Gadugi
Encyclopedia
Gadugi is a term used in the Cherokee language
Cherokee language
Cherokee is an Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee people which uses a unique syllabary writing system. It is the only Southern Iroquoian language that remains spoken. Cherokee is a polysynthetic language.-North American etymology:...

 which means "working together" or "cooperative labor" within a community.

Historically, the word referred to a labor gang, of men and/or women, working together for projects such as harvesting crops or tending to gardens of elderly or infirm tribal members.

The word Gadugi was derived from the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 word for "bread", which is Gadu. Gadugi means "putting together the bread".

In recent years, the Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...

 tribal government has promoted the concept of Gadugi. The GaDuGi Health Center is a tribally run clinic in Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Tahlequah is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It was founded as a capital of the original Cherokee Nation in 1838 to welcome those Cherokee forced west on the Trail of Tears. The city's population was 15,753 at the 2010 census. It...

, the capital of the Cherokee Nation.

The concept is becoming more widely known. In Lawrence, Kansas, in 2004 the rape crisis center center affiliated with the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...

 adopted the name, the Gadugi Safe Center, for its programs to aid all people affected by sexual violence.

See also

  • Mutual Aid
    Mutual aid
    Mutual aid may refer to:*Mutual aid , a tenet of organization theories.*Mutual aid , an agreement between emergency responders.*Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, a biology book by anarchist Peter Kropotkin...

  • Barn raising
    Barn raising
    A barn raising is an event during which community men come together to assemble a barn for one or more of its households, with the support of women. The event was particularly common in 18th- and 19th-century rural North America. In the past, a barn was often the first, largest, and most costly...

  • Dugnad
    Dugnad
    Dugnad is a Norwegian term for voluntary work done together with other people. In a tradition similar to that of barn raising, community members meet to help an individual, or club members meet to build a clubhouse or get necessary jobs done for a family in need. Participation in a dugnad is often...

     (Norwegian)
  • Meitheal
    Meitheal
    Meitheal is the Irish word for a work team, gang, or party and denotes the co-operative labour system in rural Ireland where groups of neighbours help each other in turn with farming work, such as harvesting crops...

     (Irish)
  • Minca
    Minca
    Minka or Mink'a , hispanicized Minca or Minga is a type of traditional communal work in the Andes in favor of the whole community ....

     (Andean)
  • Naffir
    Naffir
    Naffīr is an Arabic word used in parts of Sudan to describe particular types of communal work undertakings. Naffīr has been described as including a group recruited through family networks, in-laws and village neighbors for some particular purpose, which then disbands when that purpose is...

     (Sudanese Arabic)
  • Talkoot
    Talkoot
    Talkoot is a Finnish expression for a gathering of friends and neighbors to accomplish a task, similar to a bee or a barn raising in English....

     (Finnish)
  • Gotong royong
    Gotong royong
    Gotong-royong is a conception of sociality familiar to large parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. The phrase has been translated into English in many ways, most of which harken to the conception of reciprocity or mutual aid. For M. Nasroen, gotong royong forms one of the core tenets of Indonesian...

    (Indonesia and Malaysia)
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