Dina Gilio-Whitaker

Your participation in a student conference means so much to us. Your work and the work of those who come before us makes what we do possible. You transformed, through Zoom, all of us listening and all of the places we are currently distanced in. It was an honor to have the chance to learn from you.

Thank you for pulling off such a marvelously successful evening! It could not have gone better and it was so good to have such a large turnout. Dina, your presentation was fantastic; you have such an accessible way of communicating complex ideas. It was clear from the audience comments that you stimulated a lot of thinking and learning.

Thank you so much for speaking at GCSHE this week! Your keynote provided exactly the kind of provocative and insightful content that I was hoping for. As you probably saw in the chat, your talk received many positive comments from attendees. I hope participation was enjoyable for you as well.

Some of the students present were from that class (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students) and they were able to connect with you in a deep and meaningful way….I shared with two students, your talk should have been the pinnacle of the course and they could spend the rest of their time connecting the course material and your wisdom into some final project product. Done! So there is that part…this incredibly serendipitous and harmonious culmination of this semester. However, it was what your words, presence and soul did for Indigenous faculty, staff and most importantly students. You spoke life, you spoke power, you spoke beauty into our community….something very much needed at this time. To connect with some of our community afterwards and hear the empowered spirit is something that an email cannot truly embody nor express….but may you feel my spirit. Thank you.

I want to tell you again how grateful I am, and all of our students are, for helping us to learn. I hope that you are surrounded by strength and love.. I know that you are giving strength and love to those around you.

I completed the presentation last night and I have to congratulate you on such a thorough talk! So informative and with just the right tone of delivery – clear but compassionate. It is really impressive and most helpful for a teaching tool.

I “attended” the 2020 General Assembly of our Unitarian Universalist Association. Two high points were your workshops—“Colonialism’s Impact on Palestinians and Indigenous North Americans” and, capping my GA experience, “Indigenous Knowledge in a Time of Pandemics”. I emerged from both of them moved, informed, and catalyzed to be and do more as a white woman of European ancestry in solidarity with my indigenous sisters and brothers. I write in gratitude.