#3-004: Indigenous Strong: Honoring Native American Heritage with Jennifer Folayan

Meet Jennifer Folayan, a proud Cherokee, Pueblo, and Aztec artist, as she shares her inspiring journey and commitment to Indigenous rights. 

 On the board of the Baltimore American Indian Center, Jennifer discusses the significance of Indigenous People's Day and her successful work to make it a holiday in Baltimore.

 With lots of laughter, Jennifer reflects on her heritage, the importance of recognizing land, and the challenges of Native American erasure. 

 Jennifer also opens up about her personal battles, including growing up in foster care and overcoming childhood abuse.

 You will be amazed by her stories of resilience, synchronicity, and a mission to honor Indigenous arts and stories globally. 

 This heartfelt conversation navigates from local Baltimore initiatives to her role as an ambassador from Turtle Island to South Africa, amplifying Indigenous voices and promoting healing and connection.

 You can find out more about Jennifer Folayan by going to her Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5qI7-wD8DgO6xQYXYbozQQ or following her on Facebook.

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📚 Timestamped overview

00:00 Introduction and Heritage

00:22 Baltimore's Indigenous People's Day

00:46 Importance of Recognizing Land

01:29 Erasure and Invisibility of Native Peoples

02:48 Personal Connections to Heritage

04:38 Synchronicities and Keynote Invitation

05:08 Spread Your Wings Program

07:34 Journey of Fundraising

08:55 Aligning Emotions and Actions

10:58 Turtle Island and Creation Stories

12:34 Balancing Trauma and Joy

13:24 Personal Journey and Foster Care

15:23 Ribbon Skirt Workshop

16:15 Survivors and Storytelling

17:17 Overcoming Personal Trauma

19:49 Tools for Coping and Healing

20:09 Perfectly Imperfect

20:53 Connecting with Nature

21:45 Jewish Traditions and Trees

22:53 Staying Connected

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] 

I'm Cherokee, Pueblo, and Aztec. So happy Native American Heritage Month. I serve on the board of directors out of the Baltimore American Indian Center.

I live in the Baltimore area, which is the lands of the Piscataway and Susquehanna, and my group Indigenous Strong got Indigenous People's Day passed for Baltimore city last year. So this year was our first official celebration. Wait, let's not pass over that. This year was the first official celebration of Indigenous People's Day.

I know Philly also celebrated their first day, so if you're in the Philly area, yay Philly! So it's been a long road, but I'm feeling happy today. Jennifer thank you for identifying the land that you're on. 

And let me ask you this how important is it to you to know and to say out loud whose land you're on?

It's [00:01:00] important. Not just for me, but also when we come into other spaces and our allies also recognize the land we're on. I think many of my peoples and my peoples are from where Pat is right now in New Mexico. That's where the Pueblo side is from my dad's family's from New Mexico, and my mom is from California, but I think it goes to help prepare the.

Long erasure of Native American people and that invisibility even here in Baltimore City, when we were advocating for Indigenous Peoples Day, people were shocked what? There's Indians in Baltimore? Yeah, we're still here. We didn't go away. But oftentimes Indians or Native peoples or First Nation peoples are, it's like a historical context, like that was in history way long ago.

And People don't realize that there is a big still indigenous [00:02:00] populations across the Americas. Yeah. And I just want to notice that when you talk about the erasure that I just want to say out loud that I did feel sadness. And I noticed the sadness in your voice. So I just want to like get space for that.

Yeah. The heart is big enough to hold sadness, And Jennifer, when you say the names of those people, the Piscataway, the Susquehanna, for you do you notice or you talk about Pueblo. I just wondered, do you notice anything in your body, like does anything happen for you when you say those words or say your heritage, out loud. I felt connected because I personally know people.

So when I say Piscataway I think of The people that actually know like Gabby and [00:03:00] Peter right now the Piscataway with Biden just signing the new national. Recognition of Native American Heritage Month. The Piscataway we're posting some different things on Facebook. So they live in Southern Mal Maryland and DC.

So it just brings to mind friends that I know when I say Pueblo, it reminds me of New Mexico. And although I haven't been back to New Mexico in many years I just think of the people that I've met along my journey. And so it makes me feel proud. Yeah. Makes you feel proud. I just feel like there's something for us.

For those of us who don't have Indigenous heritage just something for us there about knowing names of who the land belonged to but also connecting it to people. And so thank you for just for that little gentle modeling you just did for [00:04:00] us.

