Sarah Eagle Heart is an Emmy-Award Winning Social Justice Storyteller and—in all seriousness—a true Social Justice Warrior. She’s the co-CEO of Return to the Heart Foundation, which, if we pause right there to experience the name alone, we feel the power, the empowerment, the justice, the heart, the truth.As the co-CEO of Return to the Heart Foundation, Sarah works tirelessly to enable and empower the very necessary visibility of Indigenous womxn. I’ve looked up to Sarah Eagle Heart and her work for many years now, making it a deep honor to have her here with us today.In our conversation, you’ll hear her begin with a greeting that reverberates past your ears, beyond your mind, and into your body’s knowing of where we come from as people—historically, ancestrally, culturally, environmentally, spiritually.

Sarah’s traditions carry a reverence for truth that, when heard with the ear of your nervous system, injects itself into the very bones of our being— easily and quickly. Making it so much more simple for us to disperse truth from lie—be it lies of capitalism, lies of racism, lies of a lack, and the list goes on as long as the trail of tears. 

Longer, even. Returning to truth is sacred work. Amplifying that truth, those stories, those peoples, so that we can return to a real care for our planet, our community, ourselves….. THAT is the sacred work we’ll hear about today from Sarah Eagle Heart.

This is a very special episode. And it’s an honor to have you listening with us today.

WORKS:
- Emmy-Award Winning producer of Crow: the Legend, inspired by the Native American legend
- co-CEO of Return to the Heart Foundation
- Co-author of “Warrior Princesses Strike Back: How Lakota Twins Fight Oppression and Heal through Connectedness,” written with her identical twin sister and psychotherapist, Emma Eagle Heart–White 
- Co-producer, “Lakota Nation vs. the United States,” a feature-length documentary chronicling the Lakota People’s present-day quest to reclaim the sacred land called Black Hills
- former, CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy, a national nonprofit that focuses on investment in Native American communities
- Board Member, Women’s March
- Board Member, National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
- Board Member, We Stand United

TOOLS:
- Tools to address the root causes of racism
- The importance of acknowledging Indigenous history and how honoring this history leads to the changes we need
- Wisdom behind the importance of acknowledging the land you live on
- How to transfer TALK into ACTION
- Steps to decolonize your life and decolonize your work
- Understandings that enable us to lean into conflicting history, become comfortable sitting in discomfort, fear, and truth to enable safety for people who have had to live without safety for centuries

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media