(something about a circle)

just another queer mixed urban Indigenous feminist keeping it #tradish. living, writing, and loving on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

[somethingaboutacircle]

Loved watching the dancers today at DTES Honouring Elders Pow Wow. Especially our future matriarchs: our young women dancing in tiny tot, junior and teen categories. Last clip is the all womens dance. Beautiful. #powwow #dtes #uncededcoastsalishterritories #yvr #nativepride #indigenous #celebration #ceremony #dancing #nativepride #livingculture #notvanishing #culturesaveslives #indigenousyouth #indigenouswomen #matriarch #future #rematriate

[somethingaboutacircle]

Culture saves lives! So many photos of this but it's so beautiful <3 @culturesaveslives #culturesaveslives #dtes #powwow #uncededcoastsalishterritories #yvr #indigenous #celebration #ceremony #dancing #livingculture #notvanishing #nativepride

[almostdone57-blog]

‘Terrance Houle is an interdisciplinary media artist and member of the blood tribe. He has traveled across North America participating in Powwow dancing and his native ceremonies. he works in a variety of mediums; performance, photography, video/film, music and painting. He also uses tools of mass dissemination such as billboards and buses.’ 

‘Many of Houle’s performances, it’s an absurd spectacle—a painfully  deliberate cliché, plied with a knowing wink. To say that Houle’s work is  centered on persistent stereotypes of Aboriginal representation goes beyond  the obvious. His Calgary apartment is littered with every manner of Indian  kitsch, including a Hiawatha doll on the mantle and a collection of steamy,  trashy Western romance novels. In his Urban Indian series of photographs  (2004) with Jarusha Brown, to pick just one example, Houle meanders  through a quotidian routine—breakfast at a diner, grocery shopping,  mundane office-drone chores in a cubicle—wearing full grassdance powwow  regalia, headdress and all.

With his gleeful send-ups of rote Aboriginal  representation—however mild, or hilarious—Houle joins generations  of First Nations contemporary artists for whom the simplistic Indian  identities fashioned by post-colonialism are a favorite target.

While Houle sketches colonialism’s master narratives—cowboys  and Indians, modernity, and everything in between—in broad, bombastic   strokes, his art is always, almost painfully, about himself. At once fearless,  charismatic, tender and intimate—and, we mustn’t forget, uproariously  funny—Houle’s work centers not on the desecrated, unspecific, victimized  Other, but on the artist’s flabby, beer-drinking, pizza-eating single-dad Self.’

“We were the Native family,” he says.  “Our identity was constantly being pointed out to us. But my folks always  used humour to cushion the blow. We were taught at an early age not to  put the barrier up, but to try to teach people who we are. I think that’s why,  at an early age, I started getting into art.”

http://canadianart.ca/features/2011/09/15/terrance_houle/

[eveningstarwoman-deactivated202]

cool indigenous feminist scholars to check out

there are soooo many indigenous scholars who are feminist, this is a short list of some that write more explicitly on feminism, gender & sexuality, violence against women, woman empowerment, etc. there are way more out there (and even more Native woman academics with feminism-informed work), so this is really just a start with a few suggestions. 

for a list of really cool amazing Native women outside academia, i recommend checking out this Inspiring Native Women collection. 

Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok): Cutcha Risling Baldy is a scholar whose work applies Native American Studies to feminist theory, literary theory and the development of Indigenous methodologies. Some of her current research focuses on the resurgence of one ceremony of the Hupa people (The Flower Dance) and the social and community growth that happens because of the return of this ceremony. In 2007, Ms. Risling Baldy founded the Native Women’s Collective, a nonprofit organization, to support arts and culture projects in the Native American community. 

Devon Mihesuah (Choctaw): Devon Abbott Mihesuah is a Choctaw historian and writer. Mihesuah is a professor of applied Indigenous studies and history at Northern Arizona University. Her books include Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism; Cultivating the Rosebuds: The Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851–1909; and Roads of My Relations.

Dian Million (Tanana Athabascan): Dian Million’s most recent research explores the politics of mental and physical health with attention to affect as it informs race, class, and gender in Indian Country. She is the author of Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights, which is a discussion of trauma as a political narrative in the struggle for Indigenous self-determination in an era of global neoliberalism. 

