Statement of Collective Accountability

Mend acknowledges that Oklahoma rests on the ancestral lands of many Indigenous nations and is now home to 39 tribal nations. We honor the enduring relationship Indigenous peoples have with this land and affirm their sovereignty, resilience, and living cultures.

We also acknowledge that the wealth and institutions of the United States were built in large part through the forced labor of enslaved African people, whose lives, bodies, and stolen futures continue to shape the United States economy and wealth inequality. We honor their resistance, creativity, and enduring contributions, and we commit ourselves to truth-telling and repair.

We recognize that systems of domination such as colonialism, racism, patriarchy, and extractive capitalism have caused profound harm not only to people but to the Earth and all its inhabitants. We grieve the violence done to land, water, air, animals, and ecosystems, and we acknowledge the disproportionate burden borne by Indigenous communities, women, and gender-marginalized people around the world.

With humility, we stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples globally, with movements for racial and gender justice, and with all who labor for the healing of our planet. We offer this acknowledgment not as a gesture but as a commitment to live differently, to co-create just relationships, and to participate in the long work of repair, mutual flourishing, and collective liberation.

Mend Core Values

Truth-Telling & Restorative Justice: We speak the truth, even when it is uncomfortable, in hopes of restoration. We name harm, listen deeply, and walk toward justice not to punish, but to restore wholeness when possible.

Co-Creation & Lived Wisdom: We believe wisdom is carried in bodies, stories, and time. We honor elders, Sherpas, and those with lived experience whose guidance no theory can replace. We move in consensus, listening deeply to those who know the terrain to help lead us forward.

Embracing Belonging: We are all sacred. We cultivate spaces where people are valued, affirmed, and protected, where belonging is not earned, authenticity is welcomed, and rest is honored. We care for the work as a gardener cares for a garden: by tending the soil, the seed, and each living being.

Embodied Peacemaking: Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice. We practice a positive peace rooted in the body and in solidarity with those on the margins. Peacemaking is not passive. It is brave, relational, and grounded in love.

Creativity & Sacred Imagination: We believe in the prophetic power of rest, the arts, and dreaming. In the difficult work of social repair, we also make room for wonder, play, beauty, and mystery. We invite others into sacred rest, embodied wisdom, interconnectedness, restorative justice, and wholeness.