On this Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, as the years before, Room Magazine reaffirms our solidarity with the sovereignty of all Indigenous peoples worldwide and in so-called Canada, and our commitment to learning from and materially supporting Indigenous communities and survivors standing against the extractive and violent forces of empire-building projects.
As we read, too, of the recent demonstration by white nationalists in Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc, we understand that simply observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is far from enough. Last year, we wrote: “it’s crucial to highlight the dialectic gap between a symbolic recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and brief acknowledgements of the deep injustice perpetrated against Indigenous peoples, and acting with awareness of the nation as an ongoing and violent colonial project against Indigenous peoples.” The same colonial logics that reduces solidarity with Indigenous peoples to a single day also lends itself to enabling violence against MMIWG2S, who have been killed by the police or had their murders underinvestigated by a system, and the individuals upholding it, that disregards the lives of women, girls, and Two-Spirit people. It governs where our attention is turned as the Senate votes down an amendment to the federal anti-hate legislation that would have classified public denial, downplaying, or justification of residential school harms as a criminal offense.
How can we materially support Indigenous communities and survivors, and call for justice within the colony? What ideas and structures must we re-examine or betray to decolonize our worldviews and to continue standing in solidarity with visions of Indigenous leadership, knowledges, and futurisms?
READ
An excerpt from Theory of Water by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, via The Tyee
As the axis of capital, and the states protecting that capital, descend into fascism, the present moment demands that we come together and face our linked crises in a manner that ensures the sanctity of the planet for all species and generations yet to come.
The theory of Nibi asks us to think on a scale that is outside the present moment and our own immediate needs. I’m thinking about Nibi as theory here because Nibi offers us an invitation to learn from its embodied practice, a practice of cycling that is global, is permeable and brings about a continuous rebirth on our planet.
Nibi asks us to ground ourselves intimately in land and place, and relate that grounding to other movements, geographies, cultures and lands.
From “From Recognition to Decolonization: An Interview with Glen Coulthard,” by Glen Coulthard, Karl Gardner, and Devin Clancy, via Upping the Anti
Glen Coulthard: In my book, I mention that part of the problem with the current rhetoric of “reconciliation” is that it has so many different meanings depending on the context in which that language is deployed. For Indigenous peoples, reconciliation is often associated with a form of healing—healing ourselves from the violence of settler colonialism. We often think about it as a nation-to-nation reconciliation, so reconciling our hostile and violent relationship. But the settler state and its courts understand the term as reconciling the existence of Indigenous peoples’ title, jurisdictions, nationhood, and laws with the sovereignty of the crown. In other words, the state is trying to square a circle; trying to both affirm the principles of the Declaration within the colonial constitution of Canada. In doing so, a fundamental antagonism returns: whose rights are supreme? The way that the chips fall, time and time again, it is Canada’s. And that’s not reconciliation.
From The Indigenous Brilliance Podcast – Episode 2: Poetry with Brandi Bird and Billy-Ray Belcourt
Billy-Ray Belcourt: …I learned from the late theorist José Esteban Muñoz, that utopia is not something that is in the future or out of reach. It’s something that we already enact. In a way that people of colour in particular, he says relate to one another and experience joy and build alternative modes of kinship that run counter to the state and to other systems of oppression, indicates that we aren’t totally overdetermined by this cruel past that continues. And I take a lot of hope and energy from reading his work. And though I very much do not shy away from writing about difficult subject matter, whether that be my own experiences of racism or emotional hardship or our general collective experience of settler colonialism. But the point for me is that in writing about those things and exposing the many different ways that the state continues to try to stifle our livability in our survivability, that what is always most important is our, what Leanne Simpson calls our “beautiful rebellion”.
Take Action
Materially support organizations that uplift Indigenous communities, survivors, and their families
- Donate to Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) : The IRSSS is a non-profit that provides barrier free, culturally-safe programs and services to support the healing of Residential School Survivors, and Indigenous survivors of generational traumas
- Donate to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC): Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is a national Indigenous organization that defends the rights, delivers programming to, and amplifies the perspectives of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people in Canada.
- Donate to the Moccasin Footprint Society: Moccasin Footprint Society is a Indigenous-led charity that share Indigenous teachings, impacts, ideas, knowledge and systems, and supports grassroots actions.
- Donate to Indigenous Watchdog: Indigenous Watchdog is a non-profit dedicated to monitoring and reporting the progress of reconciliation and issues impacting Indigenous communities
- Donate to the Orange Shirt Society: Orange Shirt Society commemorates, witnesses and honours the healing journeys of Survivors and their families.
- Donate to your local Friendship Centre, via the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres: Friendship Centres are community hubs that offer culturally safe programs and services, and provide a welcoming space for all members of the community to share knowledge and connect with others.
- Provide material support to Indigenous-led orgnizations through One Day’s Pay, which asks us to give give one day’s pay or what you can afford to an Indigenous-led orgnization
Educational Resources
- Yellowhead Treaty Map ⎯ Familiarize yourself with the Treaty Maps via a digital introduction to Indigenous perspectives on treaties in Canada, from pre-Confederation, Confederation, and “modern” eras
- Land Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper ⎯ How does Canada dispossess Indigenous peoples, and what are Indigenous communities doing to get the land back?
- Education Resources List by The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) ⎯ of teaching resources designed to support learning about the history and legacy of residential schools in Canada.
