Welcome back to the Porpo's Almanac. This is your host, Andy, and today we're joined by Jacqueline from the Senpasucha

collective. In our talk, we discuss organizing and the challenges that come around organizing,

especially around training marginalized folks to be able to defend their own communities.

Their work is focused in the Minneapolis area, so if you're out that way, keep an eye out,

and make sure to follow their work on

social media. I enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too. So take a listen.

Jacqueline, thanks so much for coming on. Can you tell us a little bit about your organization,

well, your two organizations really and a little bit about yourself? Andy,, you're two organizations, really, and a little

bit about yourself? Andy, thanks so much for having me. My name is Jacqueline. I grew up in

occupied Gabelino Tongva territory, known as Los Angeles, and I currently live on Dakota

occupied lands, currently known as Minneapolis. My relatives are from various indigenous nations

across Turtle Island, from Mexico to the upper northwest of the U.S. And as a young adult,

I spent a lot of my time participating in mutual aid food projects, indigenous ceremony for protecting

the water. My activism eventually led me to land defense, as well as protecting water by means of ship

and water access, as well as forest defense.

I started a small Skillshare group in 2019 and called it Fememem Empowerment Project.

The intentions for this project were to create a safe space for queer trans, black indigenous people color, cutie bi-pac is the acronym, and to learn hard skills in traditional ways that were free of cost to people.

The intention was to make it accessible, and my experience, access to knowledge can often be gate kept by institutions or organizations, and sometimes

they can also be expensive. I also believe that the more that people have what they need,

whether it be resources, knowledge, skills, the more empowered they are to be self-determinate and

take care of themselves while dismantling and surviving systems of oppression. Sempasuchil collective became a name change as an intention to make it more clear to the public eye

that it's an indigenous led project that focuses on indigenous sovereignty from food to land and well-being.

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