Haunani-Kay Trask (Kanaka Maoli): Haunani-Kay Trask is a feminist, indigenous rights activist, and Professor of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii. Trask is the author of several books on feminist and political discourse. Her titles include Eros and Power: The Promise of Feminist Theory; Light in the Crevice Never Seen; From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii; and Night Is a Sharkskin Drum. 

ku’ualoha ho’omanawanui (Kanaka Maoli): ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui is associate professor of Hawaiian literature in the English department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and a poet, artist, and mālama ‘āina advocate. She specializes in traditional Hawaiian literature (including folklore and mythology), Oceanic (Pacific) literature, and indigenous perspectives on literacy. Her book, Voices of Fire–Reweaving the Lei of Pele and Hi‘iaka Literature, recovers the lost and often-suppressed political significance of stories of the volcano goddess Pele and her little sister Hi’iaka (patron of hula).

Jennifer Nez Denetdale (Navajo): As the first-ever Diné/Navajo to earn a Ph.D. in history, Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale is a strong advocate for Native peoples and strives to foster academic excellence in the next generation of students interested in Native Studies. Denetdale is an Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and teaches courses in Native American Studies. She specializes in Navajo history and culture; Native American women, gender, and feminisms; and Indigenous nations, colonialism, and decolonization.

Jessica Danforth (Akwesasne Mohawk): Jessica Danforth is an attorney and the Executive Director of Native Youth Sexual Health Network. Jessica Danforth is a self-described “multiracial Indigenous hip-hop feminist reproductive justice freedom fighter.”

Leanne Simpson (Anishinaabe): Simpson is the author of three books; Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, The Gift Is in the Making, and Islands of Decolonial Love, and the editor of Lighting the Eighth Fire, This Is An Honour Song (with Kiera Ladner) and The Winter We Danced: Voice from the Past, the Future and the Idle No More Movement (Kino-nda-niimi collective). She is of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg ancestry and a member of Alderville First Nation.

Lee Maracle (Salish, Cree): Lee Maracle is a member of the Stó:lō Nation. She strives to integrate European literary styles and Native oral storytelling forms, while confronting the cultural rifts between aboriginal and white society and the resulting problems for individual identity. Her work addresses the relationship between violence against women and violence against the land. 

Pamela Palmater (Mi’kmaq): Pamela Palmater is a lawyer who has dedicated her life to advocating for the rights of Indigenous people and empowering Indigenous women. Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration and Chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University, Pamela is a commentator, author, social media enthusiast and the inaugural Academic Director of Ryerson’s Centre for Indigenous Governance. Pamela works with diverse First Nations, community groups, students and feminist legal scholars to empower Indigenous women and build communities characterized by equality, inclusion and self determination. 

Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo): Paula Gunn Allen was a poet, literary critic, lesbian activist,and novelist. She drew from Pueblo oral traditions for her fiction and poetry, and also wrote numerous essays on its themes. She edited four collections of Native American traditional stories and contemporary works, and wrote two biographies of Native American women. In addition to her literary work, in 1986 she published a major study on the role of women in American Indian traditions, arguing that Europeans had de-emphasized the role of women in their accounts of native life because of their own patriarchal societies. It stimulated other scholarly work by feminist and Native American writers.

Sarah Deer (Muscogee Creek): Sarah Deer is a legal scholar and advocate leveraging her deep understanding of tribal and federal law to develop policies and legislation that empower tribal nations to protect Native American women from the pervasive and intractable problem of sexual and domestic violence. A citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, Deer has documented in academic scholarship the historical and ideological underpinnings of the failure to adequately protect victims of physical and sexual abuse in Indian Country, and she has worked with grassroots and national organizations attempting to navigate the complex legal and bureaucratic hurdles facing Native victims of violence. 

Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe): Winona LaDuke is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Reservations. She is also the Executive Director of Honor the Earth, where she works on a national level to advocate, raise public support, and create funding for frontline Native environmental groups. She serves as co-chair of the Indigenous Women’s Network, a North American and Pacific indigenous women’s organization. She has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. Author of now six books, including The Militarization of Indian Country, Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming, and All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life.

[vdem1]

bitterbitchclubpresident

[somethingaboutacircle]

Powerhouse Indigenous feminists! YAAAS.

