Interview: Joaquin Cienfuegos – LA Copwatch and Autonomous Organzing of POC

Download Joaquin Interview

This is an interview conducted by comrade Sharmeen Khan of Upping the Anti for their 13th issue. It appears differently in the journal. This interview clearly details the success of autonomous POC organizing and the need for a comradely white response to the need for autonomous organizing. It clearly details how organizing against police has to be part of any serious strategy to address the needs of an oppressed community. A major focus is the role of LA Copwatch.

Interview: Stuart Christie – Why the Spanish Revolution Matters

This is an interview with Stuart Christie a Scottish Anarchist who was arrested for participation in a plot to assassinate the Fascist General Franco. Christie tells us the story of his radicalization and development as an anarchist and how Spain was central to that process. Afterwards we discuss the lessons current organizers ought to take from the Spanish Revolution.
Stuart Christie His Oral History and the Spanish Revolution

Interview: Noel Ignatiev – Class War and Fighting White Supremacy

This is a short oral history of the life and organizing of Noel Ignatiev a former member of Students for a Democratic Society, and the Sojourner Truth Organization. We discuss what lessons can be drawn from his experiences and used to strengthen the Occupy and other potential revolutionary movements in the future. The key theme of the interview is how fighting racial oppression is central to class war.

Ignatiev Fighting White Supremacy is the download link to the full interview.

Anti-Colonial Response to Gang Violence: ‘Get Tough on Capitalism’

‘Get Tough on Capitalism’: a reply to “If You Want to Change Violence in the ‘Hood, You Have to Change the ‘Hood”

Read the Magazine Article Here
CCPA Report Version Here

This is a response written to both their article in Canadian Dimensions and their CCPA report. I have articulated similar critiques to the authors twice in public forums, including the just past CD launch (circa 2010). The approach presented in their article while hands down far superior to the law and order agenda is limited in many capacities. While I deeply respect the work of the authors I must present a rebuttal, even though I consider all of them my elders in experience and knowledge. My central contention is that the problem will not be solved until we provide alternatives to capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal relations. This is an ideological as well as practical question with far ranging implications. My central solution is to listen to Indigenous activists consistent call for land. It is a call for solutions to fit into the practice of decolonization.

The ‘get tough on poverty’ Focus is Inadequate

Indigenous peoples need more than jobs and cultural programming. The focus must be on the economic and social structures that produce poverty through specific political choices that facilitate inequitable distribution of basic materials and keep people from the means of production, whether mechanic or organic (technology or the land). By this I mean, the focus must be the systems and structures that perpetuates colonization: capitalism and imperialism. So a better slogan is, “get tough on capitalism.” Colonization and capitalism are two sides of the same coin in Canada. Colonization in our state is the process of bringing Indigenous peoples into the capitalist-state system in material and ideological terms, shifting their culture, including their economic process to fit the capitalist model. Residential schools can be understood in this fashion, as an institution to make Indigenous people into potential workers and capitalists. It disrupted their whole being as peoples for an economic logic alien to their existences.

Proletarianization is What is Offered

Due to the lack of a systemic approach, the responses to the problems of the inner city are individualized. The answer is jobs, according to the authors. However, this approach has been critiqued by Indigenous scholars and activists for a very long time. For instance Russell Barsh in 1988 critiqued both capitalist and socialist approaches to aboriginal poverty as relying on methods conducive to industrialization and therefore the perpetuation of colonization. It ignores the whole reason the land is so important to many Indigenous struggles. The land can be an independent source of subsistence which can allow people to escape from being forced into urban or rural wage work, or informal economies. The land can provide autonomy from the whole left-right political dichotomy created by industrialization. Beyond this the land has deep value because of the specific and sacred protocols and relationships inherent to Indigenous existence which are disrupted or destroyed by capitalist relations.

Of course poverty can be solved by getting a job, but poverty is a symptom of capitalism. Indigenous dependency is the result of colonial displacement from the land. We need to focus on the bigger picture and harmonize our symptomatic treatment with the overall goal. In other words, we need to treat the source: settler occupation of Indigenous lands. Until we grapple with the fundamental issues at hand the problem will remain. Currently here in Treaty One the agreements for land-sharing were not honoured and land was stolen by lies, tricks and force. Until this illegal and illegitimate land tenure situation is corrected the problem will remain.

Another important consideration is that unemployment is necessary in national economies. It is in a consistent balancing act with inflation, think back to the Marxist concept of the reserve army of labour. Full employment is always above 0% unemployment. The authors do not discuss how poverty is a structural consequence of the necessity of unemployment and how racism intersects to marginalize Indigenous peoples. If someone has to be dependent on social systems because there are not enough jobs for everyone, how are they chosen? The real solution is to tackle the institutional racism and poverty of our society; that means tackling white supremacy and capitalism as systems and logics that allow us to displace Indigenous peoples. If they proposed this, jobs would be a reasonable addition to an overall strategy for tackling the intersecting system of oppression in Winnipeg, and colonial Canada in general.

No Real Collective Action

The examples of programming offered by the authors are largely individualized and come from social work paradigms. Not to mention it is programming and not really aimed at producing social movement based change. It does not encourage the residents of the North End to confront poverty systematically. The article offers solutions more oriented to a policy focused audience. Change in the North End must come from the people who live there and their allies on the ground, not from government policy makers and police officers or social economy sector employees. The sources of much of the conflicts lie in the institutionalized and imposed systems of British heteropatriarchy and bureaucratization that have corrupted Indigenous kinship and political models. Similarly, the programming offered does not really discuss how it gives the participants life-skills to actually be part of social movements or build working class power, if we are to insist they join the working class as Silver, et al. do. Is OPK, for all the impressive programming it does, teaching the young men who go through its ranks how to organize a union on the job? So how do we expect these young men to protect themselves from exploitation by landlords and employers if we do not train them to take effective political and collective action? Is OPK teaching the young men to organize an alternative community organization to provide for the people where the government and the gangs will not? Is OPK really providing people with the ability to build serious counter-power? Are they involved in a decolonization effort for society, or just individuals? What justice comes from integrating into a burning house?

