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Title: LandBack Author: Saint Andrew Language: en Topics: landback, indigenous anarchism, Breadtube Source: Retrieved on Jan 6, 2021 from https://youtu.be/7msyOSrpYsg
Since the very dawn of colonialism, across the globe, for centuries,
indigenous peoples have been fighting back against their oppression. In
a way, to be indigenous is to be in constant warfare, as they resist
threats to their sovereignty, economic well-being, cultures, languages,
ways of knowing, and access to the resources on which their societies
depend. I think that the ideas, concepts, and praxis of indigenous
peoples are severely underdiscussed, underappreciated, and
underrepresented by, well, everyone. Thereâs so much we can learn from
the diverse cultures, philosophies, and worldviews that are under the
umbrella of indigeneity. I want to do what I can to highlight these
ideas in the coming year. Starting with one of the most vital, yet one
of the most misunderstood, of the MANY currents of decolonization and
indigenous praxis.
Before we begin, I want everyone to understand that this video is
introductory. LandBack is complex and canât be easily summarized into a
10â15 minute video. Just keep that in mind.
To understand LandBack, and WaterBack, we need to understand
Settlerism-Colonialism, or more simply, Settler Colonialism. Settler
Colonialism is an ongoing project by settler states, like the US, New
Zealand, Australia, Canada, Israel, etc. It involves external
colonialism, also called settlerism, which is when a colonizing power
exports settlers, resources, knowledge, plants, metals, weapons, and/or
animals to increase its wealth and land, like when the European empires
shipped millions of armed colonists to settle North America, many as
indentured servants. And it involves internal colonialism, which is
marked by the violent management of a colonized people and lands within
the borders of the imperial nation through ghettos, reservations,
police, schools, prisons, that sort of thing. A good example of internal
colonialism would be the residential schools in the US and Canada up to
the 20^(th) century that stole Indigenous children from their families
and stripped them of their cultures. Settler colonialism can be best
summarized as the empire and the colony existing in the same
geographical space. Settler colonialism is a process of destroying to
replace.
Indigenous versions of governance, land management, cultural practices,
etc. are destroyed through colonization and replaced with the settler
versions of those things, which are often radically different. The land
stolen from indigenous peoples was then worked by peoples stolen from
their own lands. Interestingly, it took the subversive collaboration of
indigenous peoples, marooning slaves, and runaway Europeans for settlers
to invent and propagate the racial hierarchy in order to create
divisions among the exploited. In Colonial Virginia, the lives of
English, Indigenous, and African indentured servants and slaves were
quite similar at first. They were owned by their masters and they worked
shoulder to shoulder in the tobacco fields. Still, they sought relief
from their grueling labour and difficult work conditions, so theyâd run
away. Sometimes together. Yet when they were caught, their punishments
were much different. In July 1640, three servants were captured in
Maryland. Two were white, and were sentenced to be whipped and four
years were added to their indentures. The third was Black, and he was
made a slave for life. That was the first legal distinction between
Europeans and Africans made by Virginia courts.
See, itâs all connected. Settler colonialism isnât some simple
historical moment. Itâs an ongoing structure that maintains and impacts
everything in a settler state. Settler states like the US are built on
settler-colonization and slavery. Thatâs not something that can be
reformed away. And the initial acts of settler colonialism are what laid
the foundation for its current acts. It took, for example, the eviction
of Oregonâs indigenous peoples to give precedence to evictions as a
whole in Oregon. Something even nonindigenous peoples are dealing with
today. Fighting settler colonialism involves a whole, complex process of
decolonization, which is deserving of its own video. LandBack is just
one part of that process. Hm. LandBack. Land Back. A contraction of Land
and Back. Letâs start there.
Well, it isnât just a plot of dirt. Humans grew out of the earth, and
our history remains rooted in our use of land and territory. From
ecosystem management to resource extraction to expansionism. And with
that expansionism comes the erasure of indigenous peoples and
dispossession of their land. The various powers of Europe are quite
famous for this. In 1800, Western powers held roughly 35% of the Earthâs
surface. By 1878, they held 67%, and by 1914, European powers held a
grand total of 85% of the Earth as colonies, protectorates,
dependencies, dominions, and commonwealths. Donât get it twisted though.
Asian powers like Japan and China donât have their hands clean either.
