Trauma and Solidarity – Walking Together Toward Justice and Healing

Grounding ourselves in our faith, we will explore the genocide of culture and language of our Indigenous brothers and sisters—identifying the harm and finding ways to work toward justice and healing.

March 8, Teresa of Calcutta Hall/Lower Level

The program has five parts:

1. Welcome and Grounding – Fr. Daniel Griffith
2. Keynote speaker – Dr. Samuel Torres, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
3. Hear the honest and vulnerable stories of our panelists. We will learn from them as we receive and believe.
4. Enter into a safe space of sharing in small groups, as we reflect on and process all we have heard through restorative circles.
5. Reflect upon the next steps we can take as we move forward and work toward justice.

Dr. Samuel Torres is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and has been a fundamental part of the team since 2019. Dr. Torres first joined NABS as the Director of Research and Programs where his contributions have included leading research teams through several projects such as the Indian Child Removal Study with the First Nations Repatriation Institute and the University of Minnesota, as well as the development of Indian boarding school research and coordinating with the US Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

Samuel has a doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice from Loyola Marymount University and his work encompasses the impacts of colonization on historical and contemporary education methods, particularly the legacy of boarding schools. With his extensive experience as a researcher, writer, educator, and leader, Dr. Torres holds a deep passion for decolonizing fixed knowledge systems, centering ancestral knowledge and histories, and working in community to promote Indigenous futures. A bicultural human being, Samuel Torres is Mexica/Nahua on his father’s side, and Irish/Scottish from his mother. In addition to actively learning and practicing Nahua language, traditions, and ceremony, he belongs to the Mexica kinship community, Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Torres serves on the Board of Directors for Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center (St. Paul, MN) and the Educator’s Institute for Human Rights (Washington, DC).

Co-Sponsors:

Better Way Foundation, Catholic Radical Justice Coalition (CRJC) of the Twin Cities & Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing (University of St. Thomas)