Local Leadership Presents at the NE MN Equity Summit

Last week, a team of local leaders presented at the 2nd Annual North Eastern Minnesota Equity Summit in Virginia at the Iron Trail Convention Center. The summit, titled, “Belonging in Northeast Minnesota” was offered through Northspan’s Welcoming Community Programming which is funded by the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, Blandin Foundation, Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation (IRRR), and the Northland Foundation.

A local team, including Tribal Chair Bobby Deschampe, Heidi Doo-Kirk, Beth Drost, Kelsey Rogers Kennedy, and Ann Sullivan had a presentation prepared and provided a panel discussion describing the history, work, and evolution of the Cook County Committee Addressing Racial Equity (CARE). Both Nina McCune and Andrea Orest assisted in the development of the presentation, and of course, many others, including local leaders from ISD 166, have contributed to the work of this group over the last few years.

When the Community Leadership group broke into two subcommittees in January of 2021, the Racial Equity subcommittee developed areas of focus for their initial three years of work: Land Acknowledgement, Education, and Policy Change and Development. During the initial year of their efforts a model land acknowledgement statement was written for local organizations; ISD 166, Cook County, and the Cook County Historical Society, as examples, started work to create their own land acknowledgement statement tailoring that statement to fit their mission.

During the current second year, education is the focus, having recently had the “kickoff” event in Grand Portage back in early October. That event to highlight Opening Doors: A Year of Learning celebrated both racial equity and Indigenous Peoples Day and was described in a recent edition of the Cook County News Herald. Other local events such as reading Firekeeper’s Daughter and The Cultural Tool Box and then participating on-line or in-person with book talks or visits with the author are already underway.

It is reassuring to know of the continued local effort to educate both our region and Cook County regarding racial equity. The kickoff event in Grand Portage engaged over 200 people, while last week’s efforts initially reached the 120 people in attendance at the Equity Summit. Thanks to CARE for their continued hard work to move our community forward in a positive way!