Orenda Tribe

an interview with Amy Yeung

* Transcribed from a telephone conversation on June 15, 2020. Edited for length.

Erica Faison: For many years you’ve done substantial philanthropic work for your tribe, the Navajo Nation, and recently due to COVID-19 your efforts have increased drastically. Can you tell us more about your humanitarian work?

Amy Yeung: I got into this based on a heart song that I needed to do something for my tribe. I started out pretty small, and as I found out more and more about the lack of critical aid being delivered to Navajo Nation, either by the U.S. government or even by our Tribal government, I immediately expanded to all 27,000 miles of Navajo Nation. It’s pretty hard to try to do things at that scale, especially while running a business.  

I’ve raised over a quarter of a million dollars [for Navajo Nation] and delivered aid. It certainly wasn’t something I was thinking of doing two and a half months ago. In the last year the focus of my community work was embracing my community of artists and giving them a portal to sell their work, through Instagram and online shops. With the pandemic, I shifted into crisis mode and had to move back into what I used to do for a living–executive management, creating wealth, managing large amounts of money. Anyone who’s worked at a fashion brand knows how to make money–when you’re at a certain level, it’s pretty easy–you design something, sell it, money comes in. But in this case money goes directly back in the form of critical aid. It’s been an interesting transition from a business standpoint. 

I also have a lot of experience in fast fashion, so I had the skill set to quickly make things happen–whether it was civilian masks getting manufactured, buying medical PPE or food supplies–these very fluid supply chains aren't confusing to me because I’ve been dealing with craziness like this for thirty-five years in fashion. I’ve enlisted a bunch of friends from the fashion industry to join me–people who normally make activewear are now helping me make hi-tech civilian masks out of poly spandex which normally would be leggings and sport bras, that's just one of the really crazy things that’s happened in the past seventy-five days. 

Erica: How have these experiences affected you, and possibly changed your outlook on your humanitarian work going forward? 

Amy: Nobody was ready for this. Everything is different now–my business, my life, who I am as a human being has been forever changed by COVID-19. I’ve been struggling. I’m really tired–I haven't had a day off for 75 days. When I wake up in the morning to when I go to bed, I can’t take a break. Our numbers in Navajo Nation are still so high–when they start dropping maybe I’ll take a day off! Around 9:00 am the phone just starts ringing with vendors, sponsors, and collaborators! It’s been tough, but it’s also been really joyful. 

As far as how I move forward in the future, it will all be based upon how this continues to affect my community. We’re going to see the after-effects of this for many, many years. Like everybody, I’m hoping for a vaccine. Navajo Nation has such a tiny population, you’re talking about 185,000 people, and yet we had the highest COVID-positive rate, per capita, in the United States until White Apache Nation passed us–and they are an even tinier community. Everyone asks why this is happening in Navajo Nation. I was worried three months ago, before we’d even had our first case in New Mexico. We have so many pre-existing health conditions, environmental genocide, food scarcity with 27,000 miles of land and only thirteen grocery stores (do you know how long these people have to drive to get food?).  There’s very little employment, there’s a huge amount of fracking and uranium mining which affects people’s health. One third are without water, one third are without electricity. I know these people–I work out there. It’s a very difficult life, and it’s 2020! 

For a lot of people that grew up on the rez, this lifestyle is very normalized–they’re so used to things being like this because they grew up with it, their family grew up with it, it doesn’t seem that strange to them. But when I moved here, my first response was like, dude, this is insane, this is so not normal, somebody has to do something. These children should have the same opportunities that my daughter did. Why is it so different? Why is there so much inequity? Why are things so antiquated? Why are they so broken? I knew that this was the next chapter of my life–to give back everything that I’ve learned, all of my skills and abilities, given as an offering to my tribe.  I knew this would be part of my reintegration and learning how to be Navajo–I wasn’t brought up on the reservation or in a traditional family, I was adopted out as a youth so this is all new to me. So that’s where I started. 