The answer is no. That’s because it is not designed to function that way. OPK is an organization in the not-for-profit model, which has been more than adequately critiqued by such scholars and activists as Andrea Smith or Madonna Thunderhawk. Both suggest that not-for-profit agencies are unable to truly challenge the systemic forces that oppress people because they are reliant on those same forces for their funding.  I would go even as far as to suggest the model proposed changes the people in gangs to better fit into capitalism, to be compliant members of the working class. This is the same struggle that various Indigenous peoples of the Americas have resisted for 518 years in their pursuit of self-determination. Indigenous peoples have only taken up the white man’s way when they have been forced to or seen the writing on the wall. I do not however think this is intentional on the part of the authors, instead it is unconscious colonial logic and the very apparent limits of the system in which they choose to operate. Is it beyond considering that Indigenous traditionalism could be co-opted to create workers just like Christianity has been utilized? Gangs are resistance organizations. Their destruction facilitates the better operation of capitalism and white supremacy if not replaced by progressive resistance organizations.

The Solution is Land and Always Will Be

Jobs for the short and the medium term have to be part of an overall strategy to renew Indigenous autonomy and self-determination, including the return of lands expropriated by the government of Canada. Granted people need money, but that is just the beginning. Any serious strategy to address poverty and capitalism needs to focus on land ownership, whether we are focusing on Indigenous or non-Indigenous peoples, the lack of equal land ownership amongst and internal to the populations of Canada is of paramount importance. This becomes even more so when we start to consider solutions to the ecological crises facing our world, land becomes central to survival. Currently capitalism is harming our ecology because it relies on industrialization and endless growth. The model proposed by Lawrence Deane, et al. feeds into the logic of this unsustainable system rather than creating alternatives to it. Sustainable, resilient, and healthy land-bases have always been a concern for Indigenous peoples since they encountered European industrialization. Now as green and eco-socialist movements emerge from settler society they are beginning to remember the importance of land as well, and this provides a cross-cultural basis for movements alliances. Solutions to Indigenous poverty need to focus on returning and restoring healthy relationships to the land, not continuing the urbanization and proletarianization of Indigenous peoples. That is perpetuation of colonization and assimilation. That is the trajectory of residential schools.

Solutions could include the teaching of harvesting or hunting skills, gardening projects and cultural camps that focus on building independent existences from capitalist relations. Avoiding building new and alternative institutions is the avoidance of taking on the only strategies that can actually turn the tide and build self-reliance and independence from capitalist relations. In these institutions kinship, spiritual, and cooperative models of organization can be reclaimed. In the land and independence Indigenous peoples can revitalize their cultures. This is what everyone should support. This is the baseline that I would have expected from the authors.

Methods of Organizing

The authors could have proposed the building of a grassroots anti-poverty organization such as Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) that was Indigenous led and organized. The authors could have proposed that Indigenous youth in Winnipeg get together and transform the conditions themselves as was attempted by the precursors to the Native Youth Movement. Nor have they proposed for people in the North end to resurrect the Bear Clan patrols (which Morrissette himself was apart of) to not only clamp down on all forms of violence being perpetuated in the North end but to provide alternative sources of power for the community independent of the police and gangs who frighten these communities. Why have the authors left out all the sources of community power when talking about transforming the hood? Is it not the very dependency of poor and colonized people on the state and capitalist production that creates the disparities in wealth and power? So why are our solutions not based on providing self-sufficiency in politics and economics? I personally think the authors are caught in the trap of colonization itself, encouraging others to ask the oppressor to do the work you need to do for yourself, and what we must do with each other. If they were interested in deploying community strategies that have been adopted elsewhere they could have looked to recent work in Chicago’s street violence interruption program from Ceasefire. While not diving enough into the economic system these programs are community based and build the capacity to mobilize for whatever purpose. They could be quickly mobilized to take up more components to their work than just immediate intervention in violence.

Now the most controversial and albeit risky proposal, yet very important to consider is why not encourage gang members to try to turn their organizations into outfits that can promote social justice and community power. This happened in the US with Latino and Black gangs in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Why are we scared to encourage the development of organizations that actually hold power in direct opposition to the police and government? All of these options deserved to be explored, but they were not. The authors have not provided us with all the possible effective options available to communities struggling to survive the destructive consequences of oppression and exploitation in global capitalism. Can we not imagine the good in a gang that seized urban spaces and developed community gardens and cooperative projects that benefited their kinfolk and protected their families from racist police? I can and I welcome any developments in this direction, you should as well.

Preliminary Historical Research on Treaty One

(This comes directly from my thesis, thought I’d share, it was written today and rather rough. Conclusions may change as it is vetted by other scholars)

The Evolution of the Indigenous Negotiating Position

As Jean Friesen argues, in Magnificent Gifts: the Treaties of Canada with the Indians of the Northwest 1869-1876, understanding Indigenous agency is key to understanding how the process of negotiating Treaty One took place and assessing the outcomes of the treaty process is fundamental to understanding its implications and the spirit and intent of the Indigenous peoples. Friesen argues that understanding Indigenous agency helps to provide a fuller picture of what transpired, and prevents the historian from viewing Indigenous peoples as ignorant and helpless victims.[1] To understand the spirit and intent of the Indigenous peoples it is critically important to understand what transpired in the negotiations.

The original Indigenous position that was articulated at negotiations is far different from what they were compelled to settle for or even what makes it into much of the literature on liberal approaches to treaties or recognition. D. J. Hall, in his article “A Serene Atmosphere”? Treaty 1 Revisited, provides as an appendix the record of the negotiations released by the Manitoban on the 5^th and 12^th of August 1871. The Indigenous peoples present at the negotiations initially presented claims for land that totalled almost two-thirds of the provincial land. The reserves were in places of their choice and were very large.[2] The government promised them the right to hunt on any unoccupied lands,[3] and that Métis would receive additional land tenure and compensation, not included in these negotiations.  What is clear from the partial transcript of the negotiation is that the Indigenous peoples entered negotiations with the understanding that they would retain the majority of their lands. Secondly, it is clear that the Canadian government entered negotiations with the position that it had the right to determine how much land would be left for the Indigenous and that it was already inevitable that the settlers would take the land they needed. The Canadian representatives felt they were the ones offering the Indigenous the land, rather than the inverse. The Canadian government essentially threatened a take it or leave it agreement with the Indigenous.[4]  In my analysis this is a threat of annexation without compensation.

Historian Sarah Carter argues that the Canadian government failed to warn or explain the jurisdiction and implementation of the Indian Acts in any of the negotiations. In the case of Treaty One the negotiations made no mention Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869). Subsequent negotiations did not mention the Indian Acts passed in the later 1870s.[5] What is central to understand is that the Canadian state was asserting jurisdiction over Indigenous peoples inside its borders and in negotiation refraining from informing the Indigenous peoples about legislation it would be subject to that was passed 2 years previous to signing treaty. This racialized legislation which allowed it to govern Indigenous nations inside its claimed territory was hidden from Indigenous peoples at negotiation. The Gradual Enfranchisement Act was the first to contain the imposition of western democracy on Indigenous peoples. This in my analysis does not qualify as a context from which signing was done with informed consent.

