Barbara Belk
Placed at Families of Color Seattle
What excites you about being part of the Pathwaves Fellowship? What are you hoping to gain from the experience?
I’m most excited about growing my network of community-oriented changemakers, and the opportunity to connect with local BIPOC community members, leaders, and organizations who are committed to advancing equitable and just social systems for all people. I hope to increase my ability and confidence through practical experience, particularly with organizing communities to participate in policy and systems change work. I am especially motivated to explore opportunities that invite cross-cultural engagement to amplify the collective power of racially marginalized peoples.
Share a little about your journey and why you are excited about early childhood policy work.
During the onset of COVID-19 and social distancing, I was found and embraced by a scrappy group of Tsimshian language learners working to revive and restore the use of our heritage language, Sm’algyax. In those virtual spaces, I bore witness to the power of a collective that commits to each other and to uplifting their community. The experience reshaped my understanding of myself, my family, and my community and moved me to seek out opportunities to reciprocate the love and generosity that healed wounds I wasn’t even aware of. In the years that followed I returned to my education, earning both my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington. I also served as an Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) caseworker with the Tlingit & Haida Tribes. I’ve witnessed first-hand that issues affecting children and families can largely be attributed to the wholesale destruction of Indigenous communities and social systems. As a direct descendant of survivors of the “Indian” boarding/residential school systems in the US and Canada, I am painfully aware that these assimilation practices were directed at the children in our communities because, without Indigenous children, there is no Indigenous future. I am excited to be moving into early childhood policy work so I can best prepare to support ongoing efforts to heal from the violence of settler-colonization. While “decolonization” is often discussed, I prefer to focus my attention on Indigenous futures.
What are you looking forward to doing at your placement site?
I’m really looking forward to connecting with and collaborating with other organizations to strategize and prioritize our advocacy efforts for the next legislative session.
What are two things that most people don’t know about you?
- My partner and I will celebrate 20 years together in March 2025, more than 2 years before I will turn 40.
- I’ve also seen every episode of “The Good Place” an unreasonable number of times, and credit the series as one of the factors that led me to an education in social change work.
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