A Special Event with Activist & Writer Sarah Augustine
Online presentation with Sarah Augustine, author & Indigenous rights activist
*Sponsored by CTA’s Indigenous Solidarity Collective
Tuesday, May 9. 7:30 p.m. ET | 6:30 p.m. CT
Registration with a $5 fee is required. Once registered, you’ll receive an email with the Zoom link.
On May 9, Call To Action will host Indigenous writer and activist Sarah Augustine, author of The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. Augustine will present on topics related to her critically acclaimed book and Indigenous organizing. A facilitated Q&A session will follow, in which participants may ask questions and engage in further discussion.
In The Land is Not Empty, Augustine, who is descended from the Pueblo people, breaks down the Doctrine of Discovery—legal principles and church decrees that granted Christian settlers and governments supremacy over the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and their land. Augustine investigates the legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery and reveals how it still impacts Indigenous peoples and cultures today. These principles, too, continue to affect our physical environment.
Writes Indigenous Solidarity Collective member Tess Thompson: “[Augustine] shares the shame that some Native Americans experience from not knowing their erased cultures and identities. She explains how that yawning gap is purposeful, not accidental – the logical outcome of policies such as the Dawes Act and Allotment Act that removed Indigenous peoples from their lands and created the reservation system; the cultural decimation wrought by that forced displacement combined with assimilation and institutional suffering in the forms of missions and residential boarding schools; and the poverty, intergenerational trauma, and intimate experiences of abuse left to Indigenous people in its wake.”
Registration with a $5 fee is required. Register here.
This event will be recorded; you must register to receive the recording following the event.
CTA’s Indigenous Solidarity Collective is sponsoring this event. The Indigenous Solidarity Collective addresses the Catholic Church's historical and current role in colonialization. Recent projects include the 2023 Lent calendar and petitioning President Biden to release Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier.
About Sarah Augustine
Image Courtesy of Sarah Augustine
Sarah Augustine is the Executive Director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, a national coalition with global reach. From 2007-2022 she directed a Dispute Resolution Center in Central Washington. She has served on the faculty at Heritage University, Central Washington University, and Yakima Valley College, and has served as adjunct faculty at Goshen College.
Sarah served as the Chair of the Washington State Redistricting Commission in 2021-22, shepherding the largest group outreach effort in Washington history and establishing a Tribal Consultation Policy. She was appointed by the Washington State Supreme Court to the Office of Civil Legal Aid Oversight Committee in 2018, where she served for five years, in the role of chair from 2021-2023. At the invitation of the Supreme Court, she convened a working group to review the Appellate rules for indigent residents in 2022.
Sarah has written for Sojourners, Anabaptist Witness, Geez Magazine, The Mennonite, Response Magazine, Leader Magazine, and is a regular columnist for Anabaptist World. With coalition co-founder Sheri Hostettler, she co-hosts the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast. Sarah is the author of The Land is Not Empty (Herald Press, 2021).
Sarah Lives with her husband, Dan Peplow, and their son in Central Washington.