And I noticed that when you talk about getting into the heart, like I thought that I was pretty like compassionate and all that good stuff, but I realized that I was often stuck in my head and feeling disconnected. So that's why, like I said connection is really important and I have to actively work at connection.

So realizing that I'm not always in my body, I'm not always checking in has been a real learning lesson this year. And as I've been checking in and getting more connected, I found that a lot of synchronicities were happening. And one of the big synchronicities that I briefly mentioned is that I met someone and was just chit chatting about my story and getting to know them.

. So she asked me to be the keynote speaker from Turtle Island over in South Africa. It's a conference for artists who are committed to social transformation. [00:05:00] And so I'm really honored to be going. I'll be telling my story and leading a workshop called Spread Your Wings, the Courage to Fly.

It's a program I wrote a few years ago that explores the life cycle of a butterfly. And we work with music, dance, art, drama, and I highlight Indigenous arts because again, like I said, oftentimes African, Native American, Polynesian arts have gone invisible in the universities or in what's considered, like when you're studying art and art history and all that good stuff.

So I'm bringing that to the table. And so I'm really excited to have that opportunity to be an ambassador for My people . I'll be giving the keynote at Constitution Hill, which is a historic site that used to be a former prison where Mandela and Gandhi and other people are.

So I'm just really been reflecting on all this great stuff 

okay, so now I gotta follow dive in [00:06:00] there.

So you said you just have me talking to someone and from a single conversation, she's will you be our keynote? How does that happen? Synchronicity, I happen to be wearing my little butterfly earrings that day. And it comes from being open. Like just being curious about people. And it was actually that day we had gone to another festival, met another woman.

Who's an intuitive artist. She happens to be coming on my team as an ambassador. I failed to mention once I got invited to be a keynote speaker, I'm. invited people that I knew in the community to help co create this program. And so it's been, like I said, I'm stepping up into this big role and holding this huge space that I've never held before. And that confidence has come from the simple little steps of connecting and doing the hard [00:07:00] work each day, 

 So you had that synchronistic moment where this woman's 

oh my gosh. Will you be our keynote? And and you said yes. And that you were going to be the ambassador from Turtle Island. Yes. To make this historic connection with people. And And you have all that water on your body today. Yeah. So you're going to be crossing the oceans. Yes. So I guess I just wonder I don't know something about saying yes, Jennifer, like it takes confidence to say yes.

Yes, what I found, and it was funny on my timeline you know how memories pop up, and so a few years ago, I had ran an initiative to sponsor 50 chemo care packages I was working at Johns Hopkins at the time, and it cost about 20 bucks for each care package, and so I made a commitment I said I [00:08:00] will raise 50 chemo care packages.

Wasn't sure how I was going to do it and I was re watching this video where I talk about, I had only maybe raised enough for 25 bags by that weekend and I talk about how your word activates something taking action activates something. So I did meet my goal of the 50 chemo care packages and I was just reflecting because now I'm very close to my goal of sponsoring my team.

However It was like a tremendous thing, like raising 40, 000 to 60, 000. I think I've raised about 25, 000 or something. We have about 10, 000 more to go. So it's like, when you're swimming in the ocean, you've come so far, but you're not there yet. And then you're looking over there oh man, I'm so tired.

But if you look at the starting point, like there's no way you're going to go back to the starting point. So my friend said you just got to keep swimming. I was like, okay. Not really sure how this is all going to play out, but something about giving [00:09:00] your word, activating it, having the intention, and then aligning your emotions with that.

And the good way to align your emotions is do this little one mile walk, listen to some good music, find something to laugh about to keep in that like flow and all those airy fairy ideas. But I've been playing around with them I was like, Oh, this actually works that law of attraction thing check, align your emotions check.

Okay, so it's like making a game of it, and just having fun. And there's something about your story, Jennifer. I'll elaborate it on why you get to get it in the chat. What I hear from your story was you got this incredible invitation. You had the courage to say yes. And then you took it even further and you were like I'm going to bring a team of people and I'm going to raise 40 to 60, 000 so that the team can afford to go.

Okay. And here you are, you're somewhere on the journey, somewhere around 25 to whatever number it is that you are at. And and you're just going to [00:10:00] keep swimming. Yeah, I think I have about another 9800 to go. So I've been like sending money over. We got the plane tickets and I told the organizer, I was like, I promise I've given my word.

