“What Would Decolonization Look Like: Imagining a Decolonized World” by Indigenous Rights activist Sarah Augustine. Sarah is the author of the book The Land is Not Empty and Executive Director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. To decolonize is to relinquish control of subjugated people. It means identifying, challenging, restructuring, or replacing assumptions, ideas, values, systems, and practices that reflect a colonizer’s dominating influence. This presentation will explore sovereignty, land return, and decolonizing Christianity.
Sarah Augustine is the Executive Director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, a national coalition with global reach. From 2007-2022, she directed a Dispute Resolution Center in Central Washington. Sarah has served on the faculty at Heritage University, Central Washington University, and Yakima Valley College and as Adjunct faculty at Goshen College. She has represented the interests of Indigenous community partners to their governments, the Inter-American development bank, the United Nations, the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, The World Council of Churches, the World Health Organization, and a host of other international actors, including corporate interests. In 1012, she co-drafted the World Council of Churches (WCC) Statement on the Doctrine of Discovery and its Enduring Impact on Indigenous Peoples.
Sarah has written for Sojourners, Anabaptist Witness, Geez Magazine, The Mennonite, Response Magazine, and Leader Magazine and is a regular columnist for Anabaptist World. Coalition co-founder Sheri Hostettler co-hosts the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast. Sarah is the Author of The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery (Herald Press, 2021). Sarah Lives with her husband, Dan Peplow, and their son in Central Washington.