind is the most important thing we need to do to learn to live together as people,\u201d Chrystos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She went on to explain that the colonizer idea is anything you want is for the taking, whether it belongs to you or not. That concept is modus operandi of the United States of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This way of thinking has been celebrated as freedom, but is actually theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of her presentation, Chrystos read numerous of her poems such as \u201cMeditation for Gloria Anzald\u00faa,\u201d \u201cThe Border Raiser,\u201d and \u201cCeremony for Completing a Poetry Reading.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The included pieces were up to 40 years old and poems dedicated to friends, all shedding light on the plight the Native American people have had to endure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After her presentation she opened the floor for questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first question posed was from De La Torre. La Torre asked Chrystos, \u201cHow is your poetry connected to your activism?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe poetry and the activism are one in the same. Sometimes when I become involved in something, a poem comes out about that particular issue,\u201d Chrystos explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also provided advice for student writers who get \u201cstuck\u201d in the emotion of what they are writing, preventing them from exploring new avenues in their writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the things that colonization does to us is it strips us of our emotions. Don\u2019t ever back away from yourself for having feelings,\u201d she explained. \u201cThe more feeling you allow yourself to have, the better your writing will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end, those who attended the event thanked Chrystos for the privilege of having her speak and share her best insight on the topic of decolonization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The session closed with her words, \u201cThe whole point of me writing is to figure out how to be a better person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chrystos\u2019 work as a poet and activist spans native land and treaty rights, freedom for imprisoned indigenous activists, and feminist two-spirit, as well as lesbian solidarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":6571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[2906,3247,29,116,2920,3146,3246,3245],"class_list":["post-6570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-edgar-jimenez","tag-indigenous-heritage-month","tag-lbcc","tag-lbcc-community","tag-lbcc-workshops","tag-native-american-2","tag-native-american-heritage-month","tag-survival-is-decolonization"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Skgy-1HY","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Lifestyle_20201117_SurvivalisDecolonization_EJimenez_Zoom-Meeting-2020-11-19-12-34-23_Moment.jpg?fit=1614%2C895&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6574,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6570\/revisions\/6574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}