"Boarding School Healing Project & Multi-Coalition Development" 

Dr. Andrea Smith (Cherokee Nation) http://speakoutnow.org/People/AndreaSmith.html  Andrea recently joined us in Los Angeles to discuss the “Boarding School Healing Project”  (http://www.boardingschoolhealingproject.org/) which is a national coalition of several Native organizations currently working to document abuses boarding school abuse and its many impacts on individuals and communities, develop and build indigenous individual and community healing models, and demand justice from the U.S. government and churches in the U.S. and in front of the United Nations. Our current focus is not on individual lawsuits, but on building a movement that calls on the U.S. government to ensure justice and collective reparations for the human rights abuses against Native children in church run boarding schools.

Andrea Smith (Cherokee) is a longtime anti-violence and Native American activist and scholar who is co-founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, a national organization that utilizes direct action, critical dialogue and grassroots organizing to address this critical issue. Smith is widely published on issues of violence against women of color and as one of the nation's leading experts on the topic, is a highly-sought after speaker. Smith's extensive writings and lectures also focus on Native American studies, feminism, and religious traditions. 

Smith was the Women of Color Caucus chair of the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault and co-founder of the Chicago chapter of Women of All Red Nations. She served as the Coordinator of the First Color of Violence national conference held in 2000 at University of California, Santa Cruz. This important gathering brought together activists and scholars to explore and strategize around the relationships among racism, colonialism, homophobia, and gender violence in the lives and histories of women of color. A Second national conference was held in 2002 at the University of Illinois at Chicago with Smith serving on the conference planning committee. 

As a scholar, Smith has taught Native American and Women's studies courses and for her academic excellence, has received numerous honors and awards. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University in Comparative Study of Religion, a Masters of Divinity from the Union Theological Institute and a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in History of Consciousness. 

American Indian Airwaves regularly broadcast every Wednesday from 3pm to 4pm (PCT) on KPFK (http://www.kpfk.org) FM 90.7 in Los Angles, FM 98.7 in Santa Barbara, and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp, & Itunes