Rachel Black Elk

Rachel Black Elk identifies a Two-Spirit & Queer Indigenous relative who has navigated and disrupted the settler colonial and white supremist systems of Higher Education and Non-profits for over the past decade. Presently, Rachel teaches as an Instructor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Department in the School of Gender, Race & Nations at Portland State University(“Tribal Critical Race Theory”, “Decolonizing Methodologies”, “Native Spirituality” and “Indigenous Ways of Knowing”).

Rachel is also the Associate Director of Equity and Racial Justice Education at the Oregon Food Bank. Their work has focused on transformational facilitation through an “unlearning” colonial systems lens and finds joy in building curriculum around food sovereignty/food systems, anti-racism and decolonial frameworks , accessing critical thinking, and transformational leadership. Through the methodology of love and story-telling, Rachel engages with creating relational and reciprocal spaces to engage and reconnect. Rachel has been learning ,listening, and creating with the plant relatives for over 25 years and is grateful to be able to ethically gather medicines with their beloveds. Rachel is incredibly grateful for the peoples, lands and relatives who have supported their learning/unlearning, healing, and joy.