08/10/2026
✨ We are incredibly honored to share that Urban Indigenous Collective received the 2026 Indigenous Peoples’ Social Justice Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP). 🪶❤️
Presented by Uzma H. Chowdhury and Cami L. Touloukian during SSSP’s 76th Annual Meeting in New York City, this recognition feels especially meaningful alongside this year’s conference theme: “Resisting Colonization of Lifeworlds. The award was accepted on behalf of Sutton King, MPH, Co-Founder, President & Executive Director.
For us, resistance has always been about more than what we stand against. It is also about what we choose to protect and co-create. It is the work of rebuilding Indigenous systems of care rooted in kinship, culture, sovereignty, community knowledge, and collective responsibility. It is creating spaces where our relatives can gather, heal, organize, tell our own stories, lead our own research, advocate for our people, and imagine futures beyond the systems that were never designed for us to thrive.
What began in 2019 with a folding table, a pop-up tent, pooled resources, and a simple question, What does our community need? Has grown into a collective shaped by the voices, love, labor, resistance, and imagination of our community.
This award belongs to all of us. ❤️
To every relative who has trusted us, every survivor who has allowed us to walk alongside them, every young person who reminds us to dream bigger, and every staff member, board member, volunteer, partner, supporter, and ancestor whose teachings continue to guide this work, we carry this recognition with you.
We also extend our deepest congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients. It was an honor to be in community with so many people doing powerful work toward justice, liberation, and social change. We celebrate your contributions, your scholarship, your organizing, and the many ways you are creating more just and caring worlds.
Wāēwāēnen. Thank you. 🪶
