Youth singers and drummers from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde filled the air with original songs, their voices and rhythms setting the tone for an afternoon filled with culture and community.

The group opened with a song called “Giving Thanks” to honor Indigenous People’s Day on Monday afternoon at Barbie’s Village. The celebration, held on the grounds of the former Presbyterian Church of Laurelhurst, was a collaboration between Future Generation Collaborative and Portland Indigenous Marketplace that offered attendees a free meal, vendor market and a powwow for children.

“So today, it’s for us, first and foremost, to gather as a native community and to celebrate who we are,” said Jillene Joseph, engagement coordinator for Future Generations Collaborative. “This is to help instill pride.”

Another key aspect of the event was coming together to share traditional foods while educating attendees about Indigenous People’s Day and the organizations that made the celebration possible, said Joseph. For many, Indigenous People’s Day is a meaningful occasion to recognize and honor the heritage, culture and collective identity of Indigenous communities.

“Everyday, living Indigenous peoples, especially Native American communities, are never really considered,” said Lluvia Merello, executive director of Portland Indigenous Marketplace. “So for me, it really is about visibility.”

Portland Indigenous Marketplace has been a part of the celebration since 2019, said Merello. The organization supports Indigenous artists with a variety of markets year round that provide barrier-free and culturally respectful spaces.

Their support in organizing the vendor market brought around a dozen Indigenous vendors to the event, selling jewelry, herbs, baked goods, clothing and other handmade items.

“They call it Indigenous People’s Day, but it’s really just a day of resilience,” said Denell Broncho, an attendee at the event. “It’s a day of reckoning, a day of celebration.”

Broncho sat with her grandfather, Ed Edmo, a storyteller and elder who was sharing his poems detailing his lived experiences in Portland with attendees in the marketplace.

“He’s overcome a lot of hurdles and challenges in life, and has documented those in the poems,” Broncho said. “So I’m really proud of him.”

One of the primary reasons the Future Generations Collaborative was founded in 2012 was to address the widespread impacts of trauma in Indigenous communities.

“Native people have faced many traumas, including historical traumas and modern day traumas, that manifest because of hurt and angst and not necessarily having skill sets in order to deal with that in a healthy way,” Broncho said.

The organization began by focusing on traditional values, collaborative efforts and the prevention of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, while also providing support to those impacted by the disorder and other traumas.

“Our mission then started expanding as an organization to include addressing early childhood,” said Joseph. “It expanded to also include addressing other public health issues.”

In 2022, leaders in the organization made the decision to apply to become a nonprofit. They now offer wraparound services to the Indigenous community with multigenerational education, community-driven engagement, Indigenous research and policy initiatives. Their community-led approach seeks to address the root causes of health inequities faced by Native communities.

In March of this year, they acquired the land that once housed the Presbyterian Church of Laurelhurst, where they plan to build Barbie’s Village – a tiny home community and early childhood center designed to support unhoused Indigenous families.

The village is named after Barbie Jackson Chills, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and a key figure in community work with Future Generations Collaborative. After she died in 2017 from a brain aneurysm, the organization created the vision of Barbie’s Village to honor her legacy. The village aims to provide stable housing, early childhood services, access to medical and dental care and other support services for the community.

“So phase one was getting the building,” said Joseph. “Now phase two is renovating the building. So once we get a little bit farther along in the renovations, then phase three starts, which is the fundraising for the tiny homes.”

The nonprofit hopes to have six tiny homes built by next year and is in the process of creating an informal list of families that need housing, prioritizing Native women with young children.

“What we’re doing as a community and a people is we’re trying to help ourselves to heal,” Joseph said. “And non-Native people can do the same thing because healing needs to happen so that racism, that white supremacy, can end.”

— Chiara Profenna covers religion, faith and cultural connections. Reach her at 503-221-4327; [email protected] or @chiara_profenna

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