Introducing: Indigenous Mind

Academics, Art, Publications, Zine

Indigenous Mind is an open-access, community-based movement and zine celebrating indigeneity in meditation, mindfulness, and ceremonial praxis. Use the button below to keep up-to-date on issues and calls for submissions.



Indigenous Mind is actively accepting submissions for its inaugural issue, to be published in May 2020. Keep reading for more information.

Focus and Scope

Indigenous Mind  bridges the space between knowledge, experience, and practice. We publish nonfiction essay, counterstories, visual arts, visual poetry, flash and micro stories, and everything between which engages in navigating and decolonizing knowledge and practice of meditation and mindfulness spaces. We welcome innovate pieces which blend multiple styles and that may not fit in typical academic or nonfiction literary journals and magazines to empower and inspire decolonial narratives on their own terms. Submitted works may reflect on experiences in dominant culture meditation/mindfulness spaces, the history of Indigenous praxis, explore the benefits of contemplation, ceremonial, and mindfulness practices towards decolonization, be a creative product of a practice, or teach practices.

We recognize the simultaneously unique and global experiences of marginalized peoples, and thus accept submissions from all over the world.

Submissions in any language (with English translations and/or summaries as appropriate) are accepted.

Indigenous Mind also actively solicits artwork for the cover of each issue. Please indicate on the cover page that you would like your submission considered for the cover, along with a high-res image file (at least 300 DPI).

If you also want to contribute, please review the guidelines below and submit your contribution for consideration to indigenousmindzine@gmail.com

Submission Guidelines

Text-only Works

  • Works may not be previously published or under consideration by other publications.
  • There is no strict limit to prose; however, works over 4,000 words will need to be extraordinary.
  • Submit via word document or similar editable format.

Artistic and Visual Works

  • Right to print/publish must still be held by the artist for works previously published.
  • May submit via PDF or low-res files, but be prepared with high-resolution versions of files upon acceptance.

Contributor Cover Page

Each submission should include a cover page which includes:

  1. The full name and pronouns of the contributor(s), exactly as you wish them to appear in published version;
  2. Affiliation(s) of each contributor (e.g., Indigenous nation/peoples, department, university/organization, city, country);
  3. Contact details;
  4. A short biography of the contributor(s), no more than 100 words;
  5. A list of 4-6 key words describing your submission;
  6. Abstract or Artist Statement of no more than 200 words summarizing the submission.

Published: Rethinking School Choice

Publications

Journal of School Choice
Volume 10, Issue 2
Rethinking School Choice: Educational Options, Control, and Sovereignty in Indian Country

You can find the link to the entire article here.

Abstract: Despite the plethora of schooling options in Indigenous communities, the public policy debate, research, and discourse on school choice is almost entirely absent a specific engagement with how school choice intersects issues relevant to American Indian youth and tribal nations. This article suggests that Indian Country is an important and unique context for understanding the meaning and processes of school choice because of the government-to-government relationship between tribal nations and the federal government, the sovereign status of tribal nations, the nation-building goals of tribes, and the muddled history of schooling options within Native communities. We offer an alternative way of conceptualizing “school choice” that is more applicable to Indigenous communities and that has yet to be articulated in the literature. First, while schooling options have existed in Indian Country for much longer than has been the case in other communities, the presence of schooling options has not historically been centered upon offering youth and families choices. Instead, it has been about control—control of the schooling offered to Indigenous youth, and therefore, control of youth and communities themselves. Second, while school choice policies focus on autonomy as an important governance principle to prompt change in traditional public school systems, sovereignty has and remains the most salient governance issue within Indigenous communities.

Mention in Dr. Teresa L. McCarty’s 2015 Brown Lecture to AERA

Academics, Acknowledged, Cited

It was quite an honor to be among scholars and Indigenous community activists acknowledged in Dr. McCarty’s Brown Lecture in Education Research given on October 22, 2015 to the American Educational Research Association.

For those of you who have not yet heard her talk “So That Any Child May Succeed – Indigenous Pathways Toward Justice and the Promise of Brown“, you may now watch the live-stream video by clicking here.

Published: Acts of Visual Sovereignty

Publications

American Indian Culture and Research Journal
Volume 39, Issue 3
Acts of visual sovereignty: Photographic representations of cultural objects.

You can find the link to the entire article here.

Abstract: There are ways of giving new life to cultural objects through the creation of photographic representations. Still life photographs are a medium easily distributable for tribes wishing to archive and advance their material culture. This article focuses on photographic representations of Native cultural objects as its own contemporary artistic practice. We posit that this practice can complement the archiving and preserving needs of museums by facilitating continued knowledge preservation within Native communities.

 

Although the images are printed in black & white in the article, I wanted to share with you a peek at the beautiful color versions.

Tamastslikt Cultural Inst.

Beadwork photographs by Pat Hall Walters at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton, Oregon.

(I highly recommend going someday and seeing all the wonderful exhibits in person as it is quite a treat!)

 

Arrowhead McDonalds copy
Basket photographs by Pat Hall Walters at the Arrowhead McDonalds on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon.

Photos in this post by Pat Hall Walters. Used with permission.

 

Published: Contributing Author in Research Justice: Strategies for Social Change

Publications

Policy Press
July 22, 2015
More than Me

You can find the link to purchase the book directly from the publisher here.

I am so excited to announce that I am a contributing author to this community-driven research strategies volume. It was wonderful working with editor Andrew J. Jolivette and I feel so blessed to be published alongside so many wonderful voices.

Published: Indigenous Statistics Book Review

Publications

Education Review

19 February 2014

Review of the book Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology

To access the review in its entirety, please click the link from my publications page here.

And if you are looking for reviews of contemporary education scholarship, check out the rest of Education Review’s website! It is an open access multilingual journal dedicated to reviews of current works.