When the pandemic hit, we were so late with getting government aid. It’s June 15th and people are still reaching out to me for masks because they haven’t received aid. That’s insane, we’re in the middle of June, how could people not have PPE to protect themselves? I’m going to keep making and delivering masks until everybody in Navajo Nation has something they can use for months at a time, that they can wash, that they can use in the second wave. I don't want to keep delivering disposable things because they’re not effective in the long-term. Right now we’re working on long-term solutions. We set up a quick PPE production line in downtown L.A. with Bethany Yellowtail, another Indigenous designer, with fabric donated by my old clients. I used to be an active wear designer, so we hit up Nike, Outdoor Voices and Patagonia for highly durable, super techy fabric. We made more than 30,000 masks with all that fabric. We’ve been shipping civilian PPE out to more underserved areas, we’re hitting COVID-positive hot spots but also more remote regions that just haven’t received aid. 

We’ve rented a warehouse in Flagstaff, and we’ve been filling it up with KN95, N95 medical-level gowns, and 19,000 lbs of medical grade hand sanitizer. We partnered with Dr. Michele Tong, one of our leading Dine physicians. She can decide how to allocate everything because she’s out there on the front lines. We’ve been working in a very grassroots way, solving drastic medical PPE shortages. 

We’ve also been getting food out to COVID-positive families and unsheltered relatives who live in border towns, who don’t have homes. When people don’t have electricity, people don't have water, how we cook, store, and deliver our food is critical. I love that people are sending fresh vegetables and eggs, but we need non-perishable food. We’ve found a non-perishable, organic, nutrient-dense food source which we’re heavily investing in. It’s food medicine vs. you know, spam. It's a good solution until we get our infrastructure fixed. We’re also looking at food issues over the summer. We have over 7,000 children in our Bureau for Indian Education School System who are normally getting free lunch every day even after the schools close, who now are not getting the nutrition or food medicine they need. We’re going to do a virtual concert and a large funding round to deliver six weeks of critical aid boxes to 7,000 children to our tribe. We’re calling it “Children of the Rainbow.”

So that’s where we’ve been. We’re moving into some major funding for domestic violence issues that were exposed during the pandemic, they’ve not received any aid for nine months. When I heard about this, as both a woman and a mother I knew I had to do something. We’ve banded together with one of our Navajo Nation council delegates Amber Crotie, who’s done a lot of work within domestic violence issues, and we’re working with other matriarchs of our tribe. When we talk about critical aid, I always think about who’s the most vulnerable, who are the most in need. I can’t imagine a more critical need than victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Our government’s doing nothing, so the matriarchs of the tribe are banding together to fix this one. It’s gonna require a lot of money but we’re in it for the long term. 

Erica: Before starting Orenda Tribe you worked in fast fashion for twenty-plus years. Was there a culmination of experiences or a catalyst which helped motivate you to break free from an industry that was not in line with your personal values? 

Amy: I have a daughter Lily, she’s just a little angel. While I was working in fast fashion I was raising her to be a citizen of the world and how to live sustainably. So on the one hand, I’m taking her to farm camp and we’re growing our own food and recycling, doing all the things people do when they realize we’re part of a bigger thing, and at the same time I was designing clothes for fast fashion. It was weird. But as a single mom, I was worried about my finances, I wasn’t sure if I could support my daughter if I left the industry. But it became really clear to me that I needed to live authentically in order to be the best matriarch and mother for her. So I very abruptly quit, and restarted my life, and nothing but positive experiences came from that. And my daughter is so solid in knowing who I am as a human being. She’s gonna do amazing work in the world because there’s no question about how to do this. There’s no question that service to your community is a good thing, because she sees this in action in our lives. She knows that if you say things, they need to be the truth. That’s something we all need to learn right now, because of the craziness of social media and the craziness of our administration, the words we say need to be authentic and true and we need to back that up with action. So this is me just being a good mom!

Erica: That’s so beautiful! How would you compare your creative life now vs. your creative life within fast fashion? 

