Sarah Augustine, a Pueblo (Tewa) descendant, is founder and co-chair of the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition and executive director of a dispute resolution center in central Washington State. She is also the co-founder of Suriname Indigenous Health Fund (SIHF), where she has advocated for vulnerable Indigenous Peoples since 2004. She has represented the interests of Indigenous community partners to their own governments, the Inter-American development bank, the United Nations, the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the World Health Organization, and a host of other international actors including corporate interests. She is a columnist for Anabaptist World, and co-hosts the Doctrine of Discovery podcast with Sheri Hostetler.  She and her husband, Dan Peplow, and their son live in the Yakima Valley in Washington State. She is author of the book The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery.

Sarah Augustine will share her journey to dismantle the “doctrine of discovery”, a legal and theological framework that defines an oppressive reality for Indigenous Peoples. By sharing her own story, she will explore how a colonial framework designed to remove Indigenous Peoples from their lands continues to be expressed in the law, mainstream culture, and in theology.  Her message will explore a collective response to a call for justice. 

From Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore:
The VeRONAka movie is a 10-minute comedy/drama with a documentary twist. The film is a fictionalized version of the true story of our clan mothers giving COVID-19 a Mohawk name so that we are able to respect the illness, understand why it is here and then invite it to leave. The main character – VeRONAka – is unleashed by the upheaval in the world and is terrorizing her community. But she didn’t count on the power of the Mohawk Aunties.
The film also features an audio interview with Wa’kerakátste Louise McDonald – the Mohawk Bear Clan clan mother from Akwesasne Mohawk Territory – who named the virus. 

Created with all-Indigenous principal cast and crew on Rotinonhson:ni Territory – VeRONAka is a timely movie and one that will help all of us transform the fear and the chaos in the world. It’s also funny.