So the Indigenous negotiating position was not fully informed of the context in which it would be subject to, and was forced to respond to the threat of annexation without compensation by the Canadian representatives. Within these parameters the Indigenous negotiating position shifted dramatically from one of land maintenance to that of attempting to secure a guaranteed income for its members to smooth the forced transition from a gatherer and hunting society to an agricultural society.[6] The reader has to understand that this was a conscious response on the part of the Indigenous spokespeople when they came to realize that nowhere in this negotiation was there any space for their original demands. What I also want to make sure is clear in my analysis is that this ought not to be considered the spirit and intent of the Indigenous position upon coming to engage in treaty. The spirit and intent of the Indigenous position upon beginning negotiations of Treaty One was to maintain their way of life and the vast majority of their land-base forever. Only upon recognizing that that was not possible in relation to the Canadian state’s position did they change their position.[7] These changes in no way ought to reflect or come to represent the overall intention of the Indigenous or be the only positions studied when determining what constitutes reparations or justice.

It is also important to acknowledge that what made it into the text of Treaty One and what was actually agreed upon differ significantly according to Indigenous peoples, the government, and historians. Hall, Carter, Miller, and Friesen all agree that in addition to the text there were outside promises that were left out of the Treaty.[8] A memorandum from the Minister of the Interior, dated April 30^th 1875, confirms that outside promises were made and provides the Canadian governments strategy for mitigating unrest and disappointment of its failure to honour all the promises it made during negotiations.[9] However, the government refused to acknowledge it had failed to meet its obligations.[10] Much like the residential schools settlement the money accepted by Indigenous peoples for these outside promises came with the condition that they were in the future unable to litigate or demand more compensation for the injustices they suffered. So in sum, the government asserted the right to unilaterally decide on the portion of lands, broke outside promises, and did not fully inform the Indigenous peoples of legislation they would be subject to upon signing. In my analysis I still do not know where the Canadian state’s assertion of jurisdiction comes from other than power. Further research is necessary in developing my understanding of the legal basis from which to articulate how Canada had the right to determine the reserve size before it had signed treaty to purchase the land.

Understanding why the Indigenous chose to sign Treaty One despite the position asserted by the Canadian state’s representatives is central to understanding the terms of Treaty. David McCrady provides a novel interpretation of the circumstances surrounding the Indigenous decision to sign Treaty One. McCrady first argues that to understand Indigenous actions one has to dispense with the national myth of the peaceful west. McCrady argues:

This explanation offers no insight into what motives Aboriginal peoples living in Canada had for maintaining peace. Native peoples are portrayed as the passive victims of the white man’s actions, incapable, it would seem, of affecting the level of violence between themselves and the newcomers. Native peoples made up the vast majority of the population of the Canadian Northwest. Had a single group decided to launch a concerted attack against Canadian immigrants, the result would have been a disastrous blow to Canada’s expansionist goals … they remained peaceful, but not because they were overawed or placated by Canada’s “orderly, well-planned, and honourable policy.” They had their own reasons for establishing peaceful relations.[11]

McCrady’s argument is convincing and it fits with Friesen’s argument about understanding Indigenous motivations in the actual negotiations themselves. Both of these authors are attempting to provide readers with an understanding of Indigenous peoples motivations so that that one can understand what actually took place from both sides. Friesen argues the fundamental intention of the Indigenous was to assure economic security.[12] McCrady broadens the scope of analysis to ask the reader to consider how the wider geopolitics of Mikinaak Minis at the time would have influenced Indigenous strategy in deciding to treaty and on what terms. McCrady argues that Indigenous peoples saw Canada as the weaker of the two European derived states and chose to pursue peace with Canada in the context of the United State’s expansionism and wars against Indigenous populations there, these wars were happening to their relatives right on the plains. Moreover, McCrady argues that Indigenous peoples chose to negotiate with Canada because they were not a military threat at the time of signing. They were pushed into the situation by the actions of the Americans.[13] J. R. Miller’s analysis of Canada’s military capacities at the time agrees with the assessment of McCrady, Miller argues that Canada had neither the money nor ability to project force at the time of signing of signing Treaty One, the Police for instance did not arrive until 1874, nor was there are railway to move troops across the prairies at the time.[14]

Thus, in my understanding of these implications, it was in the interest of the Indigenous to sign a treaty with the Canadians, when the Canadians refused to treaty on Indigenous terms the Indigenous position was also influenced by the need to assure peace in the face of an American aggressor. Accepting Canadian terms was about gaining peace first and working out the problems later. It is important to understand that Indigenous agency played an important role in the situation that led to the signing of these documents, and that part of the intent and spirit of Indigenous peoples was to assure themselves protection against American imperialism. When considering utilizing treaties in contemporary times, understanding the rejection of American expansionism needs to remain prominent in the analysis and future content of political relationships. Considering in contemporary times American corporations are central in the exploitation of Indigenous lands, it seems reasonable to assume this type of circumstance was exactly what the Indigenous were attempting to avoid.

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[1] Jean Friesen, “Magnificent Gifts: the Treaties of Canada with the Indians of the Northwest 1869-1876,” in Richard Price, (ed.), The Spirit of the Alberta Indian Treaties, Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 1999, pg. 204-205.

[2] D. J. Hall, ““A Serene Atmosphere”? Treaty 1 Revisited,” the Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 2, 1984, pg. 325, Appendix 346-349. Accessible here: < http://www2.brandonu.ca/library/cjns/4.2/hall.pdf >

[3] Hall, ““A Serene Atmosphere”? Treaty 1 Revisited,” Appendix pg 345.

[4] Hall, ““A Serene Atmosphere”? Treaty 1 Revisited,” pg. 325-326.

[5] Sarah Carter, Aboriginal People and Colonizers of Western Canada to 1900, Toronto, ON: University of Toronto, 1999, pg. 118.

[6] Hall, ““A Serene Atmosphere”? Treaty 1 Revisited,” Appendix, pg. 354-355.

[7] Friesen, “Magnificent Gifts,” pg. 212.

[8] Hall, ““A Serene Atmosphere”? Treaty 1 Revisited,” pg. 324, and Carter, Aboriginal People and Colonizers of Western Canada to 1900, pg. 122, and Friesen, “Magnificent Gifts,” pg. 212, and  J. R. Miller, Compact, Contract, Covenant: Aboriginal Treaty Making in Canada, Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2009, pg. 164-165.