Yet despite those claims, indigenous peoples never completely lost the
connection to the lands and waters. Colonizing powers used violent
occupation, repeated displacement and forced assimilation, all in an
effort to eliminate the political alternative that indigenous peoples
represent. But they couldnât and canât hide the land, so they have to
resort to breaking the collective consciousness. Worse yet, they get to
brush off this violence as âunfortunate historyâ, if they acknowledge it
at all, while ignoring the very present violence. Take for example the
Wetâsuwetâen Nation, who are facing eviction from their lands and
poisoning of their water by the Coastal GasLink pipeline company.
âPeople get confused about what we want as Native people. Itâs like,
âwhat do you want?â. Itâs just like LANDBACK. Donât need any
reconciliation, I donât want money. I donât want like, programs or
funding or whatever⊠Just Land Back. Itâs funny, though. When I said
that to my dad, you know, to Gitxsan-Wetâsuwetâen people, if you tell
them about Land Back, theyâre like, âWe never lost the land anyway.â
Which is true.â â
When such discussions about LandBack are had, itâs simplified to, âOh
they want to own the land.â Except, land is more than just land. More
than just property or a means of accumulating capital. Thereâs a stark
contrast between settler-colonial and indigenous peoples conception of
land. In settler-colonial societies, the relationship to land is based
on ownership and exploitation. Private property is accumulated and
dominated by individuals, the bourgeoise, to be exploited. But
indigenous peoples see land as a whole social relationship to which all
living and non-living beings belong rather than own.
Settler policy seeks to replace those relationships and the full
sovereignty of indigenous peoples with domination via municipal puppets,
corporate development, and patriarchal politics. Indigenous connection
to the land goes deep, as though âthe land ownsâ, instead of just âthe
land is ownedâ. That connection canât be taken, stolen, or given back.
And itâs a connection that settlers, people who engage in settlerism, do
not have. LandBack, more significantly, is about how we relate to the
land, how we relate to each other through it, and how it defines us.
Land isnât just a place.
Well, it isnât simply signing some documents and giving indigenous
peoples legal rights over the land as private property. Those concepts
didnât exist prior to colonization. The âBackâ part canât mean returning
to pre-colonial conditions either. As Frantz Fanon discusses in The
Wretched of the Earth, there is no way to return to a pristine,
pre-colonial time. Decolonization isnât about going back to the
pre-colonial. And it isnât just focused on indigenous peoples either,
the colonized. Decolonization must also involve the colonizer
deconstructing the cultures and ideologies that maintain that domination
and colonization. Itâs not that colonizers have to be deported. Itâs
that they canât continue to engage in the whole settler-colonial system.
The âBackâ part means a reassertion of sovereignty and consent. No more
pipelines. No more police. No more fraud treaties. No more colonial
institutions. Thatâs what itâll take to eliminate the settler state. The
complete and total dissolution of the colonization that props it up.
LandBack is about ending the violence inflicted not only on Indigenous
peoples, but also on Mother Earth. Only 5% of the worldâs population is
composed of indigenous peoples living on their ancestral lands. But
these peoples protect 80% of the planetâs biodiversity, the heart and
health of the Earth itself. These people, and the nonhuman life they
exist with, are under threat. By state and capital. LandBack seeks to
challenge that, reasserting lands from the colonizing entities.
LandBack is a method of direct action. Even now, such battles are being
fought across the world, from Chiapas to Rojava to Tibet to Palestine to
all over the so-called United States and Canada. The various movements
associated with LandBack each deserve the respect of a video of their
own. But to summarize, quoting the LandBack Manifesto:
âIt is the reclamation of everything stolen from the original Peoples.
It is a relationship with Mother Earth that is symbiotic and just, where
we have reclaimed stewardship. It is bringing our People with us as we
move towards liberation and embodied sovereignty through an organizing,
political and narrative framework. It is a long legacy of warriors and
leaders who sacrificed freedom and life. It is a catalyst for current
generation organizers and centers the voices of those who represent our
future. It is recognizing that our struggle is interconnected with the
struggles of all oppressed Peoples. It is a future where Black
reparations and Indigenous LandBack co-exist. Where BIPOC collective
liberation is at the core. It is acknowledging that only when Mother
Earth is well, can we, her children, be well. It is our belonging to the
land.â
LandBack is about Land, yes, but itâs also about Freedom. Land and
Freedom. Tierra y libertad, the rallying cry in the indigenous fight
against settler colonialism during the Mexican revolution. Land and
Freedom. Theyâre interdependent concepts, each transforming the meaning
of the other. Land linked to freedom means a habitat that we freely
interrelate with, to shape and be shaped by, unburdened by imposition or
ideology. Freedom linked to land means the self-organization of all the
activity that is vital to our humanity, which we direct to achieve
sustenance on our own terms, not as isolated units but as living beings
within a web of wider relationships. So...how do we get there? How do we
partake in LandBack? What does that look like in practice?