Amy: It’s joyful. It’s built upon good intentions, respect for the earth, and respect for humanity, which expands out in joyfulness in so many ways. I know that much of what I did in my previous career is in a landfill, creating toxic waste for my daughter and her generation to clean up, so in a sense it’s like a karmic balance now–I’ve got a lot of work ahead to balance all the work I did. So that’s just looking at a parallel between Orenda Tribe and my former work in the apparel industry. But if I compare it to what I do in my nonprofit work and my social entrepreneurship, I have to say it’s very similar. I know how to do all of these things based on my old career–I know how to manufacture, sustainably and on a large scale. I know how to create wealth, I know how to manage some money. I know how to place a purchase order, I know how to hustle and get it here quickly, I know how to distribute, and I know how to market. On Instagram I tell the story of what’s going on here, which creates awareness, which solves the problem. I’m connecting the greater community with the story of Navajo Nation. I just share my authentic voice, it’s not anybody doing this for any selfish ego purposes, it’s totally a broadcast to educate people. 

I can build wealth now for Navajo Nation, creating products where 100% of the proceeds go to creating positive change in the world. It’s really not time for 20% back or 15% back. I get really frustrated when I see people using “Navajo Nation COVID Crisis” with a percent going back to Navajo Nation, making a profit off of this crisis. We’re not in that world anymore. It’s time to build things that give everything back. The things that come from Orenda Tribe for COVID relief, I don’t make any money on. It’s time for 100%. 

We are far from the end of this in Navajo Nation. We had another 600 cases last week. Every single person I work with has had multiple deaths in their family. We are burying our elders. It’s real. It’s happening. It’s now, and it will continue to happen because the virus isn’t going anywhere. Regardless of what the government’s saying, the reopening is solely based upon greed and finance, it has nothing to do with saving our elders. It’s still here, it’s still critical, I need to come up with hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer because we’re never going to get our water situation sorted out. Until there’s a vaccine, I have to come up with hundreds of thousands of protective gear for our civilians, because they’re going to need this for the next year. These people have no income, because we haven’t fixed that dynamic of bringing wealth into Navajo Nation yet. We’re in a critical financial state because there’s no tourism, the casinos aren’t open, everything’s shut down. So I’m working on additional long-term solutions. I want to create a portal for artisans and craftspeople to sell their work and make money at 100%. I make enough to live on with Orenda Tribe with my little upcycle of suits and stuff, I don’t need a lot of money, but my nation needs help. I did this for Puma and Prada and Aasics and I know we can do this for Navajo Nation. 

Erica: You’ve been traveling the world collecting treasures to share through Orenda Tribe. Can you tell us a little about your destinations, adventures and discoveries? 

Amy: Oh my gosh yeah, until like four months ago, I was traveling a lot. Now I travel in New Mexico because it’s my new space and I love it so much here, but previously I’ve lived all over the world. I grew up in the midwest with an adopted family, went to school at F.I.T, and then took this beautiful route through a career in fashion in active wear, living in Europe for eight years, and from there traveling everywhere. My passion has always been textiles. So no matter where I was, I was picking up vintage pieces, or vintage ancestral cloths, so over twenty-five years I amassed this really large collection of vintage textiles and vintage cloth.

Erica: That sounds like a dream!

Amy: Yes! Trips to Bali, Japan, so many trips to China. My daughter is half Chinese, so I have a real connection with Asian textiles. I have many friends in Oaxaca, trips to Peru with Majestic Disorder, and there’s so many other places I wanted to go this year, but it will have to stop for a while. I’m going to find ways to support textile weavers in Oaxaca and my Zapotec family there, because everybody’s shut down, everybody needs help. There’s a large network of us and we’re doing all we can to spread money around, to make sure that the people who need to make a living are able to find a place to sell. We can’t reach our friends in Peru and we’re all very worried about these remote relatives. I’m hoping things come back online, I’m hoping they just didn’t have the money to pay their phone bill, which is what’s happening on the rez. I’m just having really strong prayers every morning that everyone’s safe. 

Erica: What has been one of your greatest difficulties in sustaining Orenda Tribe? 

Amy: That’s an interesting question. Forbes Magazine interviewed me and they asked me all the typical questions like, “How do you see your future growth?” [Laughs] I was just like, ummm, my focus isn’t on how to grow, my focus is on how to stay small. To stay small means you stay authentic. Right now I really struggle to maintain my space. Because when that space grows exponentially, it’s harder. I would love to employ more Native youth. But it will organically grow to what it needs to be because I don’t have any ego attached to how big it is, there’s no plan to grow to be huge. 