[9] Government of Canada, Treaties 1 and 2 between Her Majesty and the Chippewa and Cree Indians, Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba, 1957, pg. 3-5,

 < http://www.trcm.ca/PDFsTreaties/Treaties%201%20and%202%20text.pdf > Accessed Oct 13^th, 2011.

[10] Miller, Compact, Contract, Covenant, pg. 165.

[11] McCrady, Beyond Boundaries, pg. 88-89.

[12] Friesen, “Magnificent Gifts,” pg. 207.

[13] McCrady, Beyond Boundaries, pg. 93-96, 101.

[14] Miller, Compact, Contract, Covenant, pg. 155-156.

Decolonizing the Occupations: Answering the Challenge posed by Indigenous Activists

There have been some major calls to decolonize the rhetoric and practices of the occupy wall street movement as it spreads.

Thankfully organizers and activists are starting to listen and debates are starting on how to best demonstrate the beginnings of commitment to decolonization in these movements for democracy and against austerity.

If we are actually going to show respect, I want to take beyond the use of decolonize and actually have the organizers reach out and ask the Indigenous community leaders, activist, and revolutionaries if they can use Indigenous languages, such as anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) or nehiyawmowin (plains cree language) to rename the event. Here in Winnipeg, I suggested people contact folks like Leslie Spillett , who can point organizers towards people to talk to.

As an example of a decolonized name to use: Biskaabiiyang Winnipeg: Nanaakawiidaa – beside “Decolonize Winnipeg” so it in English and Anishinaabemowin. Add French if you want to rep St. Boniface!  Biskaabiiyang is a word that is similar to decolonize. Nanaakawiidaa ought to mean, lets revolt, but I’m sure my grammar is a bit off, I’m rusty.

Actually publicly using and affirming the need to bring anishinaabemowin, and other Indigenous languages, back into the the public, and allowing our movements to be lead by some Indigenous activists and community leaders is important. We need to work together. We need to show commitment to learning. Reparations for language loss is a key feature of social justice, if we don’t have the power to force policy changes, maybe facilitating the use of Anishinaabemowin in the public is an option that might work. I don’t know, ask the question to the Indigenous activists in your community, and see what they say.

In other localities it would be a good exercise for organizers to put the time in to research what language belongs to the land they are on, and then make the effort to build relationships with indigenous community leaders there to be able to ask for permission to use it, through that process, decolonization/biskaabiiyang will be enacted, and it demonstrates your good and respectful intentions. If you can demonstrate an earnest and respectful commitment to decolonization, I’m pretty sure you are going to find some Indigenous activists keen to work with you. At this point, its on you to make sure you give them equal voice and power in organizing the events taking place. Don’t be scared of mistakes or conflicts, as long as you are constantly demonstrating your ability to learn, we’ve got lots to offer each other as we fight austerity, colonization, and capitalism. My hope is we can all organize our communities ourselves and bring some heavy duty weaponry to the fight. Counter-power is the ultimate weapon of solidarity.

Of Spiritual Appropriation, Revolution, and Living Spiritually on THIS Land

I was listening to my own radio show on August 31st. It happened to be hosted by other collective members that day. As I was listening to the show, the advertisement for the Goddess Festival of Manitoba came across the airwaves and I almost threw up. The advertisement listed quite a few different events, ceremonies, and practices. There was a rainbow sweat lodge, tantric yoga sex sessions, a dark goddess temple, and many other things from different spiritual traditions. Some of it honestly sounds made up. Almost too many to really understand what it’s actually about.

I’ve got a really strong reaction to what appears to be spiritual melting pots. Or cut and paste spiritualism, or the new age movement. It really bugs me. Part of that is a reaction to my own younger self who was a cultural appropriator. Having come from that head space and been involved with the Indigenous community here in Winnipeg, I’ve worked through and reflected significantly on my place in this land and secondly who I am as a person and what I’m connected to spiritually. I’ve got some pretty strong opinions on what it means to be a spiritual person when living on Indigenous territory in the northern part of Turtle Island. I’ve heard loud and clear the Indigenous critiques of spiritual appropriation. I’ve especially got some serious opinions on what it means to decolonize as a settler. I also have complete empathy for what it means to be a person dislocated from their identity and searching frantically for some grounding and sense of self in this world. Especially in this maddening oppressive mainstream Canadian culture.

I don’t like capitalist white supremacy, it fucking sucks. Like really, really sucks. I get it. I know what it means to be alienated from our European roots. I get that lots of thoughtful and well meaning people don’t draw strength and self-grounding from Christianity and that if you need faith or spirituality you’ve got to grab on to something. I get it. I’m an atheist, but one who practices spirituality. My academic work is on how settlers can respectfully participate in and learn from Anishinaabeg spirituality and traditional education to influence movements for social change in Southern Manitoba to address climate change. I grapple with these types of questions. I try to ground my work in what is happening and what I, myself, do.

So I’m going to try to explain my journey as a cultural appropriator (thief) to illustrate how we can move away from reinforcing white supremacy and start to have a decolonized anti-colonial spirituality. I hope that people will understand I’m not trying to pretend like I haven’t done these things myself. I’m advising people from the perspective of someone who has already tried to journey down that path, but found a different one instead. I’m actually going to be so bold as to suggest there are some spiritual practices that do and don’t belong. Some we should and should not do, etc. I’m going to be drawing boundaries.

I did not grow up in a religious household, nor a spiritual one, my family was Christian-by-default. We celebrated Christian derived holidays in a way that was not religious, they were consumer. I was never encouraged to pray. Mostly my mother hushed me from yelling blasphemy in the supermarket so I wouldn’t offend others. Every now and then I would get a sense of the more inner Christian remnants in my Dad, mostly when it came to Cubs and Scouts. You had to believe in a monotheistic god to join it. For some reason he supported it. I remember going to one usual religious ceremony at a Christian church and being adamant that I never be made to go back. I hated how downtrodden everyone’s spirit seemed, those ceremonies are so grim. My only reading of the bible came of my own volition. I found a copy of the bible given to our family at the funeral of my Papa (dad’s father). I couldn’t get past the begets part, it was so boring. I tried praying upon my own motivation as I read the bible, I didn’t find any connection or benefit from doing it.

I remember when my Uncle and Aunt’s family began to get more religious upon the marriage of one of my cousins and the birth of her kids. I remember being surprised the first time they insisted we say grace before meal at a family gathering. It felt weird and out of place. I was 18 and hearing grace for the first time in my extended family. I never found Christian funerals to be particularly comforting, nor did I find Christian weddings to be particularly beautiful. If anything these rituals lacked those qualities. To me they lack spirit, the ultimate irony. I never saw room for growth as a person in these institutions.

