Indigenous-ness

[in this post: a poem, First Contact + an Op-Ed in The Gallup Independent + 'Catalyst' scholarships for indigenous women]

Yesterday was Indigenous People's day, formerly Columbus Day (well, it still may be called Columbus Day somewhere):

FIRST CONTACT

Here's Lea reading a poem excerpt, "First Contact," written by her and the first participants of the first Faraway is Close creativity workshop for women in Zuni pueblo. A lot of firsts - here's one more: the first contact between Spanish conquistadores and the indigenous peoples of New Mexico happened near Zuni.

COLUMBUS WENT LOOKING FOR ME...

Also: I wrote an Op-Ed reflecting on Indian-ness for The Gallup Independent. It begins "My name is Shebana and I'm an Indian. It's an interesting term on a day like today..." Read it online at this link or below

TWO SCHOLARSHIPS FOR INDIGENOUS WOMEN

And finally - thanks to Roger Smith and other beautiful sponsors who wish to remain anonymous, I'm thrilled to share that I can offer 2 FULL SCHOLARSHIPS to indigenous women for YOUR VOICE AS CATALYST, a 6 week journey starting November 16 to create ONE POWERFUL EXPRESSION OF CONFIDENCE that frees you to act on what is calling you

Please share! I invite women who are interested to Register their interest by filling out this form. On October 30, I'll write everyone's names down on pieces of paper, invoke sky and earth and sea and choose two.

If you're interested in SPONSORING more scholarships, please reach out. I would love to invite 3 more scholarship students into this experience - it matters.

And if you'd like to come along for the journey, have a look - there's all kinds of pricing tiers and a 10% discount for signing up by Oct 16 - I call it my 'peace of mind discount' :) More here

IMAGINE....

I don't know who's more surprised - me or you - that I am here in New Mexico again, and near Gallup, where I lived many lifetimes ago, in 2006. But it is aisa, así, like that. Among other things, this fall term, I'm facilitating a workshop called "Imagine Fantastic Futures through Creative Writing" at A:shiwi Tribal College. The writing that has emerged so far has been so remarkable - I feel very heartened.

Yours in mysterious Indian-ness, celebrating Indigenous-ness

-Shebana

Shebana Coelho

Write to me at info@shebanacoelho.com

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