Crushing Colonialism

Crushing Colonialism is an Indigenous-led 501(c3) nonprofit in the so-called United States that uplifts Indigenous people through arts, media, and traditional storytelling while supporting those doing the work. We were founded in 2016 by Jen Deerinwater and are operated by Indigenous people working in a variety of storytelling fields across the world. We work to increase the pay and employment of Indigenous storytellers while also promoting their work, providing funding for media and arts projects, and increasing access to professional representation. We are deeply committed to the principles of disability and language justice and equitably support all of our Indigenous relatives in their storytelling work.

Our mission is to uplift and tell the stories of Indigenous people through media and traditional storytelling. We produce international reporting and organizing to inform and empower marginalized community members, create professional opportunities, and advocate for the just funding and employment of Native artists, media workers and storytellers. In doing this we control our narratives in order to crush colonialism.

2025 was a particularly busy year for us. On only a budget of little more than half a million USD we brought and paid Indigiqueer artists, speakers, and performers from around the world to DC for our hybrid online/in-person Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride two day event, put out four high quality international Indigenous created issues of The Magazine, including celebrating our two year anniversary of The Magazine at a highly attended event at Baltimore Center Stage, and were present at numerous meetings and events around the world such as NY Indigenous Fashion Week, EuroPride, COP30, Santa Fe Indian Market, Sapmi to learn about reindeer herding and Sami culture, and more. You can read our 2025 report and our 2026 goals at  https://crushingcolonialism.org/2025-end-of-the-year-update/

You can learn more about us, read our quarterly publication The Magazine, watch videos of talks and performances we've organized, and more on our website.