Decolonizing the Cooperative Movement: Oral Histories from CPG Members and Friends

The CPG Webinar Circle started a Decolonizing the Cooperative Movement series two months ago, with a webinar focusing on Diné traditional ways of cooperating and cooperative economics.

This July 2022 online event is a non-CLE panel of CPG Members and Friends, who will share oral histories and personal and professional experiences, revealing the ways in which colonization has challenged or prevented culturally appropriate cooperative economic development.

Our series of conversations on Decolonization in the Cooperative Movement arose organically after Josey Foo of Indian Country Grassroots Support invited Diné leaders to talk with the Webinar Circle, and they started to discuss with us their culture, their traditional ways of economic cooperation, and the challenges of seeking legal support from lawyers who only offered dominant-culture solutions.

We are holding conversations to help our members decolonize their law and accounting practices for cooperatives--

For some of our members who are Indigenous, Black, or part of another marginalized group, this is essential in helping their/our own people in an authentic and liberated way.

For colonized people, there is a challenge that when a "mainstream" lawyer comes in to a traditional culture to "help," sometimes the "mainstream" solution does not help, and the economic challenges remain. We are seeking to listen fully and deeply, so that practitioners of any background can hear the challenges that colonization poses, and offer solutions that empower rather than oppress.

You are invited to a listening session, where attorneys and accountants have an opportunity to practice listening fully before beginning to analyze and problem-solve.

Panelists will include:

Ricardo Diaz Soto

Brian Guy Gilmore

Donna House

Pacyinz Lyfoung

Retired Chief Justice Herb Yazzie