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I just want to formally and respectfully say thank you. To everyone who I have come across in this program. All of the bonds I’ve created with others, the laughs, the stories I’ve heard, and the connections with people that I know will last a lifetime. Thank you for making me feel me again and for making these two weeks probably the best of my life. I will cherish and keep every single one of y’all in my heart forever. Best believe. Thank you for letting me express my stupidity and my craziness and everything. And for letting me rant because I love to talk and just thank you everyone in this program for existing and for choosing to be here because EVERY SINGLE one of y’all made such a huge, positive impact on my life and I want you guys to know that it does not go unnoticed. I love how I shared personal stories and got to express my spirit and not be judged. Thank you for being AMAZING spiritual beings stemming from one place having a human experience. Thank you for being strong, resilient, and indigenous. Thank you for the care and love that I received every single day here at this program because there was not one day where I wished that I were home. And finally, thank you for being you. I wish you all well.

-Aolani

today was pretty cool we had most of the same classes with and extra two classes . the two extra classes were very interesting both very power fully messages about change and how to better your self and your community. Joshua hathaway spoke very strongly about decolonize and i appreciate that so much he had no chill but it was a good no chill he did because he cared about us. we also had a class with Katharine Walken talked about the power of writing and hoe detail is the best way to write

My highlight the day was Danza with vicente candonache first thing in the morning. like i said in some past logs, it feels good kind of reconnecting and doing my traditional dances again after three long years of no dancing. I will admit, i have work to do in rememorizing some of these dances, but nonetheless it feels good being back. Aztec math was another thing that was cool because i learned how to play Patolli, a game my people played. Candonache describes it as an oracle that the Universe decides your destiny in the game. The goal is to reach back to the start before the other person starts and it has all the symbols in the aztec calendar so they are 52 spaces you have to pass.

Woke up today and ran straight to breakfast, I don’t know why but I was starving. After a satisfying breakfast, I had my 2nd last writing class, common app. still in the works. Then we had a workshop with Joshua Hathaway about colonialism and about how the school system tries to indoctrinate us into what they want us to believe in, Population control. Then we had an awesome writing class, where we listened to music and wrote either  story or how the song made us feel, I wrote one on an oldies song that made me feel that I was chillin with someone special.

The day had so many important discussions about public issues and history of colonization. My favorite session of the day was of colonial history with Joshua Hathaway. He is a History teacher at Sherman Indian High School and occasionally teaches at Cal Poly Pomona. The way he spoke with what he said made me so drawn to seek information from him. I wanted more and more knowledge from him. The history of this country is based on violence and genocide. The colonizers used methods such as their diseases and alcohol to kill and shrink the Native American population. They thought that it was their ”god given” right to kill the native peoples of this land just because they had different beliefs and had a connection with Mother Earth.

But there was something that really stood with me today and I will never forget it. He said, ” if you want to be a true native, than practice your culture and do not practice the colonizers religion. I truly believe that I do not belong to the colonizers religion and I nee to practice my true culture and language. I learned another thing from this session. It was brought to my attention that Thanks Giving is the celebration of the killing of over seven hundred Native Americans that lasted over two hours. The colonizers decapitated the dead bodies and kicked them around as if they were playing football. It was truly horrifying and disturbing to think that they called us savages when did things such as that. The history of this country is horrifying and we need to stop the affects it had on our people

Today I got to sleep in for one day! I am sad we didn’t have indigenous games, but everyone needed the rest. I woke up with more energy than usual so thats a good start! I enjoyed the writing class today because I got to elaborate on my ideas and actually start on my essay. I am excited to see my final product. Its not easy to write about a theory and philosophy so I need all the help I can get. Lucky, my mentors got my back! Thanks if you read. The hardest part is fitting my ideas and stories to a small paper. On the positive side, I shouldn’t be struggling with ideas, but just organization. I feel like my essay is unique and thats how it should be.

I really liked the talk with Joshua Hathaway. I knew some of the concepts he spoke about, but I am really grateful that he elaborated more on them. He spoke about the religion of Christianity and it got me thinking. Do the people who follow Christianity know about their history? If so, why do they continue? I don’t judge religions or will tell anyone to stop their religion, but I want to know why. Its a religion that was brought form Europe and was spread through genocide and assimilation. Many indigenous people died because these European idiots said it was the right they had from god and their religion. He also said something that hit me hard, considering I am catholic and indigenous. I took no offense just to clarify, it just got me to think. He said that it wasn’t the man Jesus Christ to die for us, it was our ancestors. That got me to think about my beliefs.