Topic: Make Turtle Island Indigenous Again: Regenerating Land, Identity, and Community

Presenters: Jo Paz Dominguez

Jo Paz (he/they) is an Indigenous community advocate, organizer, and trauma informed facilitator whose work is rooted in the belief that healing—both personal and collective—is a journey of interconnectedness. Guided by decolonial and regenerative principles, Jo emphasizes relational well-being, racial equity, and hyperlocal, place-based strategies that honor the wisdom of the land and community self-determination.

Jo summarizes the conversation they’ll have with Cobb and Friends this way: 

What if the way forward is not forward at all, but a turning back to the land, to the stories it whispers, and to the cracks in the systems that hold us captive? In this workshop, we will lean into the wisdom of the Peoplehood Matrix and decolonial placekeeping, unraveling how the entanglements of land, language, history, and ceremony shape who we are and who we might yet become. This is not about fixing a broken world, but about befriending its brokenness with compassion, nurturing the soil of community, and listening deeply to ancestral wisdom. Together, we will name and weave our collective care, dreaming strategies for liberation that honor the land, disrupt the systems we inhabit, and welcome the impossible. What does it mean to truly belong, to truly thrive? Let’s ask the land—and each other.

Here are a few links showcasing Jo’s engagement in community building in the Los Angeles area. 

• Meet the Outreach Workers Working to End Homelessness
• Protesters call on Garcetti to find shelter for 1,000 homeless women
• Everyone In – Meet Elyse and Joseph
• L.A.’s homeless agency faces calls to dissolve ties with police
• Our Land, Our Voice
• First Residential Community Land Trust Project in East Los Angeles
• Crenshaw Mall Redevelopment Plan Health Impact Assessment
• Green Pets Program – Caring for Mother Earth

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Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.