DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION & JUSTICE

Addressing inequality requires togetherness, education, compassionate hearts, and clear minds. Willowwind School is committed to justice through our actions. Willowwind seeks to address injustice through its critical and reflective social justice curriculum, student engagement in public service projects, physical space, and the use of multiple learning approaches and teaching styles to meet the needs of all students.

Willowwind’s DEIJ mission is to create a diverse learning environment through:

• increasing diversity among students, staff, and faculty,

• nurturing an environment in which diverse opinions are shared respectfully,

• promoting equal opportunity for students, staff, and faculty from all diverse backgrounds,

• ensuring that students have an understanding and appreciation of diversity in our world,

• educating future community members and leaders who will have the lifelong commitment and skills to promote social justice.

DEIJ in Practice at Willowwind

SCHOOL

We are deeply committed to coming together to build a better tomorrow. As a school community, we will continue to learn more, be better for our students, and be louder for all. We have begun work to review policies and procedures to ensure they are in line with the DEIJ mission. Areas of work include reviewing tuition and financial policies, admissions and employment practices as well as the culture of the school community.

CURRICULUM

Age appropriate social justice curriculum allows students to explore the full spectrum of injustice including bias, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression. Willowwind will continue to review, update, create, and modify curriculum to ensure that it is well-rounded and in line with the needs of the students and the DEIJ goals of the school.

SELF

Faculty and staff participate in professional development to identify and explore their own framework and experiences of diversity, privilege, race, implicit bias, and discrimination. This level of self-awareness is critical as we strive to build safe and inclusive classroom environments and work to better understand, serve, and educate all students in our care.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Willowwind School is located on the homelands of the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe (Chippewa), Báxoǰe (Iowa), Kikapú (Kickapoo), Omāēqnomenēwak (Menominee), Myaamiaki (Miami), Nutachi (Missouri), Umoⁿhoⁿ (Omaha), Wahzhazhe (Osage), Jiwere (Otoe), Odawaa (Ottawa), Páⁿka (Ponca), Bodéwadmi/Neshnabé (Potawatomi), Meskwaki/Nemahahaki/Sakiwaki (Sac and Fox), Dakota/Lakota/Nakoda (Sioux), Sahnish/Nuxbaaga/Nuweta (Three Affiliated Tribes) and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Nations. The following tribal nations, Umoⁿhoⁿ (Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa), Páⁿka (Ponca Tribe of Nebraska), Meskwaki (Sac and Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa), and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) Nations continue to thrive in the State of Iowa and we continue to acknowledge them. Willowwind School recognizes that it is our responsibility to acknowledge the sovereignty and the traditional territories of these tribal nations, and the treaties that were used to remove these tribal nations, and the histories of dispossession that have allowed for the growth of Iowa City, Iowa State, and the United States.

(prepared by the University of Iowa Native American Council)

Why is Indigenous Land Acknowledgement Important?

“It is important to understand the longstanding history that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation.” Northwestern University

“When we talk about land, land is part of who we are. It’s a mixture of our blood, our past, our current, and our future. We carry our ancestors in us, and they’re around us. As you all do.” Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)