2022 Life Transitions

Hi my name is James, I’m a TwoSpirit Indigenous and Romani artist living with Autism, CPTSD, fundraising towards my hysterectomy and recovery time as well as beginning to build my dream mobile home.

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January 7th is my consult for hysterectomy and I’ll find out how much my operation will cost as well as how long I’ll be unable to work and need to have assistance in caring for myself and my pup Hela. I know on average it’s about $7,000 medical bill and then I’ll need at least 4-6 weeks of life supporting funds which I calculated to $3,000. *** Update! Looks like insurance will be covering it so I dropped 7,000$ off my fundraising goal.

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I am trying to avoid draining my small savings towards this life affirming surgery and give myself the opportunity to ask for support that I’ve always needed. I’ve been on my own the last 12 of 30 years and those have been hard times to do without the back support of family.

Living I’m Seattle has changed my life but I’m ready to emerge from this place and take flight, knowing I’m always welcome to return and desire to do so.
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I’m turning 30 this coming May and for the first time in a long time I believe in bringing my goals into a reality.
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I currently make a land payment on a 1.3 acre property in NE California that will be a home base once I have my mobile shelter; I would like to be able to begin the journey of creating my housing dream Vardo- a Romani travel wagon so that I can travel between that land and to other lands my friends steward. I also come from Nakota and Comanche peoples and wish to travel amongst their sacred places throughout all of the Great Plains. For me this is a healing journey as a child of diaspora and former foster child who was forced to move from Oklahoma up to Wisconsin, not knowing that I was still close to ancestral lands, not knowing my own peoples and customs. I dream of praying in ancestral places. To lay next to the same rivers and creeks that my Comanche ancestors watered their horses.

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I’ve spent years learning to reconnect to myself after my traumatic upbringing and forced homelessness at 18 for being queer. And I’m those years have learned to also be in connection to my ancestors and their dreams. I used to run, moving from place to place and always destabilizing, not knowing how I craved a flow across Turtle Island.

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Ive spent weeks drafting and calculating the cost of production to build my own Vardo.

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I’m currently saving towards a truck so that I finally have a vehicle of my own that is capable of towing my home but is still a reasonable used vehicle.
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To create a home that can support my leathercrafting and be self sustaining off grid if needed, it will cost $7,000-10,000 using my own labor and paying other Indigenous and Romani people for their assisted labor.

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A barebones build would be about $4,000 so that’s my minimum needed before I can begin building.  

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please help this dream become a reality!