I know it's coming. It's it's just like having that balance is not freaking out because there is no other option. Yeah. Don't freak out. Yeah, we're doing it. So then I want to get to what you were saying about so getting yourself together. So when you do take on something really good that you want to do, big kind of challenging, getting yourself together so you're in alignment with that thing.

Yes. And you have some joy with it rather than oppression on the big thing that you said you would do, I'm just picking up what you're laying down. Just love that holding it with some lightness. Yeah. It's funny you mentioned water because that's going to be. a big thing in my keynote. So we're going to have dance and [00:11:00] music and honoring, and then rain will tell the origin of what Turtle Island is. And for those that don't know, often our indigenous community refers to where we're from as Turtle Island, because in many of our creation stories, the earth was formed on the back of a turtle.

And also when you look at the Americas, like Canada, North America, and part of Mexico, it looks like a turtle. So there's different variations of the origin of the turtle story but one is there was a need to have this dirt from deep in the sea, to be able to create the earth on the back of the turtle, none of the other animals were able to retrieve that.

piece of soil, but the muskrat was very determined, and although the other animals would make fun of the muskrat, he was very determined. He went deep into the sea, he got the [00:12:00] little bunch of oil, earth, and he brought it to the turtle, but in that effort, he lost his life. So he sacrificed his life to bring this last element to create the earth.

And so we're going to tell that story, and have people consider our uniqueness and what we have to offer. And I just want to say, because I know there's a lot of people on the call, even though I'm happy and confident and it may look easy, it comes from knowing, like, all the stuff of where we come from.

And especially as we're considering Native American Heritage Month, oftentimes, It's the balance of how do we heal ourselves? How do we go forward? And as I'm unpacking my own little traumas and then seeing how it's connected to generational trauma and, all the horrible things that are going on with finding our children and the grave sites and, just different things, as especially [00:13:00] African indigenous people, we often are thinking a lot about this.

How do you take that atrocities and that heaviness and yet still within yourself be light and joyful and abundant and happy. So that's been a journey for me to be at this point. So I want to share that with others. Going over there. Yeah. And Jennifer, I know something that you share publicly and I share publicly maybe to a lesser extent than you, but you've talked about growing up in foster care or, spending your last year's childhood in foster care and family trauma.

You shared those details with people and I also grew up in foster care. And I just want to say out loud to anybody who grew up in a very difficult family circumstance, yeah, you obviously you're not alone, and yeah, and Jennifer Jennifer's work of what does it [00:14:00] call Jennifer about the butterfly spreading or something?

Spread your wings, the courage to fly. Yeah, that's like a program you have to help people go through their personal journey, right? Yes. It's a personal journey and it's also connected to everything. So for example, in the first stage where you're, you have the the birth of the seed, you also have the roots.

So in that first day workshop, we explore our ancestors, our roots. where we've come from and at the same time the innocence. And then we work through that cycle. Can you pause it for a moment, Jennifer, because right in that, that what you just said is a paradox. You work from the innocence. Yeah, I just want to say that out loud because sometimes I feel like we want things to be one way or the [00:15:00] other, or somehow, you know what I'm talking about?

But truth is often exactly that paradoxical. Yeah. Okay, girl, go for it. What else you want to say about it? Yeah. Yeah. And in this co creation, so that first day we're going to have some different workshops. So my one ambassador, Raisa, she's registered a tribal member of the Lumbee from North Carolina.

She's traveling with me and she'll be offering a ribbon skirt. workshop. And in the ribbon skirt workshop, she'll talk about how our clothing, how we adorn ourselves, some of the historical exchanges of ribbons and clothing from different settlers, how that, how we as indigenous people incorporated it into our clothing.

Ribbon skirts are very sacred. We often wear them to ceremony. [00:16:00] There's different, meanings behind the ribbon skirts. So I'm really excited, just like in that aspect yay, Ruben's a great workshop. And one of the people we met in South Africa, that's going to be part of the keynote speakers. She's on the call and she's a survivor of domestic violence.

And she was talking about how she just recently lost her tooth and the pain and all this kind of stuff. And then her. particular African tribe. She wasn't allowed to remove the tooth at the time that the trauma happened. So anyway, she's part of this group of women who are survivors and Raisa and her started to talk.

And so that group of women, we're going to work specifically with them. Making beautiful ribbon skirts telling our stories oftentimes on the ribbons first we put applique. You may maybe put elements or animals or different things that we're feeling so it's similar to like the African American quilting [00:17:00] traditions and Hawaiian quilting traditions that handicrafts and women's work.

