Ti’tooqan Cuukweneewit – Laina Phillips
Laina Phillips
Tribal affiliation: Spokane Tribe
On the value of this program’s coheart setup
This program is like nothing that I’ve ever seen or heard of before. The way that I’m getting my master’s degree through this Indigenous knowledge is the idea that we have coheart of people. And through this coheart we have a group of students who are working toward our degrees together. Going back to school in any realm is scary, it’s tons of work, and it’s daunting and super stressful. So having my coheart with me here has been super supportive. I bounce my ideas off them, we work together… it’s a together thing.
On implementing the coheart model
When I take that back, it’ll be a model of how I’m a leader: being together with people, with our land, and the way we learn together.