A Navajo Perspective on Reverence for Life Conversation with Suzanne Benally, Cultural Survival Pay What You Can, suggested contribution $20

Suzanne Benally, the first Indigenous Executive Director of Cultural Survival, shared her personal spiritual journey as a Navajo and Santa Clara from New Mexico and how this shapes her understanding of the concept of the divine. Benally explored the meaning of the Navajo concept “Hozho,” which is centered on living responsibly in a web of relationships emphasizing reciprocity with and reverence for all beings.

About the presenter: Suzanne Benally is the first Indigenous Executive Director of Cultural Survival, an organization that advocates for Indigenous Peoples' rights and supports Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures and political resilience since 1972. She is Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa from New Mexico.

Benally was the Associate Provost for Institutional Planning and Assessment and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She was a core faculty member in environmental studies and a member of the president’s cabinet. Before starting at Naropa in 1999, she was Deputy Director and Director of Education Programs at the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and Director of the Institute on Ethnic Diversity at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. She has worked extensively with American Indian communities and her interests, teaching, and passions are focused on the relationship between land, spirituality, and people as reflected in stories, and in environmental issues and Indigenous rights.