I’ve always been a fairly independent thinker, I’m curious and I crave data; structure and regimentation for its own sake often bores me. My interest in other cultural traditions comes from my experience in high school. I was regularly kicked out of class and sent to the library to read because I was disruptive. In the library I began to explore books on all possible topics. I tended to gravitate towards reading communist history and eastern religions. I remember reading books on Buddhism, Hindu Mystics, the 5 year plans of Stalin’s soviet industrial policy, the history of Istanbul, etc. At this age I read 3 newspapers a day, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the Sun. I skipped class to study me own choices in books, I read whatever classic literature I could find and spent time reading about Islamic religious traditions, from what I realize now are horribly antiquated texts. Though this self study meant that I bombed my first semester of grade 13, so I had to do an extra one which meant the half a year I gained by being kicked out of grade 8 and sent to high school early was lost. So I finished school in January and had 7 months to wait until university started. In those 7 months I worked at a pet store and as roofer while taking out or buying every book I could on indigenous and eastern spiritual traditions I could in my rural Ontario town of Orangeville. I was absolutely fascinated by the things I was learning. The images of the noble savage struck a cord with my romantic and idealistic youth.

It is pretty common in this day and age for youth growing up in predominately white and upper working class to middle class households that feel alienated from Christianity to search for connection in colonially constructed images of other cultures and their spiritual traditions. I’ve met quite a few wannabe Buddhists, especially in Ottawa for some reason. What was ironic was that all the Indigenous people I had known until then were Christians. Here I was reading about and trying to identify with something they didn’t even practice. Not to mention the fact I was reading more about plains traditions rather than the woodlands where I was.  Its pretty embarrassing, but it gets worse.

One of the things that played into my search for others roots was the fact I never fit in as a kid. I was slightly brown. I got called sand-nigger. Even my friends used to other me. In high school I was called “whole-wheat” along with the tag line “He’s not quite white bred”. For a racial joke it was decently witty. I’ll give them that. It also wasn’t said with any malice, these were actual friends. Most of the people who gave me actual problems would more likely call me a fag than reference my slight brown hue. But the point is the affect on me was to solidify that I should be searching for my lost roots and connectedness outside the usual WASP or Christian cultures. So that’s what I did. But in that search I committed cultural appropriation and spiritual violence, I committed theft. I wear it every day of my life, where everyone can see it like a contemporary colonial Hester Prynne.

The majority of my back is a tattoo that details the political and spiritual influences I gained over the first 19 years of my life. It has a golden eagle carrying a dream-catcher. In the dream-catcher is a militant fist hoisting into the air a peace sign and wagon wheel connected by a chain. On the fist is Stalin’s insignia: a hammer, sickle, and, sword. On my neck I have Chinese orthography that says “Embody the Tao”. These tattoos show the places my mind went, and what I tried to steal. They remain as permanent reminders of my selfish use of other cultures I wasn’t connected to. In a more positive light they are a spiritual-political road-map of my personal development before I left for university.

It was in hindsight rather silly of me to do so. What did I actually know of any of these cultures, well not much. But took them in as part of my identity irrespective of whether or not I might be actually welcomed to them in the real world. It’s a pretty natural reaction. When you powerless to change your own culture, you try to adopt a new one. Considering the counter-culture in my small city: drugs, shitty punk rock like NOFX and metal I had to search outside those boundaries for something that connected with me as something authentic. I didn’t ever meet a real Taoist or traditional native. I just took, borrowed, stole what I could to make myself feel better in terms of my own personal growth. The growth in my ego didn’t change the way I still predominantly benefited from systems of oppression and privilege in relative terms to many others, nor did it change the community around me for the better. It just made me feel a little better at someone else’s expense. I’d say a significant portion of people encounter other cultures in academic and voyeuristic fashion like this or similarly. So I’m taking to task others, but also myself right. So don’t get defensive, honestly assess yourself.

Why didn’t I look to build authentic cultural practices, rituals, ceremonies and events that reflected the basis of my culture? Well that’s because Christianity and the state have allied to destroy European and other alternative religions and spirituality for over 1000 years. Go back and look into the Anabaptists, the Cathars, the Levellers, the Diggers. We used to have resistant Christian sects. There were also tribal peoples in European populations. Why didn’t I go back and try to understands the root of Celtic cultures. I know partially I’m Irish and English by blood but paternally adopted by people who descend from the Scottish highlands. I know my paternal line through adoption goes back into the MacLaren clan, the boars. Though even then we are not reaching a pre-Christian root. We killed them off. Witch hunts, genocides, class wars, and co-optation eradicated the rootedness of the common peoples to the land. I’d check out a few books if you want to further understand this history: Caliban and the Witch, as well as The Many-Headed Hydra and the classic The Making of the English Working Class provide radical social histories of the class conflicts that helped create white supremacy, colonization, and capitalism. It is this history that provides some of the back drop to the lack of substance in the lives of people raised in white, especially WASP culture. We are not going to stop appropriation until we can create our own liberatory, vibrant, rooted and re-indigenized culture that has both spiritual and atheist strands to it. But whether or not we can ever find traditions that pre-dates the mess that is Christianity is a huge question. Or is there a very old Christianity that was more rooted in the land. All that seems to be left of it is some songs and tartans, especially here in North America.

Lets return to my personal development and examine it. After engaging with spirituality for a time, it lessened in my life as I became more politicized in an active way and was captivated by the struggle on the ground. Starting to think less of myself and more of injustice in the world that had to do with man-made things I after sometime became a declared atheist, quit attempting to pray, etc. My tattoos became to me nothing but useful ways to attract attention. But they remained a reminder etched into my flesh of what I believed to get me here. I would eventually come full circle. But at this point I was guided by the precepts of the European enlightenment, and atheism associated with anarchism of European class struggle stock.

I remained interested in Indigenous issues, but more at the level of their struggle for justice, I read a lot about them and wrote a few essays about genocide and Indigenous peoples. From academic work I became more interested in dealing with questions of colonization and genocide in my emerging activism. I organized along with other people in Sudbury a speaking engagement for Ward Churchill on the Genocide against Indigenous peoples in Canada. I helped bring in Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz as well. I started to focus a significant amount of my out of class studies on these types of issues. Eventually, our anti-war and occupation group decided that because we were opposed to imperialism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Palestine, we needed to fight occupation everywhere, and that meant here in Canada. That meant beginning to centre our work in anti-colonial struggle and begin to build links with Indigenous activists and revolutionaries. We recognized that Canadian society existed as an illegal, unethical, and imperialist occupation of territories that were supposed to be those of the Indigenous peoples, in our specific case in Sudbury, the Anishinaabeg.

