About the Akomawt Movement
The Akomawt Educational Initiative was born out of our professional experience in museum and classroom education. Our founders, as they worked together, saw an ever-growing need to supply regional educators with the tools to implement competent education on Native history and Native contemporary issues. We also saw the need to provide Native-sourced resources on contemporary issues affecting Native America. The Akomawt Educational Initiative is here to supply that need. Education is the tool that binds what we do with classroom educators, professors and university administrators, curators and museum professionals, but also in how Native peoples are looked at and talked about in this country. We work to create a more inclusive environment in all of the spaces we educate and make community. By honoring the voices of Native peoples in our shared educational work, we hope to create a better world for all. We hope you will join us on the snowshoe path
We are educators connected around our passion for Native histories and cultures and our mutual concern about the persistence of myths, stereotypes, and misinformation about Native peoples that persists in public education and public history. We are a multi-tribal, multi-cultural, multi-discipline coalition committed to:
- Educate students, teachers, and the public about the history of indigenous people and the continuous nature of Native communities and cultures in the Native northeast and beyond through engaging and life changing programming that is indigenously sourced and academically driven.
- Support educators in schools, universities, museums and cultural institutions in their work to create educational programming and interpret collections about Native People, colonial systems, power, culture and resilience.
- Engage our Native economy that represents the vibrant and dynamic nature of indigenous communities through connections with educators and students and museums and visitors. Facilitate opportunities in which Native people stand in their rightful place in discourse about nationality, history, politics, and land rights. If there are not spaces for these conversations, help create them.
- Consult with educational institutions, business partners, corporations, museums, historical societies and teachers who need assistance with cultural competency, leadership, and diversity initiatives in their own place of business/education.
- Create new and innovative Native sourced learning materials and travelling exhibits for a wide and diverse set of audiences, both Native and non-Native, as a competent resource for our education system at all levels.
- Research for the future benefit of students, teachers, communities and the world.. We want to build better citizens out of our youth and our lifelong learners. With our partners, our research will measure the impact of our work to constantly evolve and deliver new educational material. Flexibility and the ability to create are our strengths. If we don’t currently offer what you need, we can work with clients to create it.