Community Work
Current Community Work
Wakáŋ Tipi Park Steward,
Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyankapi (pronounced Wah-KAHN TEE-pee Ah-WAHN-yahn-gah-pee) means "The ones who care for/look after Wakaŋ Tipi".
Planting native seeds and removing trash / displaced plant relatives as land-tending + restoration.
Master Naturalist,
University of Minnesota Extension Program
Archivist, Preservationist, + Historian,
Reparations Practice
Reparations centered towards Black + Indigenous Peoples are central to my healing arts practice as well as my ancestral remembrance, memory work, + land-tending. In the spirit of interdependence, reciprocity, and uprooting white supremacy, I pay a monthly land tax and redistribute herbal supports towards projects and initiatives that resonate with my values and commitment to community care, healing justice, and collective liberation.
I currently make monthly reparative payments to:
Makoce Ikikcupi: A Project of Reparative Justice
“As Dakota people, we consider Minisota Makoce (Land Where the Waters Reflect the Skies) to be our ancient homeland and we were the first human beings to call this place home. Yet, in the last two centuries, Dakota people were systematically dispossessed of our homeland and we currently reside on about .01 % (about one-hundredth of one percent) of our original land base within the borders of what is now the State of Minnesota. As a consequence, the vast majority of our people still live in exile.
The Makoce Ikikcupi project seeks to bring some of our relatives home, re-establish our spiritual and physical relationship with our homeland, and ensure the ongoing existence of our People. Our cultural survival depends on it.”
Past Community Work
Herbalists for Racial Justice (2016 - 2020)
Herbalists for Racial Justice was a small collective of local herbalists & medicine makers who redistributed herbal resources to BIPOC in the wake of the murder of Philando Castile on July 6th, 2016. Shortly after Castile was murdered by police, a facebook event was created to encourage folks to send herbal supports to the Twin Cities (Occupied Dakota + Anishinaabe Territory). As of August 2018, over 35 individuals, organizations, & businesses donated / redistributed over 1,300 ounces of herbal teas & tinctures for free redistribution to Black, Indigenous, People of color in the Twin Cities & beyond. These were intended to support folks as they mourn, grieve, organize, & heal - which is necessary to increase the efficiency, resiliency, & vibrancy of our social justice movements. As of August 2018, over 123 herbal care packages were distributed. Multiple packages of of herbal teas & tinctures were dispersed at the Governor's Mansion & subsequent demonstrations demanding Justice for Philando. This organizing is not occurring in isolation, but rather in coalition with broad-based herbal solidarity movements working to support marginalized communities targeted by state-sanctioned police violence & oppression.
As of December 2020, Herbalists for Racial Justice was absorbed by Cocoa Butter Futures / SPIRAL Collective.
Minnesota Mycological Society (2022 - 2023)
Foray Committe Vice Chair
Grandmothers’ Gardens (2021 - 2022)
In the spirit of belonging and in response to the racial capitalism of these times, I partnered with my friend Corenia Smith to grow, tend to, + redistribute fresh, medicinal plants in the Twin Cities to Black, Indigenous, + other black and brown community/accomplices during the summer months.
While Corenia and I have moved onto other projects, I still maintain 2 medicinal herb gardens.
One is in my backyard and the other is behind Frost Iron Training.
Examples of Past Healing Justice Projects
Mutual Aid Herbal Apothecary for Camp Migizi, 2021:
17+ lbs dried bulk herbs
76 oz glycerites + fire cider
275+ bottles + jars
48 oz honey
1 gallon apple cider vinegar
Herbal Care Package Raffle to Resist + Stop Line 3, 2021: Raised $650 for Giniw Collective
Healing Justice Fundraiser for Louis Hunter + Standing Rock, 2016: Co-organized
Justice for Jamar Clark / Black Lives Matter Protests at 4th Precinct, 2015: Fire cider to frontlines
Healing Justice for Black Lives Matter at The People's Movement Center, 2014 Energy healing
SPIRAL Collective:
Supporting People in Reproduction, Abortion, + Loss (2012 - 2020)
In 2012 I cofounded named SPIRAL Collective — the 1st + only non-profit abortion doula collective in Minnesota. During my 8 years as a Co-Director I created a variety of reproductive justice curriculums and managed direct practical support services and programming both in home and clinical care.
In my 7 years as one of the core community educators, I personally trained over 500 abortion doulas and reproductive justice advocates in Minnesota, Ohio, and Louisiana while also recruiting, mentoring, and training 4+ program coordinators and over 30 volunteers.
In my final years with the collective, I served as the Historian, Archivist, + Director of Accessibility + Sustainability. While SPIRAL Collective has merged with Cocoa Butter Futures and become an exclusively QTBIPOC-led collective of which I am no longer affiliated, I am deeply proud of my work and contributions to the first decade of the collective — specifically the magic and integrity I wove into establishing and shaping the philosophy, values, praxis, and partnerships of the collective in it’s early iterations.