Native American Heritage Month 2022 at Pinterest

November is Native American Heritage Month (NAHM) in the United States. At Pinterest, we take this month to honor and celebrate the rich cultures, histories and contributions of Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians—as well as all Indigenous cultures worldwide. Our theme for this month is “Indigenous Representation Matters”—a reminder of the unique voices and impact Indigenous people have as active, influential and critical parts of our company and our communities. 

Why is Indigenous Representation important? 

• Indigenous representation and partnerships help U.S. National Parks lower their wildfire risks. The U.S. National Park Service is working with Indigenous communities to incorporate lessons learned from over 10,000 years of stewarding their lands, like prescribed burns to increase ecosystem health and reduce wildfire risk.
• Indigenous relationships to the natural world can help answer challenging questions in emerging technology. The Indigenous AI group’s position paper discusses how to design and interact with AI from an ethical position, inspired by the worldviews of Indigenous cultures worldwide.
• Indigenous representation inside Pinterest helps us advocate for Indigenous people who create and use the platform. For example, we monitor and block content containing culturally-insensitive costumes on platform.
• Representation compounds over time. The relationships built by PIndigenous with Indigenous students before and during their time at Pinterest makes us a company students want to apply to and interns are excited to return to as full-time employees. (Many thanks to our PIndigenous and Recruiting teammates who participated in our sponsorship of October’s AISES Conference.)

Learn more about PIndigenous’ efforts and activations outside of Native American Heritage Month by watching A day in the life of River Mist, Pinterest Software Engineer and PIndigenous member.