Hawaii: Way of the Warrior

By Naomi Sodeta, Hana Hou! magazine

Traditional Hawaiian warrior with helmet.

As dusk falls over Honolulu, a dozen Hawaiian men and women clad in black T-shirts and shorts gather on wooden benches outside a gym on a hilltop overlooking downtown.  As they step through the doors and line up on the padded mats, their jocular conversation segues into hushed concentration.

Sir John A. Macdonald statue vandalized: ‘This is stolen land’

Statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, vandalized in Kingston, Ont, Jan 10, 2013.

The Canadian Press, Friday, Jan. 11 2013

Police in Ontario are investigating after a Sir John A. Macdonald statue was vandalized overnight, saying it may have been politically motivated.

The sculpture, located in a park in Kingston, Ont., was splattered with red paint and the words “This is stolen land,” “murderer” and “colonizer” were sprayed on the statue’s base.

Indigenous Grassroots & the Indian Act Band Council

by Zig Zag, Warrior Publications, January 7, 2013

Debates arising from the recent Idle No More movement have revealed two main interpretations of what comprises the grassroots.  One seeks to exclude band councils, while the other views chiefs & councillors as an integral part of the grassroots, simply by virtue of them being members of the community.  Clearly, we need some basic understanding of what constitutes the grassroots in order to advance our movement.

War of the Words: chiefs issue ultimatums as grassroots dance in circles

by Zig Zag, Warrior Publications, January 4, 2013

Flash mob in Edmonton mall, December 2012.

There are three entities currently struggling for control over the grassroots Native mobilization that has spread across the country: the Idle No More’s  (INM) middle-class founders, Indian Act chiefs, and chief Spence herself.  It is in our interests as grassroots people that all of them fail in their efforts and that the autonomous, decentralized self-organization of our movement become more widespread.

MNN: INDIGENOUS RISING

MNN.  JAN. 1, 2013.  Corporate band and tribal councils are falling.  A new day is

Members of Westbank band council; are they our “leaders”?

coming.  Out with individualism.  In with collectivism.  The fraudulent corporations of Canada and the United States of America are duly put on notice that you will be soon dissolved. Your shareholders will be liable for all their crimes.  The strategy of corruption, deceit and death through their band and tribal council apparatus is over.  They are all going down.  There will no longer be a means to apply the genocide program on us and everyone else in the world through this fraudulent corporate business plan.

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation Announces Next Steps

Compañeros and compañeras:
This past December 21, 2012, in the pre-dawn hours, tens of thousands of indigenous Zapatistas mobilized and we took over, peacefully and in silence, 5 municipal seats in the Mexican southeastern state of Chiapas.

Ghosts of Indigenous activism past, present, future: #IdleNoMore’s transformative potential

By Hayden King, Media Indigena, December 12, 2012

Warrior and Canadian soldier face off during Oka Crisis, 1990.

Earlier this week, from Goose Bay to Yellowknife, thousands of Nehiyaw, Dene, Metis peoples (joined by Canadians supportive of them) gathered in front of provincial legislatures, constituency and Aboriginal Affairs offices. They sang honour songs, danced jigs, and waved their flags and homemade protest signs out in the cold and the wind.

IDLE SOME MORE

by Kai Kai Kons, formerly known as Johnny Hawke, Oshkimaadzig blog, Dec 10, 2012

Sitting around our fire at the Oshkimaadziig Unity Camp tending the upkeep of our repossession of our peoples Sacred Gathering Place known as Council Rock, I am inspired, confused and frustrated in this time, day and hour as I try to filtrate through the many words that are being said and “direct actions” in response to an Omnibus Bill directed to extinguish yet again “Our Way of Life” and Treaty Rights. This rant is not an attack at any specific group or person but just a constructive critical reflection that asks a question:  What are some real solutions and what happens after the media photo opt marches, protests and meetings are over?

Gap forced to pull T-shirt after backlash over ‘Manifest Destiny’ slogan

By Sadie Whitelocks, Daily Mail, 17 October 2012

Gap t-shirt with slogan “Manifest Destiny,” coined in the 1800s to justify US colonial expansion westward across North America.

A Gap T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Manifest Destiny’ has been removed from sale, after consumers branded it racist towards Native Americans.
Shoppers complained that the slogan tee ‘serves to normalize oppression’, as the term was used to justify American expansion into the west during the 19th century.
When the item of clothing went on sale as part of the Gap X GQ limited-edition collection on September 27, a Change.org petition quickly amassed almost 5,000 supporters.

Statement from Leonard Peltier on Indigenous People’s Day, Oct 2012

Greetings my relatives and friends, supporters!

Leonard Peltier, Native American Prisoner of War in the USA, currently held in a Florida prison.

I know I say this same line all the time but in reality you all are my relatives and I appreciate you. I cannot say that enough. Some of our people, as well as ourselves have decided to call today Indigenous Day instead of Columbus Day and it makes me really think about how many People who still celebrate Columbus, a cruel, mass murderer who on his last trip to the Americas, as I have read, was arrested by his own people for being too cruel. When you consider those kinds of cruelty against our People and his status, it makes you wonder to what level he had taken his cruelty. In all of this historical knowledge that is available people still want to celebrate and hold in high esteem this murderer.