So through this work with Sudbury Against War and Occupation (SAWO) I began to encounter more indigenous people and eventually met members (and OGs) of the NYM. We helped support one of their projects about supporting the fight of John Graham for justice. We also attempted to host decolonization and cross cultural sharing circles where we brought Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples together to dialogue about the effects of colonization. I remember sitting in a room of 40 people listening to some heart breaking stories of people’s personal experiences with residential schools and other manifestations of racist oppression. I started to emotionally connect and empathize more so than I ever had with any struggle out of a strong mix of settler guilt, passion for justice, and new comradeship. Unfortunately, my impulsive ever forward, everyone else be damned attitude towards social struggle was definitely not suited to something as sensitive as Indigenous Solidarity can be at times.

After consultation with professors I was close within the political science department, I decided to switch my BA thesis topic from identity in post-soviet space to deal with Canadian colonialism and Indigenous peoples. They advised that I might as well do a thesis on something I was intimately involved in. In hindsight I’m not so sure if any part of this process was a good idea. It ended up turning out horribly and I’m really remorseful about the majority of it. So at first I tried to do my own analysis of Canadian colonialism in general and my project for the majority of the year became seriously unwieldy.  It was too big, too repetitive, and not very original. My supervisors suggested I try to work on one small thing, and we together chose a discourse and content analysis of Native Youth Movement communiqués and writing from Redwire Magazine and online public sources to support this documentation. Anyone with an eye to research ethics can already guess the complications, mistakes, and problems that arose out of this situation.

I chose to put an organization that I was trying to ally with and build relationships under the colonial academic microscope and objectified them as another research subject for my own advancement. Not only that I didn’t communicate properly with them about the work I was doing, nor did I let them vett my work. This may not have been such a problem if I had of had responsible guidance from Indigenous scholars, but instead I was being supervised by two recent European immigrants who were not familiar with the debates surrounding Indigenous research ethics, they were political scientists used to being able to study whatever they wanted. I’m not trying to deflect any responsibility, my work is my own and I take full credit for it as being a problematic piece of ignorant garbage. I didn’t know next to anything at the time about Indigenous ways, and from that position of ignorance, I analyzed the texts of people I wanted to ally with, maybe even “help”. So not only was I ignorant, I also had the messiah complex that is common to people first approaching Indigenous solidarity from outside. Its hard to look back at this in hindsight and be at all comfortable at where I am now, because it is based on this unethical scholarship. There are some statements I might still stand by over 3 years later, but most I would probably disavow in a heartbeat, I’m not sure I haven’t read it since. I can’t it pains me. I betrayed people, and its baggage to this day.

The most ironic part of all of this is that it was this thesis that I hate that set me on my journey to be able to start to know and correct my actions. Or maybe it is fitting. I’m not sure, I’ll let you decide. After presenting my paper at a conference in Sault St. Marie, in an Old Residential School turned University. I was recruited by a professor of the program I’m in now. So I moved to Winnipeg because of this thesis and joined an Indigenous run program that focused on facilitating Indigenous Governance. So here I am the only non-Indigenous guy in the first year of a brand new Masters program, daily hanging around Indigenous folks. It was a requirement that I learn Anishinaabemowin to get my degree as well as take a course on Indigenous Pathways to Wisdom taught by Tobasonakwut Kinew. So I was given access to knowledge that most zhaaganash people had no access to. I was the only non-Indigenous person to actually stay and pass the Anishinaabemowin course. I can now speak like a young child, about the weather and some other random things, I can also create words because some of my grammar is really good. This is more of the language than a significant number of Anishinaabeg people themselves can speak, and my use of it can (but not always) trigger shame and hurt in people I encounter. It does this because they begin to reflect on their own realness as an indigenous person if I, a non-native, can speak better than they can. Its a weird position to be in. Not one I ever dreamed of or imagined. Don’t think they should feel less real, but it can happen anyway.

Through this program I gained an unfair amount of access to the Indigenous community in Winnipeg, because I was surrounded by it and became known through my classmates and professors. I was for the most part treated like I absolutely belonged by everyone I encountered. I actually had to constantly remind people I wasn’t Anishinaabeg or Nehiyawak. Still to this day people are surprised I’m not native with how comfortable and know around I am. This isn’t to brag about how cool I am, but to acknowledge I can pass. I have that privilege in this context. I’m no ginger.

At the same time as working on my MA, I was also beginning to organize with Winnipeg Copwatch. Which happened to be an almost exclusively white collective. Which is unfortunate and problematic because the predominate victims and survivors of police violence in Winnipeg are People of Colour (POC), especially Indigenous people. Our ability to bring in the people most affected by police violence was shoddy at best. I think personally has to do with our ineffective strategic choices in the methods of our organizing. We didn’t do a good job of laying roots in actual neighbourhoods. We tried to cover far too large of areas with only one patrol. Our copwatching was also not directly tied to any other revolutionary organizing or building of radical institutions, therefore it was largely isolated.  While we did good work within the ambit we chose, we did not find a way to grow or root ourselves.

Through my connections cultivated at school, I was connected with an Indigenous-run youth-at-risk gang intervention program. I met with the team leader and started building a relationship and discussed building a copwatch in the central/west Alexander neighbourhood. We visited almost weekly getting to know each other, and he shared with me. He also asked me to attend sundance with him to learn more about Indigenous culture, and be prepared to work with the youth further. It didn’t make sense for me to be working with a cultural revitalization/reclamation program if I myself didn’t have some understanding or experience with the practices of plains spirituality.

So that summer I went for the build and was a fire-keeper at the cultural-camp/sundance associated with that program. It was a rather intense introduction to Indigenous culture beyond a sweat-lodge. I made lots of connections and friendships at that sundance and also solidified an intensely close relationship with the team-leader/spiritual leader and his family.

I can remember struggling to help carry that warrior to the arbour, having the most serious face when the wiindigokanag were bringing people back. I really remember all the laughter, and especially getting laughed at for never being able to drum at the same rhythm as anyone else. Now I just shake the rattle and sing. My most vivid memory of the first year was that two nights before the fast began there was a storm that tore apart the camp, it knocked down every single piece of camp except my tent and one tee-pee. I was the only one to sleep through the the huge storm. Three years later among my sundance family I’m still teased about it. As the one guy who can sleep through a tornado wake up in the morning wondering what happened. I also happened to camp in the long grass at the very edge of camp. So I also always got teased for being the, “white-guy hiding in the grass.”