We're oftentimes a time for bringing the women together and telling secret messages and stories within our clothing. So I'm really excited about working with other survivors. But yeah as I was saying, when you mentioned foster care, and again, as I've unpacked I'm a survivor of rape and incest and I graduated from foster care. As far back as I remember it was four, I was four years old. So I've always had that memory of some abuse happening, and it wasn't just my father, but eight other people in the neighborhood.

And if anybody's experienced that trauma, I just want to let you know you are seeing you are heard you're not alone, and to take care of yourself in this moment. And I want you to know that I'm okay, you know I've worked through a lot of things To not be sad for me per se, [00:18:00] but I just wanted to share that with you and, just, and then I think the hardest part was I I lived in foster care from age 14 to 18.

So it became very good at conditional love. So if you get good grades or, you please the parents and you get the little check marks and the the praise you were good, but it was difficult because I wasn't allowed to really express myself, like my indigenous culture. I lived with a white retired military family, so very loving people.

They did, all the right things. But my first family treated me like a dishwasher. But , the second family was a lot better, . But it was very structured. So as an adult, without having a structure or navigating how to make decisions like buying a car, how to manage my student loans.

Then I was married. I found it very difficult because of, Was [00:19:00] like always asking permission to do stuff. So I feel happier now that I've worked through all the like codependent and depression, anxiety. And I don't mean to make light of it, but it was, I feel a lot lighter now. And for whatever stage that people may be on their journey of untangling that again, I just want to say you're not alone.

Oftentimes I've felt so alone and it's. Even Monday not this Monday, last Monday I was having anxiety about the trip oh my goodness, who did I think I was? Like, organizing all these ambassadors, my whole team's counting on me. Will I bring the money in? How are we going to get supplies? So all those worries and doubts had to cry it out, have my little anxiety kind of thing.

But then get right back up. And there's tools that we can learn along the way to do that. Yes. Thank you for for just letting us [00:20:00] know, saying everything that you just said out loud, Jennifer. I appreciate it. I appreciate you saying that. People don't have to feel sorry for you or worry about you.

I, because I heard you say I'm perfect,

You did.

You're perfect. You're perfect. Yes. Exactly. We can all be perfect. Doesn't.

I want to because we only have a couple more minutes. I want to lift up something because just what you're talking about, a family and your personal family, history. And then of course the history of native peoples of Pueblo of your mama's people, so like you said, some of us are walking with these heritages of a lot of trauma, probably many of us, meaning, on this call, right? So I was talking to this tree yesterday or two days ago, [00:21:00] beautiful very green evergreen of some sort, wasn't white pine. And everything else is drying because we're in fall in the Northeast, but this one was so green and looked a little young, and so I said to it.

Wow, how can I be like you so green. And she said she said, I don't hold the past. And I said, Yeah, but what about your roots. And she said, Oh, That's how I give it to the earth to hold for me. So I've just been like meditating on that, Jennifer. Wow. Yeah, letting the earth hold more for us.

 I'm a marketing coordinator at a Jewish organization. We're like a retreat center with an organic farm. So I've been really participating in a lot of the different Jewish things happening over here. One thing I really love is that they [00:22:00] have a holiday called Tu Bishvat, which is the birthday of the trees.

And I've been exploring that as I've looking at the trees have been drawing more trees and doing more artwork and exploring this whole theme of our roots and even some trees like they can grow on a split of a rock. It's like how is that little tree in a a crack of a rock or a concrete, it's still I'm going to grow, I'm beautiful.

So it's really powerful. And I've, there's some books like Braiding Sweetgrass, which is an indigenous book. I recommend some other books of how trees communicate with each other. There's actually science behind all this. So I was really fascinated with Braiding Sweetgrass to learn how the trees communicate underground and let each other know if there's a virus on one of the trees and all sorts of fun stuff.

So Jennifer, do you want to give people a way to stay in touch with you?

Yes. I'm always on Facebook. So [00:23:00] if you're on Facebook, you can friend me, send me a message.

 My name on Facebook's Jennifer Folayan, I also post things on my YouTube channel, so it's all underneath my name. I've been holding different conversations from Turtle Island, so if you go to YouTube, you can see some of the previous ones that I held where we have like little discussions.

All right. So if you wanna stay in touch with Jennifer. Take a moment to say thank you.