New addition to Indigenous Resurgence Week!
“Do you know who made your moccasins?”
Friday, March 9th at 10am in the First People’s House!
“If our Indian nation is being destroyed so that poor people of the world might get a chance to share this worlds riches, then as Indian people, I am sure that we would seriously consider giving up our resources. But do you really expect us to give up our life and our lands so that those few people who are the riches and most powerful in the world today can maintain their own position of privilege?
That is not our way.
I strongly believe that we do have something to offer your nation, however, something other than our minerals. I believe it is in the self-interest of your own nation to allow the Indian nation to survive and develop in our own way, on our own land. For thousands of years we have lived with the land, we have taken care of the land, and the land has taken care of us. We did not believe that our society has to grow and expand and conquer new areas in order to fulfill our destiny as Indian people.
We have lived with the land, not tried to conquer of control it or rob it of its riches. We have not tried to get more and more riches and power, we have not tried to conquer new frontiers, or out do our parents or make sure that every year we are richer than the year before. We have been satisfied to see our wealth as ourselves and the land we live with. It is our greatest wish to be able to pass on this land to succeeding generations in the same condition that our fathers have given it to us. We did not try to improve the land and we did not try to destroy it.
That is not our way.
I believe your nation might wish to see us, not as a relic from the past, but as a way of life, a system of values by which you may survive in the future. This we are willing to share.”
- Philip Blake, “Statement to the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry”, in Mel Watkins (ed.), Dene Nation: The Colony Within (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), 7-8; emphasis added.
Photo: Protesting the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal on Coast Salish territory in December. ByJason Payne, Postmedia News.
"Learn the history of this land. Find your own place and that of your family in the story of North American colonization. This will tell you what you need to do to make amends for that history and point the way to grounding yourself as a true person of this place. Ask Indigenous people about the promises that were made by your ancestors, the commitment that allowed for your existence here, and then decide to honor those promises right here and right now in the best way that you can. Live up to the basic tenets of universal concepts of justice: do not tell lies. Give back what you have stolen. If you could imagine a renewal of our relationship built on these premises, on your responsibility and your action to undo colonization, and if you have the integrity to dedicate yourself to working with us Indigenous people towards its realization, towards a renewed regime governing this land, then and only then could you truthfully call yourself a radical. "
—
- Taiaiake Alfred, “What is Radial Imagination? Indigenous Struggles in Canada,” Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action, Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2010, pp. 5-8.
NSU 2012 T-shirts
UVic Native Students Union 2012 T-shirts!!
Available during IRW, and for the rest of the semester, in the NSU room (SUB B023)
Indigenous Resurgence Week Schedule
The 2012 Indigenous Resurgence Week Schedule is finalized!!
March 5 - 9
The NSU is very excited to present this year’s schedule:
Monday March 5
Feast
6:00pm Ceremonial Hall
Tuesday March 6
Film: Deep Inside Clint Star
7:00pm Ceremonial Hall
Wednesday March 7
“Unmasking Our Barriers” Mask-Making Workshop (2 days)
facilitated by Lindsay Delaronde
please RSVP to education@uvicnsu.ca as there is limited space and supplies.
1-3pm Ceremonial Hall
Thursday March 8
Mask-Making continued
10am – 12pm Ceremonial Hall
Thursday March 8
“Living on the Land” workshop with Rob McDonald
2:30-3:30 pm Room 160 in FPH
Friday March 9
“Place Against Empire: Primitive Accumulation, Settler-Colonialism and the (Un)Occupy Movement”
Lecture by Glen Coulthard
2pm Ceremonial Hall
Skeena Reece (of Beat Nation) in Fashion Magazine’s March edition listing:
Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture at the Vancouver Art Gallery
(Source: sagepaulfashion)
(via BEYOND BUCKSKIN: Artist Profile | Kent Monkman)
Monkman uses ‘fashion’ triggers like headdresses and platform shoes to discuss identity, gender, and sexuality, as well as issues pertaining to racism and colonization.
In his multifaceted work, Toronto based painter, photographer, performance and video installation artist Kent Monkman deals a table-turning hand on the one-sided histories of Euro-American descent.
Using parody and his flamboyant alter-ego ‘Miss Chief Eagle Testickle’, he subtly turns pioneering myths of the American West into orgiastic revisions of nineteenth-century pastoral scenes. By appropriating the imagery and technique of ‘New World’ landscape painters, and by reversing the usual roles of cowboys and Indians, Monkman questions not only history, but also notions of authenticity and identity. He goes back in time to ‘queer the frontier’.Click on the link to read the entire article and see his art!
