Red Hoop Talk EP 39: COLLEEN MEDICINE, Ojibwe, & RIVER KERSTETTER, Oneida
Join #REDHOOPTALK this Sunday as we discuss the joy and challenges being Indigenous and working on Indian Country issues. Working in Indian Country is not always the easiest job. What does it mean to be Indigenous and work on behalf of Native Nations?
COLLEEN MEDICINE is Ojibwe and a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and is the new Program Director at the Association on American Indian Affairs. Colleen Medicine has a distinguished career in Indian Country policy and is an expert in cultural heritage and repatriation issues. Before joining the Association, Colleen served the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in the Tribe’s Repatriation Office and more recently as the Director of Language & Culture and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Designee. Ms. Medicine has also managed a Perinatal Opioid Grant for the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan and spends her volunteer time working with mothers and families as an Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor. Colleen is a lifetime Anishinaabemowin language learner.
RIVER KERSTETTER is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is Public Affairs & Outreach Coordinator at the Association on American Indian Affairs. She is also a visual artist, a writer, and an organizer working in Chicago’s urban Native community. River is a co-founder of TIES, a reading series that celebrates Indigenous Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ writers in Chicago. Her poetry explores what it means to be queer and Native.
