{"id":8808,"date":"2021-11-04T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/?p=8808"},"modified":"2022-05-06T17:33:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T17:33:41","slug":"national-indigenous-peoples-heritage-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/blog\/national-indigenous-peoples-heritage-month\/","title":{"rendered":"National Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For many, Thanksgiving marks a time for family, big turkey dinners and celebration. For Native Peoples, Thanksgiving isn&#8217;t a day of celebration, it&#8217;s a national day of mourning, a reminder of the genocide and violence that their people experienced almost 400 years ago. In honor of Indigenous People\u2019s Heritage Month, we want to make space for one of the stories from our own staff members, Amanda Westra. Through her artwork, Amanda has been not only reconnecting herself to her ancestry, but inspiring youth to understand theirs.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-8808 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Artboard1.png'><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Artboard1-300x185.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Art by Amanda Westra in her native style.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Artboard1-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Artboard1-768x475.png 768w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Artboard1.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1774.jpg'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"297\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1774-297x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Art by Amanda Westra in her native style.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1774-297x300.jpg 297w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1774.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/finalpub4.png'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/finalpub4-300x197.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Art by Amanda Westra in her native style.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/finalpub4-300x197.png 300w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/finalpub4-768x504.png 768w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/finalpub4.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"\">\u201cKnowledge is power. I find honoring my ancestry drives the work I do at Chill. I hope to be an ally of the youth I serve. I want to help them amplify their purpose, voice, creativity, CHOICE, and personal definition of success. Being an Indigenous women, I struggle with imposter syndrome due to my ancestors being ripped away from their culture. I have been deprived of my culture, and I\u2019m battling a line between my true nature and a place in my current experience. I can see this similar struggle in the youth I serve. I strive to be a role model by giving myself permission to lean into my ancestry and be honest about that difficulty in hopes they can learn to give themselves permission to honor theirs as well. If we truly want to empower our youth, we have to help them build that foundation within themselves. I am proud to be an Indigenous women, but that came with a journey to find the strength in who I am.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">My art has been a huge tool and exploration in helping me on that path. I find it empowering to bring to life the artforms of my culture that have been suppressed and forgotten about for years. I love the joy it brings and curiosity. I hope it inspires others to reconnect with the art of the land they live, work and play. I also hope it helps others feel free to express their true nature. That is what drives me to this work, to Chill, and to continuing my path in reacquainting with my ancestors. Chi Miigwech. (Thank you)\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u2013 Amanda Westra<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><em>Chill West Michigan recognizes and appreciates the ancestral home of the Anishinaabe, Odawa, Peoria, and Potawatomi peoples, where they currently live, play and teach on.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-8808 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143455.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143455-225x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Amanda Westra holding her dog.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143455-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143455-767x1024.jpg 767w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143455-768x1026.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143455.jpg 1078w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143436.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143436-225x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Amanda Westra with a group of Chill youth at the skatepark\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143436-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143436-767x1024.jpg 767w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143436-768x1026.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.chill.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Image20211124143436.jpg 1078w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many, Thanksgiving marks a time for family, big turkey dinners and celebration. For Native Peoples, Thanksgiving isn&#8217;t a day of celebration, it&#8217;s a national day of mourning, a reminder of the genocide and violence that their people experienced almost 400 years ago. In honor of Indigenous People\u2019s Heritage Month, we want to make space [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[114],"class_list":["post-8808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-west-michigan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>National Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month | Chill Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/blog\/national-indigenous-peoples-heritage-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"National Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month | Chill Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For many, Thanksgiving marks a time for family, big turkey dinners and celebration. 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