Hey! I’m Dr. BlackDeer (she/they). I’m an Indigiqueer baddie, fabulous decolonial meme curator, and digital storyteller. Nice to see you here!
Welcome to The BlackDeer Breakdown. I appreciate y’all’s patience as I went through all the iterations this summer of trying to find a title that fit what I have envisioned for this space. I was going with Dr. BlackDeer’s Community Fire for a bit, but one day it just didn’t fit anymore. Maybe if I start a Patreon community or something someday for us to have a closed community space we can call it that. But for now, what I envision here, the breakdown fits more.
breaking down complex issues from an anti-colonial perspective to try to move us towards collective liberation
I’ve wanted to have this space for a minute now, and this actually isn’t my first rodeo! Way back in the Greenwood days, I had a blog with my high school boyfriend (we’ll get into that at some point I’m sure) but in our emo eras our blog was called Thoughts of Yesterday. Then, in college, I had to keep a blog for one of my classes as a journalism student. I did concurrent enrollment in high school, so I graduated with a full year of college credits, so I was technically a sophomore during my freshman year; thus, I called myself a “frophmore” and titled my blog Adventures of a Frophmore lol. I actually think I had a third blog at some point too, but I can’t remember what it was called. I think I had tried vlogging a bit at that point, which maybe I’ll get into here again too, but for now, I’m just starting a weekly writing practice here.
So here we are! Blog (possibly 4?) but the times have certainly changed. High school Auty’s original plan was to become the Native Oprah (yes we can all cringe together), but I think its important to show how far I’ve come because 1. there are no ethical millionaires/billionaires, and 2. I don’t want to be *the* Native voice, Native anything. And that’s what I hope this space can be. A glimpse into growth, or more broadly, how we build praxis over time — so when we know better, we can do better. But don’t get it twisted, this is by no means a highlight reel. If anything, I imagine it’ll be mostly bloopers haha.
At its core, I want this to be a place for nuance, a space to grapple with complexities. You’ll find me somewhere in between the abolitionist tenet that people are not disposable, and the survivor-centered side that hopes your abuser dies. As an anti-colonial activist, I’m not here to simply provide answers.. if anything, you’ll probably leave with more questions than you came in with. And that is the core of decolonization — to illuminate other ways of knowing and being, to provide an elsewhere, a space to dream and create new worlds into being.
I think this first blog is more of a setting the groundwork for what’s to come – a true zero. [In a past life, I taught stats.] True zeroes, or absolute zeroes, are a point where the number zero actually means nothing is there, and there is nothing below it (because you can’t have less than nothing). So here we are- a true zero first blog for us! This entire process is an exercise for me in ripping off the band-aid, resisting perfectionism, deciding that the perfect conditions don’t exist and you just have to make it work with what you have right now. So here we go!
A major nea’ese – thank you for being here. Thank you for building community. Thank you for seeing me. And here’s to all we’ll build in the future, together.
If you have suggestions for topics you’d like me to cover, you can always leave a comment here on the blog, tag me on social media – @DrBlackDeer on Instagram or LinkedIn, or send me an e-mail.
You can input your email to get notifications whenever a new blog is published – which will be weekly on Monday mornings!
Lastly, if you’d like to support my work or buy me a coffee:
- for US folks, my Venmo is A2BlackDeer
- for Canada pals, e-transfers to A2blackdeer@gmail.com
See y’all next week!
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