10/12/2026
Indigenous Peoples' Day is a moment to pause and reflect, but the work of honoring Indigenous communities can’t begin and end on one day. That’s why we're lifting up the words of Dr. Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy (Lumbee), dean of Northwestern's School of Education and Social Policy.
In his 2026 AERA Distinguished Lecture, Dr. Brayboy traced how the U.S. government built its system of schooling alongside the forced removal of Indigenous peoples — from land, from history, from memory. Federal boarding schools tore children from their families, languages, and cultures. Universities rose on stolen land. And the myths used to justify it all still shape how we teach today.
But his message isn’t only about what was taken. It’s about what’s possible. He calls on us to move from scarcity, where some must lose for others to win, toward abundance: schools where young people grow to be in community, build trust, and follow their curiosity, and where freedom and self-determination belong to everyone.
"What if we committed to agendas of an abundance of freedom?" he asked. "We can do this. Our future demands it."
That's the vision grassroots organizers in our network fight for every day. Today, and every day, we honor the Indigenous educators, families, and young people who have always known that reclaiming the true history is the first step toward building a world where every young person learns their language, culture, and history in school; where communities, not distant systems, decide how their children are taught; and where schools are places of healing and belonging, not erasure and punishment.
Read more from Northwestern SESP: https://sesp.northwestern.edu/news-events/sesp-news/2026/brayboy-champions-abundance-over-scarcity-in-aera-lecture.html
