Reconciliation is Dead: A Strategic Proposal

by tawinikay (aka Southern Wind Woman)

Reconciliation is dead. It’s been dead for some time.

If only one thing has brought me joy in the last few weeks, it began when the matriarchs at Unist’ot’en burned the Canadian flag and declared reconciliation dead. Like wildfire, it swept through the hearts of youth across the territories. Out of their mouths, with teeth bared, they echoed back: reconciliation is dead! reconciliation is dead! Their eyes are more keen to the truth so many of our older generation have been too timid to name. The Trudeau era of reconciliation has been a farce from the beginning. It has been more for settler Canadians than natives all along.

New Era for Mexico’s Zapatista Army 25 Years After Uprising

Telesur, January 1, 2019

Since the 1994 uprising, the National Liberation Zapatista Army has been a global reference for revolutionary movements.

Counter-power and self-defense in Latin America

Children form a line during a march of Indigenous Guards in Colombia.

Against the backdrop of state and gang violence, some of the continent’s most affected communities have taken radical measures to defend themselves and build new social counter-powers from below.

by Raúl Zibechi, ROAR Magazine, January 29, 2018

In much of Latin America, the state does not protect its citizens. This is particularly true for the popular sectors, indigenous peoples, people of color and mestizos, who are exposed to the onslaught of drugs trafficking, criminal gangs, the private security guards of multinational corporations and, paradoxically, from state security forces such as the police and the army.

Battle for the mother land: indigenous people of Colombia fighting for their lands

Members of the Indigenous Guard in Colombia displaying their batons, symbols of membership in the group.

The 50-year civil war is over but, in the Cauca Valley, indigenous communities are on frontline of fight against drug gangs, riot police and deforestation

by Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, October 2017

A green-and-red flag flies over a cluster of bamboo and tarpaulin tents on the frontline of an increasingly deadly struggle for land and the environment in Colombia’s Cauca Valley.

It is the banner for what indigenous activists are calling the “liberation of Mother Earth”, a movement to reclaim ancestral land from sugar plantations, farms and tourist resorts that has gained momentum in the vacuum left by last year’s peace accord between the government and the paramilitaries who once dominated the region – ending, in turn, the world’s longest-running civil war.

Video: Ipperwash Crisis in Five Minutes

<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/232681190″>Ipperwash Crisis in Five Minutes</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/submediatv”>sub.Media</a&gt; on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

The Oka Crisis in 5 minutes

 

The Oka Crisis was supposed to be a wake-up call. Little has changed in 27 years

A picture taken during the Oka Crisis on July 11, 1990. (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press)

By Steve Bonspiel, for CBC News, July 11, 2017

“Just go in there and exterminate them like the rats they are.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get rid of them.”

“Put them all in the Big O and blow it up.”

I heard these words from random non-Natives as a 14-year-old boy, 27 years ago to the day. I feel a mixture of pride, anger, sadness and resolve when I think of that fateful summer, and what went on for those 78 days in Kanesatake: the Oka Crisis.

Nova Scotia Coffee House Puts Up One Hell Of A Canada 150 Sign

By Zi-Ann Lum, HuffPost Canada, June 13, 2017

It’s all about perspective.

A coffeehouse in Grand Pre, N.S. flipped its sign earlier this week to nudge people to think deeper around the context of Canada’s 150 birthday.

To do that, the folks at Just Us! Coffee placed “MI KMAKI 13000” under the words “CANADA 150” on their signboard.

Chilean Police Shooting results in the deaths of two Mapuche Land Defenders

The Governor of Malleco Province, Guillermo Pirce and General Christian Franzani visiting the scene on June 11th, 2017

by Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu, June 11, 2017
*News in development*
Two Mapuche land defenders were killed last night at the hands of Chilean police after an alleged action on the large landed estate of El Encino in the Township of Los Sauces, nearby the city of Angol in southern Chile, on the evening Saturday June 10th.

Fundraising Appeal for the Secwepemc’ulecw Assembly

All settler comrades, friends and allies,
Elders and women from the Secwepemc nation are hosting a nation-wide
Secwepemc’ulecw Assembly on the land in June. The goals of the Assembly
are to discuss and take action under Secwepemc law against colonial
corporate development impacting Secwepemc’ulecw without Collective
Consent.