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Title: Reconciliation is Dead Author: Tawinikay Date: February 15, 2020 Language: en Topics: indigenous anarchism Source: Retrieved on 25th February 2021 from https://north-shore.info/2020/02/15/reconciliation-is-dead-a-strategic-proposal/ Notes: This text speaks of a change in strategy in this moment of resistance, calling to widen the scope of revolt. While the main audience is other native people, the author urges settlers to read it and take away the main lessons as well.
Reconciliation is dead. It’s been dead for some time.
If only one thing has brought me joy in the last few weeks, it began
when the matriarchs at Unist’ot’en burned the Canadian flag and declared
reconciliation dead. Like wildfire, it swept through the hearts of youth
across the territories. Out of their mouths, with teeth bared, they
echoed back: reconciliation is dead! reconciliation is dead! Their eyes
are more keen to the truth so many of our older generation have been too
timid to name. The Trudeau era of reconciliation has been a farce from
the beginning. It has been more for settler Canadians than natives all
along.
“Reconciliation is dead” is a battle cry.
It means the pressure to live up to our side of the bargain is over. The
younger generation have dropped the shackles to the ground. Perhaps we
are moving into a new time, one where militancy takes the place of
negotiation and legal challenge. A time where we start caring less about
what the colonizer’s legal and moral judgement and more about our
responsibilities.
Criticizing reconciliation is not about shaming those elders and people
who participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it’s about
attacking a government that used that moment of vulnerability to bolster
it’s global image. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I do not
blame our older generation for being hopeful about a more peaceful
future. Those who lived through the horror of residential schools and
the 60s scoop and the road allowance days and the sled dog slaughters
could only have wanted a better life for the coming generations. It is
the responsibility of those younger generations to stand up and say that
what is being offered is not good enough. It is up to us to say that we
would rather another hundred years of struggle than to accept the gentle
assimilation being offered. It is up to us to give thanks to our elders
for their service and then to turn to the frontlines with our feathers
and drums and fists.
Because ideas on their own don’t make change. That is a liberal lie. It
takes action behind words to make a difference. That action needs to be
undertaken together. Neither ideas or practice are created by
individuals. Everything written here is the result of discussion and
interaction with other land defenders, lovers, anarchists, mothers,
children, and resistors. We need to be accountable to the things we say
while also recognizing that knowledge is created by communities. It has
to always be seen that way in order to subvert hierarchy, to never allow
one person to be elevated over any other.
So what is written here is all of yours. Take it and do with it as you
please.
Argue it. Defend it. Decry it. Make it your own.
Forget the rules.
Canada is a colonial state. It exists to govern territory and manage the
resources of that territory. It is nothing less and nothing more. It has
done an excellent job convincing its citizens that it stands for
something, something good. This is the way it maintains its legitimacy.
The national myth of politeness and civility wins the support of its
constituents. This has been carefully constructed over time and it can
be deconstructed. In fact, the rules of Canada change all the time. I
would write more about this but the truth is I could not do a better job
than something I recently came across online. @Pow_pow_pow_power
recently wrote the following:
Settler governments have been making up the rules as they go from the
beginning of their invasions. While each generation of us struggles to
educate ourselves to the rulebook, they disregard it and do what they
want when they want. This should not be a surprise. It has always been
this way because they prioritize themselves about all – above other
people, above animal relatives, above the balance of Nature, and
certainly above “what is right”. Laws have always been passed to
legitimize their whims and interests as the intentions of seemingly
rational rulers, and to keep us in compliance with their needs.
We currently live in a time where our Imperialist structures have been
deeply concerned with appearing ordered and civilized to fellow regimes
of power to cultivate a sense of superiority. This is why the violence
we have become accustomed to is no longer mass slaughters and public
torture and exiles but night raids and disappearances, criminalizations
and being locked into systems of neglect. It has become more reliant on
structural violence & erasure than direct violence, and therefore more
insidious. Insidiousness is more tidily effective and harder to pinpoint
as a source of injustice.