There are SO many more too :)

[somethingaboutacircle]

"You don't have anything if you don't have the stories" Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony. #lesliemarmonsilko #ceremony #nativewriters #nativeliterature #stories #storytelling #indigenous #native #fiction #reading #coffee #longweekend

[kaleighfratkins]

shoutout to mixed race people who don’t know exactly what race(s) they are and may never have a way of knowing 

shoutout to mixed race people who freeze up when someone asks “where are you from”

shoutout to mixed race people who don’t know how to label themselves

shoutout to mixed race people who are sick of having other people define their identities

shoutout to mixed race people who feel disconnected from their cultures and have no way of accessing them 

shoutout to mixed race people who can’t talk with their parents about race

shoutout to mixed race people who feel like they don’t belong anywhere 

shoutout to mixed race people who feel like they “aren’t (x) enough”

shoutout to mixed race people who feel like their opinions and experiences aren’t important

shoutout to mixed race people

[somethingaboutacircle]

all the mixie feels <3 <3 <3

[burymyart]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/230259336/ High resolution poster of an Indigenous Yahooskin woman with the words declaring: Indigenous Feminism. Measures: 24" x 36" / 12″ x 18″. The price covers the cost printing, shipping, & handling. As always, the posters are still free for digital download at burymyart.tumblr.com. Share and repost, please! Poster designed by: Demian DinéYazhi’ R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment http://facebook.com/RISEIndigenous http://burymyart.tumblr.com ___________________________________________.

[somethingaboutacircle]

(Videos from Pride) Getting our pride on this afternoon. Dancing to @atcr_band Marching with CAAN #canadianaboriginalaidsnetwork #native #pride #uncededcoastsalishterritory #yvr #tribecalledred #sisters #vancouver #dancing #powwow #indigenous #queer #twospirit #love #misc

[somethingaboutacircle]

(Photos from Pride!) Showing of my beadwork from pride. Heading home after marching with CAAN #canadianaboriginalaidsnetwork #native #pride #uncededcoastsalishterritory #queer #indigenous #twospirit #beadwork #vancouver #misc

[somethingaboutacircle]

Week one of the #nativeyouthprogram. Led an underpass poetry workshop with these 6 amazing youth @nypmoa #indigenousyouth #uncededcoastsalishterritories #poetry #indigenousvoices #mollybillowspoetry

[somethingaboutacircle]

performing at Standing Ground @ the Roundhouse

[somethingaboutacircle]

performing at Standing Ground @  the Roundhouse.

[somethingaboutacircle]

The powerful voices of Indigenous youth! Xiuhtezcatl and Itzcuauhtl Martinez, two brothers raised in the Aztec tradition.

At ~4:30 in the video they start their eco-rap. It’s full of powerful love and deep respect for the sacredness of the earth.

Listen to their words.

Then think about how the younger one has chosen to become silent, to go on a “talking strike” until “world leaders take concrete action on climate change”.

As Mark Ruffalo said of Itzcuauhtl’s silence: “I also am made heartsick by your despair, little one. Your silence is a symbol of the silence that will come from doing nothing. You are silent for species that will go extinct, and for the countless lives lost in super hurricanes, droughts, floods and ecosystem failure due to the folly and inaction of our leaders.”

Read more here: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/12/03/11-year-olds-talking-strike-climate-change-goes-viral-158105 

This makes me think also how so many of our Indigenous youths voices become silenced. I am constantly humbled by our youth, by their wisdom, by the depth of their understanding of the world we live in, their heartfelt and spiritfelt connection to our lands, to all non-human beings, and to Creator.

Yet I also see how our youth are impacted by the violent and ongoing nature of settler colonialism, and how their voices can become silenced, especially by colonial institutions like the child welfare system.

I raise my hands to this young one. And I hope that his voice does not stay silenced for long. 

[somethingaboutacircle]

violence on the land, violence on our (student) bodies

Beautiful article by a beautiful friend "indigenous feminists have been saying for a long time that violence on the land is connected to violence on women’s bodies. women and the earth are symbolically linked, as givers of life. colonialism and patriarchy are like diseases that have sought to control both women and the earth through violence, for profit and for power" #decolonization #sovereignbodies #sovereignland #indigenouswomenslove

[somethingaboutacircle]

ALL I WANT IS DECOLONIAL LOVE. Why isn’t there an app for that? (jk… except not…) #tinder #bai #nativeappropriations #rant

[somethingaboutacircle]

Love this: “We are beading onto a condom to say we have our own ways and our own traditions and our own cultures and our own ways of seeing what sexuality is about” #indigenize #decolonize #sovereignbodies #decoloniallove

[decolonizingmedia]

Ferguson is a call not only to indict the system but to decolonize the systems that create and maintain the forces of Indigenous genocide and anti-Blackness. I have a responsibility to make space on my land for those communities of struggles, to centre and amplify Black voices and to co-resist. We both come from vibrant, proud histories of mobilization and protest, and it is the sacrifices of our Elders and our Ancestors that ensured that our communities of struggle continue to exist today. They believed in their hearts that there is no justice and no peace until we are all free, and so must we.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | “Indict The System: Indigenous and Black Resistance” (via decolonizingmedia)

Indict the system!