On top of the relationship I was building with that team leader, I also built an closer relationship with other important native leaders in the community. Through my contacts I was asked to travel to the American Indian Movement sundance in Pipestone, Minnesota. I went there to learn from the elders in AIM about the AIM patrols from the early days. It was connected my organizing in Copwatch. I caught a ride with Terry Nelson, and ended up staying overnight at Dennis Banks house on Leech Lake. Nelson pretty much stopped at every VLT he could otherwise he was on his phone organizing a protest. It was kinda funny. Staying at Dennis Banks house was interesting in its simplicity because the conversation was not about politics whatsoever. We mostly talked about families and dragon boats. His grandchildren were the focus of the evening.  His house was beautiful, it was full of memorabilia from the struggle and beautiful Indigenous art and ceremonial objects.

The Pipestone Sun dance was very important in terms of understanding my relationship to Indigenous solidarity and spirituality. I came to learn a bit more of who I was and, especially, was not.  I got there to witness part of the grand council of AIM meeting and giggled to myself when I witnessed it run using Robert’s rules of order. Sometimes you find some funny contradictions in unforeseen places. At least some of the younger guys I asked about it found humour in it too. I benefited from arriving well before the dance and being able to build relationships with the other men in camp throughout the rebuilding of the arbour.

It was here at this dance though that I actually was challenged with whether or not I was a spiritual person. In moments I felt intense connection, and in others I didn’t feel it whatsoever. During sweat-lodges on my round I felt completely disconnected from my heart and didn’t have much to pray about. During tree day during the Gathering of the Pipes at the three maidens I felt absolutely no connection to the midewiwin songs about water that were sung by the women. They had that sombre sound I remembered from Christianity, not like the other Anishinaabe songs I was used to with their swift beat and positive energy. This contrasted completely with the power of 65 of us singing the AIM song together as we raised the AIM banner over the entrance to camp earlier in the day. That was powerful, and roused my spirit. The actual dance was intense in comparison to the Eagle dance I had attended earlier with my friend the team leader. This one had far more piercing, and pulling of skulls, etc.

One of the silliest things I did, that I still can’t fully explain what compelled me to do it at the time had to do with grandfathers for the sweat-lodge. At Pipestone Warfield was one of the main spiritual leaders of the came. Saying he is a big guy is kind of an understatement, he’s kinda huge. He also likes really big grandfathers for his sweats. So whenever we went to get grandfathers we picked out some that were between 3-4 times the size of a usual sized rock for that purpose. Sometimes I could barely carry them. When I was sweating in the Heyoka for his entrance that day , for some reason I thought it would be funny to put in a few of those Warfield sized grandfathers. Some of them split in three as I was heating them in the sacred fire. So as I brought in all the grandfathers the Heyoka was starting to get a little annoyed since I had what seemed like double the grandfathers he asked for.  Later that day, one of the spiritual leaders asked me about that shaking his head but also smiling a bit, saying “at least you chose that guy to do that to, why’d you get those giant ones.” I never got cussed out or in trouble, he laughed at me in the end.

One thing I really missed at the AIM sundance was the amount of laughter I experienced at the Eagle Sun Dance. There were so many intensely hilarious characters at it that I felt were missing at the AIM sundance. At the AIM dance, people were far more serious and there was a lot more pain in peoples hearts. I’m a generally serious person, I don’t gain healing from it, that’s what laughter is for. I especially missed the Wiindigokanag of the Anishinaabeg version of the Sun Dance, the Heyoka weren’t as funny or as frantic. When I first experienced the Wiindigokan I was surprised that after 3 days of intense ceremony here was this complete joke. I didn’t even laugh, I was actually stone faced and I forgot to give them tobacco. One ran straight at me and its nosed bumped into mine, and I didn’t flinch one bit. After that everyone teased me I’d be getting a burlap suit soon. Those types of jokes haven’t really died down. I’m now constantly made aware and teased for being contrary. The people I’m close to in Winnipeg are mostly contrary. About 80 percent of the Anishinaabeg or Nehiyawak I spend time with or have close connections to are Contrary. I realized that was what was missing for me at the AIM dance after reflecting.

The AIM dance did not feel like a meeting of family like the Eagle Dance did. My favourite part of Sun Dance was hanging out with people and feeling connected and having fun as we had days of hard work. It made it meaningful for me. More so than the actual spiritual practices did. It was here and through the Team leaders family that I felt acceptance and observed the family dynamic that I had been longing for, but not had with my family since I was a pre-teen. More than spirituality, or medicines, what I’ve learnt from my experiences in Indigenous communities has been a stronger sense of family and bringing people into your emotional circle. I’m not particularly a believer in manidoog or spirits that are all about us. However, I did learn interconnection and more about zaagide’win along the way. I also decided in terms of the AIM sundance to give myself to the experience even if I had doubts. I gave flesh, I prayed and danced when I could, I kept fire. I committed.

Again that year I was tested by the thunders. Much like my previous sleeping through a sever thunderstorm and almost, if not actual tornado. This time it was during the middle of the day, when it was intensely hit and some dancers were starting to really feel the heat. I had been called away from the fire to care for some dancers.  Just before the next round started the clouds which had been moving in really started to let loose. It began to pour and pour, full tanks of water. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in that hard of a storm. All the fire keepers met up at the fire and started to build it as big as we could. We also got a tarp to hold against the incoming water being carried by a strong southwesterly wind. 6 of us were the ones forced to stand in the rain to keep the fire going during the downpour. I had to dig a trench around the fire to prevent a puddle from snuffing out our fire’s core. It had started to hail and the hail size grew towards golf ball size. I held the shovel over my head to relieve the discomfort of dropping ice chunks from the sky. After it was over I realized i had singed my hair with the shovel because I had been digging with it so close to the fire and got teased for that by my fellow fire keepers.

Sun Dance is a central part of plains Indigenous cultures. I’m still trying to find a plains tribe that doesn’t have some form of the Sun Dance. Sun Dances belong to the land, they belong to the plains. When you come to the plains you learn to sundance. The Anishinaabeg learned the Sun Dance from the Nehiyawak and the Dakota when they came to the plains. When the Anishinaabeg weren’t on the plains they had other ceremonies that were made for connection and renewal of the ecosystem they inhabited at that time. To fit into the land they began to inhabit they needed to learn the natural law and human responsibilities of that place. They maintained the other facets of their culture that were transferable, but they adopted and developed for themselves new rituals and practices suited to their new ecological reality.

