AIR BORN 2.7

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Dear Reader,

Being willing to examine something before you know it, is a 21st-century skill. Being willing to change your mindset involves work to alter conceptions and mental models. In change there is uncertainty, some fog, imperfection, perhaps some setbacks, and discomfort. Do you ever resist change, even when the longterm outcome has high possibility of being favorable, if different? Resistance to changing mindsets emerges as defensive patterns fortifying stability, personal identities, traditions, and long-standing assumptions.

So here we go…. Thank you for taking a few minutes to join me in this important discussion. As you know, we use flight as a metaphor for life and an inspiration to get out there and do the things you know are hard and may have thought impossible. Because new perspectives will change you and inspire dreams. And that is what we are all about – the spirit of flight.

Transformative change is very challenging because we not only need to learn new skills, but also must “unlearn” almost unconscious beliefs, assumptions, practices, and values about perspectives, people, places and cultures.

But what about unlearning? I never even knew it was a thing! Even through 4 years of graduate studies, I had little insight into what wasn’t being told and how one-sided the white version of history in the U.S. was. The linear progression of courses and study to learn was so logical, until it wasn’t. Complexity was underexamined. True history of a land and its peoples are less likely to be found in history books; rather, the truth is found in stories passed down from generations, inside of communities that a new person like me could not gain access to right away.

What I do know for sure is that there is no single story of a land or its peoples, just as there is no single, monolithic Black or Indigenous perspective.

As we embark on this 13th month of the When Women Fly podcast and simultaneous honor Native American History month, I invite you to learn and unlearn with me, suspend all that you think you know to be true as we encounter stories that may be uncomfortable to hear. It is messy business and we are collectivley better for it.

This Week

​Episode 056: On Land, Contemporary Indigenous Identity, and Recreation with Ashleigh Thompson - Trail Runner, Climber, and Archaeologist

This week, I share a heartfelt and honest conversation with Ashleigh Thompson - a member of the Red Lake Ojibwe Nation, avid trail runner, rock climber, snowboarder, scholar and archaeologist. This conversation is about connecting with the past to understand identity, how a connection to the outdoors has deep therapeutic benefits, how running and flying can feel identical, why reckoning with our past and understanding the impact of intergenerational trauma is critical, what role challenging fear has in climbing, and the benefits of awareness and courage that go way beyond the rock wall.
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Understanding contemporary Indigenous identity and the value of Indigenous sacred sites is fundamental to developing a holistic respect for Indigenous culture. Ashleigh is passionate about shifting a narrative about what respect for Indigenous people looks like and opening a conversation that is more complex than just the protection of a physical space with cultural significance.
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This conversation asks us to look closely at the language and the assumptions we have for recreation, land use and naming. As a Native woman, Ashleigh’s commitment to bringing justice for people and the environment is woven into her being. Stay curious, friends, and I hope this gives you reason and resources to acknowledge and honor the land in new and deeper ways.
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I have included resources and links on our website’s episode page to dive deeper into land acknowledgements, what they are and why they are important.
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Ashleigh is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Arizona with a concentration in archaeology and a graduate minor in American Indian Studies. For her dissertation research, she studies traditional foodways and food sovereignty of the Red Lake Ojibwe using interviews, ethnography, and material culture. Her research interests include Indigenous archaeology, story work and the oral tradition, traditional foodways and food sovereignty, health and wellness, Indigenous and Ojibwe philosophy, and Indigenous-led environmental movements. You will hear her passion for sharing Indigenous points of view on topics of archaeology, history, public lands, outdoor recreation, and politics. Thank you Asheigh!
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Encore Episode

​Episode 028: Rural, Urban and the Lessons In-Between with Jamie Klaes - Alaskan Pilot, Educator, and Skier

