Throughout Indian Market, Roxanne and I have been attending panels and rallies led by indigenous artists and activists. So, today we share two powerful videos focusing on colonization and climate change.
Journey Santa Fe, 202 Galisteo, Sunday, August 18, 11am. Wowatsi – Celebrating 30 Years of Growing Beloved Community, With Dr. Corrine Sanchez, Executive Director, Tewa Women United. Join us at Journey Santa Fe. Sanchez is a strong indigenous leader whose voices is well worth hearing.
Project 1619. Today, when the NY Times arrived, we saw that the entire NY Times Sunday Magazine was devoted to the Project 1619 we previewed on Saturday. If you don’t subscribe to the NY Times, I would strongly suggest your heading out and finding one as the issue is extraordinarily illuminating.
We begin with Nikki Sanchez’ powerful: Decolonization is not our fault, but it is our responsibility. Sanchez is a skilled TED Talk speaker who outlines quickly the current implications of colonization, the urgency of exposing and opposing it, and what you can personally do about it. We conclude with Jaskiran Dhillon, Tami Navarro, and Macarena Gómez-Barris who discuss decolonization and climate crisis in a most informative 80-minute panel from three powerful women of color.
Nikki Sanchez
“Colonization is not your fault, but it IS your responsibility.” Sanchez does an excellent job of describing the history of colonization in Canada while making it clear how colonization is an international phenomenon. Most importantly, Sanchez describes how both settlers and the colonized are in the same boat and can only address the implications of colonization together. Only 14 minutes in length. Sanchez weaves her own talk with a series of compelling images. Very worth your time.
Panel Discussion: Jaskiran Dhillon, Tami Navarro, and Macarena Gómez-Barris
The panel includes 15 minute commentary from each of the three panelists, commentary that frames the intersection of activism led by indigenous communities and communities of color, activism focused on the climate crisis and decolonization. The panelists make very clear how colonial and capitalist policies are at the root of our climate crisis, how decolonization must be inextricably woven into any effort to credibly address looming climate catastrophe and how the most credible voices expressing this perspective have arisen from youth generally and indigenous youth most prominently. Tami Navarro’s discussion of hurricane Irma and Maria’s devastation of the US Virgin Islands was most illuminating as the impact of these hurricanes on the Virgin Islands has been largely overlooked and puts in bold relief how colonial-capitalist priorities override the needs of indigenous communities ravaged by climate catastrophe. This is a most interesting discussion.
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I met two indigenous people from the area of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. They told me that the Canadian government established a reservation for their people [I’m sorry I didn’t get the tribal names; one is Tlingit] of about 800 square miles. Now gold mining is going on in their reservation and although a few “tribal leaders” (whom these people say do not represent the tribe in truth) get some money, tribal members do not receive anything at all in exchange for the mineral wealth being taken *without permission or consent of the indigenous people whose land it is.
This is still going on and on.