“Planting Seeds: The Power of Indigenous Circle Work” with Strong Oak Lefebvre

May 23, 2022
Marsela Rojas-Salas
[This podcast graphic uses modified images of: Alice Walker from The American Library Association, Angela Davis from Columbia GSAPP, Audre Lorde from Esla Dorfman, bell hooks from Alex Lozupone (Tduk), Grace Lee Boggs from Kyle McDonald, Ida B Wells: Public Domain, Patricia Hill Collins from Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil, Sojourner Truth: Public Domain, Yuri Kochiyama from Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center.]

[This podcast graphic uses modified images of: Alice Walker from The American Library Association, Angela Davis from Columbia GSAPP, Audre Lorde from Esla Dorfman, bell hooks from Alex Lozupone (Tduk), Grace Lee Boggs from Kyle McDonald, Ida B Wells: Public Domain, Patricia Hill Collins from Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil, Sojourner Truth: Public Domain, Yuri Kochiyama from Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center.]

In May 2022 the “Leadership Moves” podcast features Strong Oak Lefebvre, a former LEAP fellow from Cohort 1 and co-founder and executive director of the Visioning B.E.A.R. Circle Intertribal Coalition INC. Strong Oak co-authored the Walking in Balance with All Our Relations teaching curriculum, a violence prevention approach that is based on transformative/restorative circle practices and traditional values of indigenous people prior to colonization. 

Guided by and with their local community, Strong Oak’s vision to develop a non-hierarchical, anti-racist organization was planted and has grown to become nationally recognized, but the journey was not without its own challenges. They break down the experiences that led to being able to “do the work their way.” As they describe the years leading up to starting their own organization, including what catalyzed their move away from mainstream gender-based violence work, you may find yourself both challenged and inspired to question, “Why have we always done it this way?”

More than 10 years later, Strong Oak continues to plant seeds in various communities and has recently been named to the statutory Governor’s Restorative Justice Advisory Committee in Massachusetts. However, Strong Oak asks us to be mindful of the ways in which restorative and transformative justice are often co-opted by the state: “What we don’t want to see is the state [having] control [over] restorative justice and how it’s practiced because it will become a way to disenfranchise people of color.”

To hear more about how Strong Oak is managing their participation in the restorative justice committee, listen to their podcast episode on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you listen to podcasts!

 

This project is supported by Grant No 2020-TA-AX-K022 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this program are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice.