We Are A Living Entity
ATTN: Due to COVID-19,
all projects are currently
ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Please Check Back for Future Dates
Current Projects
Teamtribe Volleyball Academy
Teamtribe Volleyball Academy (TTVA): Our academy is devoted to giving young Indigenous athletes space to develop their physical skills of volleyball while following a healthy philosophy model that connects individual health with the wellbeing of the team.
The purpose of this method is to hit on life lessons beyond the sport of volleyball including:
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Communication
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Leadership
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Belonging
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Love and Compassion
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Team-Building
TEC observed and seeks to address the lack of representation and participation by young Indigenous athletes within the sport of volleyball. This initiative will actively engage youth and allow them to enhance their skills, be supported, and be a part of a community. This project is funded by the Notah Begay III Foundation Native Youth On The Move grant.
“We want to build their (players) willingness to play overall and provide them with resources that can help our youth understand that they can push themselves beyond. It’s more than just the sport and physical activity of volleyball, but we want them to become self-confident in themselves as Indigenous youth.”
-Nathan Jopek, TTVA Coach
TEC Directors Nathan Jopek and Sara Twiss attending one of the NB3 gatherings for the participants of the NB3 Native Youth on the Move grant. (September 2018)
TTVA went out to the Pueblo of Laguna to help the Lady Sky Hawks tune their skills in preparation for state playoffs. (November 2018)
TEC works collaboratively with Randy Sakamoto, who is the owner and club director of Teamtribe, a local club team located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (October 2018)
TEC Directors Nathan Jopek and Sara Twiss attending one of the NB3 gatherings for the participants of the NB3 Native Youth on the Move grant. (September 2018)
Our Connections With TTVA
Upcoming Projects
Indigenous Women Rize
The Indigenous Women Rize workshop is a four day workshop series created for Indigenous girls from ages 17 years old and up; as this is an important time when girls begin exploring the respect, they have for themselves, their relationships with their families/kinships (siblings, cousins, and peers), and their romantic relations as they leave high school and transition into college, or into the workforce.
TEC observed and seeks to address one of the leading issues for Indigenous women and girls within urban and rural Albuquerque, NM.
By carrying out the practices given in this four-day series workshop, we can create and develop community-based planning actions and practices that empower women to protect themselves and their sisters through learning the importance of their lives.
“The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) campaign is becoming more noticeable with recent Indigenous women being elected into Congress and political positions of power. Along with the #MeToo movement, young women of color are coming forward and being heard more than ever before in history, thanks to social media outlets and political platforms that give them a voice. However, mass media and other publications unintentionally are focusing these women as sex workers, runaways, substance abusers, and unsheltered individuals. This type of culture places the blame back on the women. I believe the IWR workshop series can help and support communities to refuse damaged narratives that are placed upon them."
-Sara Twiss, IWR Project Coordinator
The content of each workshop addresses specific actions and practices that are both contemporary and traditional knowledge pertaining to our relations.
The major topics are as follows:
Week 1: Relations and Kinship
By finding common threads through kinships and relationships, students will be able to create and explore new Indigenous terms and techniques of how to build a support network among themselves, their families, and their communities.
Week 2: Respect and Recognition
Through finding internal respect for themselves as young women and for their sisters, students will be able to challenge the damaged narratives put onto them, and find physical and spiritual inner strength of why it is important to be recognized as an Indigenous woman in all spaces.
Week 3: Our Bodies Connection to the Land
Exploring in local community resilience will help students understand the connections of our bodies to the surrounding lands and sustenance. Students will also learn to research and challenge ongoing environmental violence around their local communities as well as explore traditional environmental knowledge.
Week 4: Community-Based Planning and Action
Engaging in more creative and generative ways that allow people to talk about their experiences and drives more conversations and questions of why things are the way they are and ideas of how to change.