I remember my Sun Dance leader saying to me that every human-being has a right to Sun Dance. At the AIM sundance whites were allowed to dance as long as they were adopted by a native family that was a member of that ceremonial group. Through my own learning I’ve come to the conclusion all human groups on the plains may actually have a responsibility to Sun Dance. I understand it this way because of how I saw in history how all groups that came here on the plains before the whites adopted the Sun Dance in one version or another dependent on the visions of their spiritual leaders and elders. As I’ve continued researching my thesis I’ve come to understand that everything humans are responsible for is based on where they live. We are supposed to learn the particular ways of living that particular lands require of peoples. If whites were to practice the sundance it would be one that members of their community fasted and sought a vision for.

My understanding of being Indigenous, in this land northern Mikinaak Minis, is that you are supposed to spiritually seek how to live within natural law specific to the territory. The place and those that inhabit it will guide you, rather than your own ego, or desires. It is about nature and spirit telling you what you are supposed to do. In Indigenous North America from sea to sea, the fast or vision quest is the most common way to begin ones ardent and committed search for connection and responsibility to the land. In Anishinaabemowin nigii’igoshimo, I fast for a vision. On the west coast in the language of the Nuu-chah-nulth it is called oosumich. In Lakota Hanblecheyapi, crying for a vision. Everywhere one goes it is varied in some way, but generally the idea is the same, one humbly shows how pitiful one is and begs the great mysterious essence of creation to show us our path and provide us with some tools to carry out those responsibilities. Humanity’s purpose being to help maintain and renew a harmonious and balanced creation through the mediums of communication (ceremony) and stewardship, in concert with all other beings. Each individual pursues learning their particular role in facilitating the collective responsibility of humanity in a particular ecosystem.  Sun Dancing itself is a variation of fasting, that is woven into a more elaborate and collective ceremony for the benefit of the people in cultivating the knowledge and unity they require to live their responsibilities to place.

In this land when the Anishinaabeg arrived here, they were adopted into the territory by Nehiyawak and Nakota who already lived here. They became kin. It is Anishinaabeg Aki because of this. They were taught the sun dance by vision and communication with the peoples who lived here before them and the spirits of the plains. They needed this ceremony to become of this place. This practice is similar all over the plains. In Treaty 6 territory, Zhaaganash were adopted as a community and given responsibilities required to live there as relatives. Harold Johnson writes about this in his book, Two Families: Treaties and Government. But because of colonization never as a community received the necessary teachings and support in becoming of this place. Instead we actively fought against these responsibilities. Access to territory on the plains has always been developed through kinship in the forms of adoption, marriage, treaty, or on going relationship. It was only with colonization that we have records and testimony of it happening on a national scale.

I’ve for a long time questioned what right I have to be in these places I’ve been and the experiences I’ve had. But I recognized as I dived deeper that this according to the Anishinaabeg has been our two cultures paths for a long time. If we go way back into the Niigaanachimoowinan of the Midewiwin, we are provided with a picture of what our goal should be in anti-colonial struggle. The Prophecy of the 7 or 8 Fires provides the basis for moving forward and understanding the whites relationship to Indigenous spirituality. The prophecy in its simplest form provides narrative of how we and the four races of humanity are destined to become a spiritual nation or perish because of materialism. The light-skinned race, the whites, are those that have the fundamental impact on the outcome of the North America. The 7th and 8th fire call for a transformation of European culture using Indigenous teachings. The basis of Indigenous teachings are to attune our cultures to place in both scientific and spiritual terms. We cannot hope bring the spiritual methods of another continent here to this land and expect them to function out of their context, just like it would be absurd to think Inuit knowledge would be sufficient in surviving in the Southwestern deserts of the Gichi-Mookoomanag.

The goal has to be remaking the dominant culture. But this needs to be done under the spiritual leadership of authentic and real keepers of Indigenous knowledge along with their warriors, the Oshkimaadiziig. It has to be a person who debwe. White people only have the right to practice Indigenous spirituality if they also take up the responsibilities it entails to the territory and the peoples that live here. If you are going to fight industrialization, ecocide and white supremacy, then you should feel okay about participating in communal practices with those peoples you are allied with when they invite you to. The spirituality has to be connected to the struggle to free the land from capitalism and colonization. I need to be transformed by the people I am struggling beside. That’s when spiritual transformation is real in the context of colonialism. Rainbow gatherings and hippyfests are generally at best spiritual tourism, they are very distantly related to the struggle for human empowerment in the context of ecological balance and the fight against global oppression. Spirituality has to take place in a long-term connection to a community and a piece of territory. Its about personal responsibility to collective purpose. Not about your own singular egotistical needs. In the old days I’ve been told, very few people asked to receive a vision or to become a spiritual leader, it was scary, it was all about responsibility to carry it out. I don’t know too many hippies searching for visions of how they can dedicate their lives to justice. I see them searching for ways to make their ego feel better. We need to consciously shift this approach. If we take spirituality seriously, then we have to practice it as it is meant to be here, in Anishinaabeg Aki Mikinaak Minis.

We will not be carbon copies of past Indigenous communities unless our visions deem that that is the way to go, but all observation and reasons suggests that will never be the case. The ecosystem has been drastically changed, new plants exist and old ones are gone. Animals are located in different numbers and proportions from the old days. New animals are here now. Our goal is to fast and vision then mobilize collectively to re-indigenize this territory. The original peoples have got to lead that, since they are the ones that have the primary means. This has been what people like Vine Deloria, Jr. have been calling for since the dawn of red power. To remake this continent using science under the direction of Indigenous spirituality.

In terms of the goddess festival, I’m not sure how its relevant to pray to spirits of other lands and pretend to partake in bastardized versions of Indigenous and eastern spiritual practices. If you seek the knowledge locked in our hearts, its time to partake in these things in a good way, and stop playing games. Spirituality has always been a political practice of the collective. Time to return it to that. We need to look at the context of our history and see many of our treaties were signed as documents that were meant to also be alliances against American imperialism.

I don’t profess to know much at all. I look for direction daily from Indigenous spiritual leaders, scholars and revolutionaries on how to move forward the anti-colonial struggle. All I’m trying to share is my somewhat jaded trajectory of understanding as I’ve tried to walk the path from appropriator to a militant. I don’t even profess to be an ally, at most I’m as supportive as I can be.  I have loved ones and friends who this is truly about our lives, and the struggles that burn in our hearts. I hope that all those folks out there who want to support Indigenous struggles will understand what I’m throwing out here. We can discuss pushing the struggle against white supremacy further as we walk that path. I’m totally open to engagement on this.