I take this section to highlight an encore episode and juxtapose the current one. The dialogue of contrasts and similarities are fascinating and revealing. Ashleigh grew up as a Native girl in a white community and Jamie grew up a white girl in a rural Alaskan community. They both speak to the intersection of identity, contemporary Indigenouse identies, and giving back to the Native communites.
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​Jamie Klaes, is a pilot, skier, and educator, born and raised in tiny rural fly-in only village in Alaska. Most of her life has been spent in the far north where the northern lights dominate the winter sky and the only way in and out is by air. Her early experiences and life lssons woven therein are deeply connected to the land and people where she grew up. Her family owned and operated a rural lodge and air taxi for 33 years out of Bettles, Alaska. She was a dog sledding guide, Former Mayor Bettles and spend summers as tour pilot around Denali, the largest mountain in the world from base to top. She also flies Medevac missions to rural villages in remote areas and is a backcountry flight instructor in remote Alaska – on floats and skis.
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Jamie is now based in Anchorage, as the Director of Aviation for Alaska Excel, a nonprofit that provides resources and skills for rural youth across Alaska.
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It’s an honest and raw conversation about identity, transformation, the inequities in health and wellbeing in rural vs urban Indigenous communities and need for focus on social, cultural, and psychological interventions to discontinue transgenerational transmission of historic trauma.
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Even as the vast, heart pounding beauty of Alaska is home to Jamie, we talk about the years she spend as seasonal nomad following the winter ski season to the American rockies, spending the shoulder seasons in Central America and returning home, to Alaska for summers. We talk about stages of life, change, the itinerant life and then, how the loss of her father altered her life.
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She’s got an inspiring stash of tales from Hokkaido and the Swiss Alps, to South America and and the French Alps where she learned to speedfly - a blend of paragliding and skiing that lets you fly the slopes at incredible speeds.
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I continue to reflect on ho Jamie peals back what it means to explore the intersection of flying, community, education. Enjoy this encore episode for the first time or for the second time around. Stay curious!

Book Corner

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, providing a good opportunity for all of us to dig into the rich literary tradition of Indigenous writers.
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Have you read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmermer? I mentioned it in another newsletter so I will move on but seriously, its so on-topic! Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Robin shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices.

Collected below are two books released in 2021 by Native American authors that really resonate with me.

1. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.

The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book

No one escapes heartache, but mysteries old and new are solved, and some of the broken places made stronger. The Sentence, a book about the healing power of books, makes its own case splendidly.

Louise Erdrich is an American author, writer of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe of the Anishinaabe (also known as Ojibwe and Chippewa).

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2. Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller

When Danielle Geller’s mother dies of alcohol withdrawal during an attempt to get sober, Geller returns to Florida and finds her mother’s life packed into eight suitcases. Most were filled with clothes, except for the last one, which contained diaries, photos, and letters, a few undeveloped disposable cameras, dried sage, jewelry, and the bandana her mother wore on days she skipped a hair wash.

Geller, an archivist and a writer, uses these pieces of her mother’s life to try and understand her mother’s relationship to home, and their shared need to leave it.

Dog Flowers is an arresting memoir that examines mothers and mothering, sisters and caretaking, and colonized bodies. Exploring loss and inheritance, beauty and balance, Danielle Geller pays homage to our pasts, traditions, and heritage, to the families we are given and the families we choose.

Danielle Geller is a writer, an archivist, and a weaver. She is a member of the Navajo Nation: born to the Tsi’naajinii, born for the bilagaana.

Call to Action

I have a few questions that are meant to prompt reflection and discussion. These are not “yes” or “no” questions.

Do Indigenous Americans celebrate Thanksgiving?

What ancestral land to you occupy and why does it matter?

Why is the ‘what is your spirit animal?’ game potentially offensive and trite from an Indigenous perspective?

​How to make a land acknowledgement​

We always love to have you contribute on our exclusive and free Facebook Group. So please join!

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What do you want to hear more of? Email me at hello@whenwomenfly.com​

Be bold. Be brave. And FLY!

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See you next time,

Sylvia Winter, Founder & Podcast Host of When Women Fly

056 On Land, Contemporary Indigenous Identity, and Recreation with Ashleigh Thompson - Trail Runner, Rock Climber, and Archaeologist link​

055 On Fear, Motherhood and Mindfulness with Professional Snowboarder Kimmy Fasani - Advocate for Gender Parity in Sports link​

054 Secrets to Getting and Staying Strong with Mandy Hoffman - Flight Attendant, Fitness Coach, and Mom link​

053 Sacrificing for Success and Setting Priorities with Olga Custodio - First Female Hispanic US Military Pilot link​

052 Flying On and Off the Court with Michelle Snow - Baller, Orator and Entrepreneur link​

051 Trauma, Resilience and Flying with Amberly Brown - Skydiver, Surfer and Airborne Ballerina link​

050 Why Everyone is Doing Handstands and You Can Too with Nathania Stambouli, Founder of Yogi Flight School link​

049 What Flying Can Teach You About Yourself and a New Season Aloft link​

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