Hey friends, I'm Matika. I'm a photographer, a writer, a filmmaker. I'm a wife now,

and a mama, and I'm super happy to be here with all of you. So thanks for joining us again.

Welcome back, Des. It's been a while. Hey, relatives, I'm Dr. Dr. Dezi. I'm a professor,

data warrior, relative, and mama back on for another episode of All My Relations.

This week, we're jumping back into our Black Native series with a fabulous guest, Amber Starks.

Yes. Amber, aka Melan and Muscogee, is an afro-indigenous activist, organizer, cultural critic,

decolonial theorist, and budding abolitionist. She's an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation.

She's also of Shawnee, Yuchi, Quapa, and Cherokee descent. She earned a bachelor's of science

with an emphasis in biology and anthropology from the University of Oregon. She's wicked talented.

We're super grateful to have her on the pod. Let's go.

Sorry.

All My Relations.

Thank you so much, Amber, for joining us today. We're so grateful to have you on and to be in this

conversation with you. Let's just start by having you tell us a little about yourself,

who you are, and the work that you do. Thank you.

Hestje, Amber, Chajochephikados, Ishti, Muscogee, Ome. Hi, everyone. My name is Amber. I am Muscogee.

I am also African-American and a very proud Black woman. And I guess, yeah, online, I go by Melan

and Muscogee. A lot of the work I do is around Black indigeneity, affirming Black indigeneity,

also speaking to Black liberation and indigenous sovereignty and how those two movements

have parallels and intersectionalities. And I really like to speak to the fact that Black

and indigenous communities, we have such potential for greatness if we can work through

the lateral harm, work through the things that we've had to endure under settler colonialism

...