Welcome - Biindigen

 Building The Bridge
Bemidji

PictureOffering To His Helper by Brent Hardisty / Niiwin Binesi
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Our Intention
The intention of Building the Bridge Bemidji is to create more opportunities for awareness, education, and constructive dialogue about our area, our history, and the people indigenous to this land. We endeavor to create a safe space for our community to come together with a renewed sense of mutual respect ​and shared understanding. Our purpose is to provide opportunities for dialogue, to enhance understanding and to forge pathways to create more equitable systems and institutional policies. We intend to discover, reveal, and educate about past harm. This is not about individuals, but rather historical and contemporary harm that is institutionalized, and carried out by governments or non-state agencies. We recognize that the depth and breadth of this work will require much time-- this is not a singular event. This is a process we must work through together, to create a better future for us all.  Building the Bridge is a continuation of the Bemidji Truth and Reconciliation effort.

Third Tuesday of the Month   Zoom Link   (no cost to attend)
Everyone interested in creating and being a part of an inclusive, nonjudgmental community ​is invited to join.

Resources

We offer these resources to promote continual learning, broaden understanding and offer alternative sources for information. If you have a resource you would like us to include please contact us!
VIDEO recording of What's it like to be me: A conversation about being Black in America event.

  • Books: (If you do choose to purchase these books please purchase locally, from a BIPOC owned business or organizations that support environmental and social causes that align with your values)
    • ​White Color, Wrong Culture: The Type of Leader Your Organization to Become Multiethnic by Bryan Loritts
    • The Color of Compromise by Jamar Tisby
    • White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
    • Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
    • The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, by Dolly Chugh
    • How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
    • Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude Steele
    • My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem 
  • Instagram Accounts:
  • Websites

Keep scrolling for more resources including podcasts, trainings, and local resources here in our community.
Resources from our April 21st, 2020 Building the Bridge
Colored Lines: Diversity in Itasca with the Grand Rapids based Community Action Team.

Seeing White Podcast - “Seeing White” confronts the deep-rooted causes of white supremacy
rather than looking solely at the symptoms. Specifically, its focus on whiteness — how it began
and how it has shaped the majority of American institutions — rather than blackness, helping
frame a new conversation on race. https://www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/

Things We Can do Now to End Racism in Our Community
When it comes to defeating racism and prejudice, there isn't just one right way to make a difference,
there are many. The most important thing you can do is to find some way to act, right now, right where
you are. Here are several ideas to get you started.
https://www.uunorthfield.org/docs/Things%20We%20Can%20Do%20to%20End%20Racism.pdf

Beginning Courageous Conversations about Race by Glenn E. Singleton and Cyndie Hays - the article we agreed to read prior to each engagement, to build our nimbleness using the Four Agreements during the conversations.

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Websites : local & statewide
Podcasts
News Sources : local & statewide