Embedded Files
Native Family Learning Lodge is aligned in the desire to connect and engage with each other using our Indigenous lifeways by connecting these roots to the new leaves that are our children. Childcare requires active participation and the wisdom of every member of our Lodge community.
We are not meant to raise our children alone. We lean into our kinship relationships to cultivate our collective praxis of childcare and ask ourselves what it means to be in community with sisters, mothers, aunties, fathers, uncles, unties, etc. raising our families together in alignment with our values.
Children and Aunties exploring cherry tomato plants at New Holly Rockery Market Garden stewarded by Black Star Farmers.
October 2024
Our Story
Our Story
The Native Family Learning Lodge began in the Summer of 2022 following a collective desire from a small group of Native families wanting a different type of culturally-focused, kinship-based early childcare and education experience.
We began small with 8 families and primarily used our homes as a base for beginning our childcare until we find a location that can meet the space, land-based teachings, and affordability needs of our organization. We transitioned into our current space to have two classrooms alongside our relatives at Hummingbird, also where many of our families work. We are still searching for our dream space to be learning on the land and fulfill the long-term vision of our families.
We are Indigenous parents, educators, community organizers, activists, historical trauma experts, singers/drummers, heritage language speakers, architects, special education specialists, food justice advocates, and many more talented individuals. Collectively we have been living and serving in various capacities that support our Indigenous and Black communities for decades. We bring our collective insights to our lodge about how we can best serve our community in an authentic and intentional way.
Our Mission
Our Mission
The Native Family Learning Lodge (NFLL) is a Black, Indigenous and matriarch-led birth-to-five childcare space offering an Indigenous- centered and community kinship modeled educational experience. Our humble start began in the home of one of our founders and has since grown to two classrooms in an office space in Columbia City. Our co-created, community-based approaches to early education language and culture revitalization and food sovereignty are led by parent educators, parent leaders and community elders.
Our Values
Our Values
Indigenous Sovereignty
Indigenous Sovereignty
All Our Relations
All Our Relations
Intention & Praxis
Intention & Praxis
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