This is why when we approach them, lawful and peaceful and rational and
fair minded and smooth toned, as gracious and calm as can be, we are
easily dismissed with polite white smiles of “best intentions” “deepest
regrets” and “we’re doing our best”, in fact “we’re doing better than
most”. And when we insist, more firmly, more impassioned, more
justified, the response from Settler Governments is as clear as we see
now: “Why can’t you people just obey?”
Canadians want to believe that colonial violence is a thing of the past,
so the government hides it for them. That is why the RCMP doesn’t allow
journalists to film them as they sick dogs on women defending their
land. That is why they will get away with it.
The time has come to stop looking for justice in settler law.
For Indigenous people in Canada, it is impossible to avoid the violence
inflicted on us by the state. When we raise our fist and strike back, it
is always an act of self-defense. Always. Committing to non-violence or
pacifism in the face of a violent enemy is a dangerous thing to do. Yet,
attempting to avoid using violence until absolutely necessary is a noble
principle. One which carries the most hope for a new future. But what
does violence mean to the settler state?
They don’t consider it violent to storm into a territory with guns drawn
and remove its rightful occupants. They don’t consider it violent to
level mountaintops, or clearcut forests, or to suck oil out of the
ground only to burn it into the air. They don’t consider it violent to
keep chickens and pigs and cows in tiny crates, never allowing them to
see sunlight, using them like food machines.
But smash a window of a government office..
Well, that goes too far.
It is time we see their laws for what they are: imaginary and
hypocritical. Settler laws exist to protect settlers. We are not
settlers. We are Michif. We are Anishinaabek. We are OnkwehĂłn:we. We are
Nêhiyawak. We are Omà miwininì. We are Inuit. We are Wet’suwet’en. So why
are we still appealing to their laws for our legitimacy?
Time after time, communities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on
legal challenges to land rights. Chippewa of the Thames First Nation
used money won in a land claim to launch a legal challenge against
Canada to say they were never properly consulted, nor did they consent
to, the Line 9 pipeline through their territory. The Supreme Court ruled
against them, saying that Indigenous peoples do not have the right to
say no to industrial projects in their territories. Line 9 is still
operational. The Wet’suwet’en won probably the most significant legal
challenge in Canadian history. The Delgamuukw verdict saw the courts
acknowledge that the We’suwet’en territory is unceded, that they hold
title and legal jurisdiction, and yet look at how Canada honours that.
Legal victories are not the way we win our land and dignity. Canada
cares as little about Canadian law as they do Indigenous law.
The same goes for the United Nations and their precious UNDRIP. We have
seen that the state will adopt United Nations Declaration on Indigenous
Peoples (UNDRIP) principles and interpret them to suit their needs. That
document says that governments and companies need free, prior, and
informed consent to engage in projects in their territories. BC adopted
it and, yet, says that it does not mean they have to gain consent from
the Wet’suwet’en. Consent will never actually mean the right to say no.
And the UN has no way to enforce it.
The time has passed for legal challenge in their courts that does
nothing but drain our resources and slow us down. I honour those
relatives and ancestors who attempted the peaceful resolution, who
trusted in the good intentions of other humans. But the settlers have
proven that the peaceful options they offered us are lies. Fool us once,
shame on you.
This is not only about Unist’ot’en anymore.
This is about all of us. Any day now the RCMP could attempt to move in
and evict the rail blockade at Tyendinaga. I stand in solidarity with
them as much as I do with the Wet’suwet’en. This moment is not just
about getting the government and their militarized goons to back down at
Unist’ot’en and Gitdum’ten, it’s about getting them to loosen their grip
around all of our necks. This moment is about proclaiming reconciliation
dead and taking back our power.
This is not to say that we should forget about Unist’ot’en and abandon
them when they need us most. It is a proposal to widen our scope so that
we don’t lose our forward momentum if what happens out west doesn’t meet
our wildest dreams. This is about crafting a stronger narrative.