I hope Orenda Tribe grows in a way that supports more of my time and my intentions, which will grow my social entrepreneurship. I have a very small overhead–I don’t need a fancy car, I don’t need “stuff” anymore. I love the fact that I have less and less as I get older. I want to be Georgia O’Keefe. I want very few things, and very precious things, around me. So that means that all the money from Orenda Tribe’s growth will go into supporting Native artists. More people will be part of that creation and will benefit from it. 

Since moving to my ancestral land, I honestly feel like I’m getting these downloads from the universe–I wake up in the morning and I have all these new, innovative ideas in my head of things I’m supposed to be working on, long term solutions for so many problems we have on the rez. I’ve spent my whole career constantly fixing problems and coming up with ideas on how to keep things going. My community is completely weighed down with problems and historical trauma, and because I am Dine I have a blood memory of this trauma. But my community on the rez, they didn’t have the career I had, they didn’t have the mentors I had, and they didn’t live all over the world like I have, so this is my gift, this is what I need to do. This is my offering. 

Erica: What has been one of your greatest joys with your current work?

Amy: Being able to convert my work with Orenda Tribe into critical aid for those in need. It’s been amazing for me that, through Instagram and a website, we’ve been able to deliver a ridiculous amount of aid.  It’s all such a positive flow of wealth redistribution, because the people with abundance are the people who need to give the most, and the people with the least gave from their heart. They gave their craft and their art because they couldn’t give money, and this has created such a beautiful way to deliver critical aid to Navajo Nation, when it comes from such a pure directive. That is so joyful to me! Every day, every day. [Crying] I’m crying, but I’m joyful. 

Erica: You’re making me cry.

Amy: Every morning I change my website with the new numbers. It’s the place where we see what’s going on with COVID in the Navajo Nation. And every day, I see new numbers. [Crying] So today, we lost nine more people, and three hundred more tested positive. It’s important for me to look at that, the first thing after my prayers in the morning when I go out and greet the sunrise. I know I have work to do, but it’s joyful work, it’s important work. That’s pretty much who I am right now as a human, and who we [Orenda Tribe] are as a brand, it’s just about what we can do, how we can be of service, how we can create positive change in the world. And I wish everyone else could have that intention when they wake up every day. I know so many people are confused about how they can help. For me, I focused on my community, and I focused on data, and by doing those two things together, I used my skill set to create a difference in the world. Everyone has a skill, everyone has an offering. It can be small, it can be large, it can be five minutes, it can be all day, but everybody has to take part–we’re in this together as humanity. 

I get really frustrated when I go on social media and I see people on TikTok. I know it’s important to laugh and to have a lightness, but there’s so many other important things that need to be happening at this stage of the pandemic, and I don’t take it lightly. I can’t ignore it or expect other people to fix this. Because it is up to each of us to be part of it. This is up to all of us. Look at what you do and look at who you are and make some decisions on a daily basis. 

Erica: You’re such an inspiration on so many levels, I’m so thankful for your work. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Amy: Thank you so much for amplifying Indigenous voices, it’s so important. And thank you for the work you do, because you are the future, so, yehe from us for all you do in sharing, it’s a very important gift you have. 

Erica: Now I’m thinking about what I can do, where I can help.

Amy: That’s a good thing! Your heart gets bigger and your body grows stronger when you let that in. We need our young warriors to support this. Everybody should be doing this for their communities–the elders of our world should be saying that everyone should be involved in this, there’s so much in our country and in our communities for everybody to stand up and do something. 

If I talk with wisdom it comes from my life path and learning more about Navajo lifeways which has taught me a lot about how we’re all connected, how we’re connected to nature, how we’re connected to the earth. It’s important for me to broadcast Indigenous knowledge in any way I can to the general population. Maybe if it's broadcast through somebody like me, who is half Indigenous and half non-Native, it may come out a little softer, and easier for people to understand. There’s not a better time for Indiginous knowledge to be part of who we are as humanity. It was the original knowledge, it’s all about our connection to the earth. We need to make time to be quiet, we need to listen, we need to set strong intentions, we need to be authentic, we need to be truthful, we need to be connected with other humans. We’re separated by space right now but there’s a way we can all connect through our hearts. We have to commit to being authentic to who we are, what our values are, and just go for it!