Hosted by Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner and Rye Purvis

An Online Death Cafe

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About this Death Cafe

The Decolonizing Death Café is a space for Indigenous communities and allies therof to virtually gather and share. 

About Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner and Rye Purvis

Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner (Luiseño & Cupeño) is an Indigenous feminist philosopher who researches, teaches, and consults on Indigenous research and evaluation methods, cultural and language reclamation, Indigenous epistemologies, Indigenous feminist interventions in critical social work, and land-based feminist coalition-building. Shelbi is fascinated by the intersections of Indigenous knowledge systems, caretaking, power, and trauma. Shelbi is a proud first-generation descendant of the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, and is of both Luiseño (Payómkawichum) and Cupeño (Kupangaxwichem) descent. She is an assistant professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at University of Maryland, College Park and the founding director of the Indigenous Futures Lab, a hub of Indigenous feminist research and evaluation.

Rye Purvis is a PhD student in Native Studies at UC Davis who researches and works in death care.