This means that we should think before claiming that the Wet’suwet’en
have the right to their land because it is unceded. Do we not all have a
right to the land stolen from our ancestors? For land to be unceded it
means that it has never been sold, surrendered, or lost through
conquest. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 urged Canada and the dominion
to only take land through the making of treaty. And so agents of Canada
set out to do so. They continued to make treaties across the continent,
sometimes lying about the content of the treaties to ancestors who
didn’t speak english, sometimes finding whoever the hell would sign the
treaty without much concern for if that person was acting with the
support of the community. After the signing of the last treaty, Canada
made it illegal for Indians to hire lawyers to challenge land claims.
And then they stole the rest of what they wanted. They continued to
flood the land with settlers until native peoples had only 0.2% of the
land they once protected and lived on.
I don’t care about appealing to the legitimacy of unceded territory. All
land is stolen land. Canada has no jurisdiction on any of it because
they have broken any agreements they ever made in the process of taking
it.
The same critique rings true for holding up hereditary governance as the
only true leadership of Indigenous peoples. I am not advocating for band
council. But it is important to understand that many of our relations
have lost the hereditary systems that once helped them live good lives.
We are going to have to rekindle our governance. Some we can pull from
the past, some we will have to make anew. All freely chosen forms of
Indigenous governance are legitimate. Our legitimacy does not flow from
the mouths of our leaders, but from our connection to the land and water
and our commitment to our responsibilities to all life today and
generations to come.
This is a good thing if we let it be. It is foolish to think we would
not have changed and grown in 300 years. Our systems would look
different today no matter what. This is an opportunity to combine new
and beautiful ideas with the time-honoured traditions and ceremonies of
our ancestors, spiritual communities where hierarchy is subverted and
gender is liberated!
It is time to shut everything the fuck down.
Canada has always been afraid of us standing in our power.
Reconciliation was a distraction, a way for them to dangle a carrot
infront of us and trick us into behaving. Now is the time to show them
how clear our vision is. Being determined and sure is not the same as
being unafraid. There are many dangerous days ahead of us. It is
dangerous to say, “I will not obey.”
The first thing we need to do is stop stabbing each other in the back.
Take a seat on band council if you want, but stop letting it go to your
head. Don’t ever see yourself as more than a servant, a cash
distributor, a rule enforcer. Being elected is not the same as earning a
place of respect in your community. It does not make you an elder. Let
me take this time to say a giant “fuck you” to the Métis nations who
sign pipeline agreements because they are so excited the government
considered them Indigenous. The MĂ©tis have no land rights in Ontario and
yet they continue to sign agreements as if they do, throwing the
Indigenous nations with actual territory under the train. Let me extend
that “fuck you” to the Indigenous nations who signed pipeline agreements
and stand by in silence as their relations are attacked for protecting
the water. Or even worse when they do interviews with pro-oil lobby
groups and conservative media decrying the land defenders in their
midst. Can’t they see the way Canadians eat up their words, drooling
over the division amongst us, using it to devalue our way of life? I do
not condone attacking our relatives who have lost the red path, but we
need to find a way to bring them back home. Not everybody has to take up
a frontline in their community, but at the bare minimum they should
refuse to cooperate with the colonial government and their corporate
minions.
The second thing we need to do is act. But we do not have to limit
ourselves to actions that demand the withdrawal of forces from
Wet’suwet’en territory. The federal government is the one calling the
shots, not just at Unist’ot’en but at every point of native oppression
across all the territories. Any attack on the state of Canada is in
solidarity. Any assertion of native sovereignty is in solidarity.
It’s time to start that occupation you’ve been dreaming up.
Is there a piece of land that has been annexed from your territory? Take
it back. Is there a new pipeline being slated through your backyard?
Blockade the path. Are their cottagers desecrating the lake near your
community? Serve them an eviction notice and set up camp. Sabotage the
fish farms killing the salmon. Tear down the dam interrupting the river.
Play with fire.
When we put all of our hopes and dreams into one struggle in one spot,
we set ourselves up for heartbreak and burnout. Let’s fight for the
Wet’suwet’en people, yes! But let’s honour their courage and their
actions by letting them inspire us to do the same. Let’s fight for them
by fighting for the manoomin and the wetlands and the grizzlies.