LandBack really starts in the mind. It starts with decolonizing your own
psyche. You were colonized, are colonized, and are thus responding to
life circumstances in ways that are limited, destructive, and externally
controlled. It starts with questioning the dominant narratives and power
structures you were indoctrinated into accepting. And then, creating,
restoring, and birthing. Creating various strategies to liberate
yourself. Restoring your cultural practices that were taken or abandoned
but you now need for survival. Birthing new ideas, thinking,
technologies, and lifestyles that contribute to the advancement and
empowerment of colonized peoples. Itâs deeply personal, so itâll look
differently for different people. But I see the ongoing process in many
fellow colonized people these days, and that gives me hope. With every
tradition remembered and language relearned, colonized people begin to
heal. And with that healing and learning comes the next step in the
LandBack process.
Direct. Action. Tactics will need to be varied, of course. Dragging
colonizers and gentrifiers on social media is part of it, as is going
after hated and unpopular banks, slumlords, and governments. It builds
the larger narrative and grows our support. Raising funds to buy the
land and pressuring the legal owners to cede the land can also help.
Thereâs also protests, blockades, disruptions, and other Minecraft stuff
I canât divulge here. (Check out the Seeds of Resistance blog for more
details.)
Most vital to LandBack praxis is, of course, seizing and effectively
defending the lands and peoples from further violence. Yet none of these
methods can stand alone. They mostly leave the structures of capitalism
intact. Even the most radical method, seizing the land, still allows the
legal owner to maintain their claim, and eventually muster state support
for a violent crackdown.
Do seize the lands held ransom by the settler state. And when we have
it, we can build relationship with it, undermining the long history of
dispossession, enslavement, and exploitation. That seizing...that
expropriation...itâs not just material. Itâs also spiritual. Itâs
transformative. It takes land out of the realm of property and into a
world of community, where capitalist value has no meaning. Refusing to
recognize the commodification of land and totally rejecting the social
contract of capitalism changes a person. As land is seized, strong
networks are built, resources and experiences are shared, and
perspectives are broadened, weâre fundamentally transformed for the
better.
But that doesnât mean that seizing and occupying land, water, and
buildings is gonna be easy. Autonomous zones, with the aim of restoring
indigenous consent on land, are not a simple matter. Spaces have been
seized before. Some successfully, like the aforementioned Chiapas, and
others not so much. The term autonomous zone probably sprung Capitol
Hill in your mind. Many point to it as a failure of autonomous zones or
something, but despite the excited claims of Twitter radicals, CHOP,
first known as CHAZ, was not set up to last. Demands aside, it was meant
to be a space for learning, and for temporary reprieve from the
onslaught of police during an incredibly violent period in US Civil
Rights history. Yet, CHOP perpetuated colonialism, only paying
lipservice to the Duwamish nation, the first peoples of what is now
Seattle. They were co-opted by liberals and deradicalized. Not to
mention the two Black teens that were killed in the area. At least Camp
Maroon and Camp Teddy in Philadelphia, after a few months, were able to
secure a community land trust for the homeless people of Philadelphia.
What did CHOP accomplish?
I digress. We have to think long term. Occupying a space with no plan
going forward is futile. A Sisyphean struggle with no end in sight other
than total destruction. While our failures do provide opportunities for
learning and transformation, and we will fail often, we canât subsist on
failure. Which gives rise to two questions: How to strike a balance
between caution and confrontation so we donât become pacifified or lose
opportunities to progress? And when we fail, how do we fail in a way
that inspires? That spreads and strengthens the legitimacy of our
project?
This video is just an introduction. Settler structures need to be
dismantled completely, and that starts somewhere, and everywhere.
LandBack is one arduous step by one gruelling step forward to free Land,
and eventually the whole world, from the grips of domination.
The tactics of our rulers change as the centuries plod on, but the
overall colonizerâs strategy remains the same. A consistent war on our
minds and our bodies, to wear us down in the long run and remove the
challenge to their legitimacy that our resistance, and especially
Indigenous peoplesâ resistance, represents. Think of how it must feel to
be constantly told that there will be no restitution for centuries of
oppression and genocide. Thatâs an emotional assault that we need to
fight back against. All of us need to support indigenous peoples in this
fight for LandBack, in any capacity they need. Truth is, youâre either
for liberation, and all the various forms itâll take, or youâre against
it. Are we in this together or not? LandBack is less a future to achieve
and more an action to take on today. Solidarity forever.
Peace.