Building Indigenous futures: Coming of Age with Dr. Cutcha Risling-Baldy

Indigenae Podcast

Dr. Cutcha Risling-Baldy offers us the opportunity to explore the revitalization of ceremony that marks the passage into adulthood. Dr. Risling-Baldy speaks about the importance of uplifting our young people and honoring the ancestral strength of our bodies. She unpacks toxic eurocentric ideologies and modes of colonization and reminds us of the sacred nature of menstruation, queer identity, and becoming.
Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Yurok and Karuk) (she/her) is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University. Her research is focused on Indigenous feminisms, California Indians, Environmental Justice, and Decolonization. Her book We Are Dancing For You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women's Coming-of-age Ceremonies was awarded "Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies" at the 2019 Native American Indigenous Studies Association Conference. She received her Ph.D. in Native American Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research from the University of California, Davis and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Literary Research from San Diego State University. She also has her B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University. Dr. Risling Baldy is Hupa, Yurok and Karuk and an enrolled member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California. In 2007, Dr. Risling Baldy co-founded the Native Women's Collective, a nonprofit organization that supports the continued revitalization of Native American arts and culture. She lives in Humboldt County with her husband, daughter, step-son, and a puppy named Buffy.
Resources:
Cutcha’s Book

• Risling-Baldy, We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women's Coming-of-Age Ceremonies. University of Washington Press, 2018

Publications

• Risling-Baldy, "mini-k’iwh’e:n (For That Purpose—I Consider Things) (Re)writing and (Re)righting Indigenous Menstrual Practices to Intervene on Contemporary Menstrual Discourse and the Politics of Taboo" ​Cultural Studies↔ Critical Methodologies (2016): 1532708616638695.
• Miranda, The Extermination of the Joyas: Gendercide in Spanish California GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Duke University PressVolume 16, Number 1-2, 2010
• Buckley & Gottlieb, Blood Magic: The Power of Menstruation, ​​

Cutcha’s Blog

• www.cutcharislingbaldy.com/blog

Support the Native Women’s Collective:
https://www.nativewomenscollective.org/