Choose your accomplices wisely. Liberals who read land acknowledgments
often have too much invested in this system to actually see it change.
Communists envision a system without a capitalist Canada, but they still
want a communist state. One that will inevitably need to control land
and exploit it. Find common heart with those who want to see the state
destroyed, to have autonomous communities take its place, and to restore
balance between humans and all our relations. Choose those who listen
more than they talk, but not those who will do whatever you say and not
think for themselves. They are motivated by guilt. Find those who have a
fire burning in them for a more wild and just world. Most of them will
be anarchists, but not all, and not all anarchists will come with a good
mind.
Creating a battlefield with multiple fronts will divide their energies.
The rail blockades are working! If the night time rail sabotage and the
copper wire and the blockades keep coming, it will shut down all rail
traffic across this awful economy. More is better. But do it not just
for the Wet’suwet’en, do it for the rivers and streams that weave
themselves under the rails. Do it for the ancestors who saw the
encroaching railroad as their coming demise.
And as a critique out of Montreal wrote: don’t settle for symbolic and
intentional arrest.
When they come to enforce an injunction, move to another part of the
rail.
When they come with a second injunction, block the biggest highway
nearby.
When they come with a third injunction, move to the nearest port.
Stay free and fierce. The folks at Unist’ot’en and Gitdum’ten didn’t
have the option to, but you do. Anticipate their next move and stay
ahead of them.
This is a moment among many moments. Our ancestors have been clever,
sometimes biding their time quietly, sometimes striking, always secretly
passing on our ceremonies and stories. I honour them as I honour you
now. We are still here because of them and our children and our
children’s children will still be here because of us. Never forget who
we are. Fight in ceremony.
I suppose this is a proposal for adopting a strategy of indigenous
anarchism here on Turtle Island. A rejection of tactics that demand
things from powerful people and a return to building for ourselves a
multitude of local, diverse solutions. This is a rejection of Idle No
More style organizing, let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. It is
a plea for us to choose our own leaders and create governance that
refuses hierarchy. An ask for us to reject reconciliation and move
towards a militant reclamation. The idea of indigenous anarchism is
still in its infancy. Write me about it.
This is one of our moments. Let’s make it not about demanding for them
to leave Unist’ot’en alone, but about demanding that they leave the land
alone. Don’t make it about stopping CGL from making money, make it about
denouncing the idea of money. This is about colonization everywhere.
This is about all of us.
To the settlers inevitably reading this zine.
What is written here is meant for you too. Not in the “rise up and take
back your land” kind of way. Been there, done that.
But I have been reading the messaging on the reportbacks and in the
media and I see you falling into all sorts of tired traps. You are not
just cogs in the solidarity machine, you too can take up struggles in
the cities you live. Remember the Two Row: you can fight parallel
battles towards the same goals.
I have heard many an elder say that we will not win this fight on our
own, and that is most certainly true. Thank you for the ways you have
attacked the economy and the state. Thank you for answering the call.
Now take this and run with it.
You too should look for ways to defend the land and water in the places
you live. You too should look for ways to undermine and weaken the power
of the government over these lands. Don’t let yourself be disheartened
if the RCMP don’t leave Unist’ot’en. That is only one fight of many.
That is only the beginning. Don’t fall into the traps of appealing to
Canadian or international law.
See yourself for what you are, for who your community is. Act in ways
that bring about a world where reconciliation is possible, a world in
which your people give back land and dismantle the centralized state of
Canada. Don’t romanticize the native peoples you work with. Don’t feel
that you can’t ever question their judgment or choose to work with some
over others. Find those that have kept the fire alive in their hearts,
those who would rather keep fighting than accept the reconciliation
carrot. Don’t ever act from guilt and shame.
And don’t let yourself believe that you can transcend your settlerism by
doing solidarity work. Understand that you can, and should, find your
own ways to connect to this land. From your own tradition, inherited or
created.
Take risk. Dream big. Pursue anarchy. Stay humble.