Indigenous Kinship Collective
“Mutual aid is not done from the kindness of our hearts (though that helps), it is done because we respect people’s autonomous lives and want our communities to thrive.”
— Regan De Loggans, IKC
from their zine “LET’S TALK MUTUAL AID”
The Indigenous Kinship Collective is a community of Indigenous womxn, femmes, and gender non conforming folx who gather on Lenni Lenape land to honor each other and our relatives through art, activism, education, and representation. We, as matriarchs and knowledge keepers, center our intersectional narratives by practicing accountability with community and self-determination. We uplift intergenerational Indigenous voices and welcome mixed race, non-enrolled, Indigenous femme, non-binary, trans, and two-spirit people. We denounce colonial power structures of leadership and blood quantum. We are circular and work in harmony with each other. We are defined by those who came before us.
The Indigenous Kinship Collective’s mutual aid work centers on raising funds and providing financial and material support for BIPOC and unhoused relatives in Lenapehoking and beyond. IKC’s mutual aid is carried out through a combination of direct payments made to individuals and fundraising campaigns, as well as through local distribution of food, water, masks, gloves, and other supplies. Members of IKC have made masks that have been distributed to various organizations supporting Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo, and Apache reservations. Masks are currently being made and distributed, along with personal hygiene supplies, in Temuco, Chile to support Mapuche relatives in the south.
For more information on Mutual Aid, check out IKC member Regan De Loggan’s zine, “LET’S TALK MUTUAL AID,” available on IKC’s Resources page. Donate to IKC’s mutual aid fund here.
Indigenous Kinship Collective
All images courtesy of the artist.