#decolonizing

[radicalgraff]

"LAND BACK"

Seen on Wundjeri Woi Wurrung / Bunurong land, so called Ravenhall, home to 4 of Victoria's prisions.

[tibonanj]

[Phd fieldnotes 1 : Barbados]

Barbados Heritage District, honoring memory, land and spirit. Designed by world-renowned architect Sir David Adjaye. It will be built next to Newton Slave Burial Ground, the oldest and largest slave cemetery ever found in Barbados. The site will include a memorial, a museum, a global research center, and spaces for performances and reflection.It’s part of a national project called ROAD (Reclaiming Our Atlantic Destiny), which aims to reshape Barbados’identity and economy by making it a central place for learning about Atlantic slavery, from the Caribbean, not just from the West. Barbados actually holds the second largest collection of slave records after the UK. One key part of the project is to digitize these archives and give access to researchers, families, and future generations. But not everything has gone smoothly. Some activists, spiritual leaders, and museum workers protested the construction, saying it disrespected the sacred nature of the burial ground.Now, discussions are ongoing to create cultural and spiritual guidelines.There’s also talk of founding a spiritual university, in collaboration with Codrington College, to show how different faiths and traditions can live together. The Newton Burial Ground itself is powerful: about 1,000 enslaved people were buried there, between 1660 and 1820.They were laid to rest by their families and communities, often with rituals inspired by African traditions.It’s the only untouched slave cemetery ever excavated in the Caribbean.The artefacts and human remains found here tell us stories we couldn’t get from written documents alone. This project has the potential to transform how we understand slavery, heritage and identity. It also reminds us that healing history must include respect, spirit and the voices of the people.

[shebelongstoshe]

Honest Confessions of a Female Separatist #7

It's weird. I didn't notice men until I was almost 30. It's been traumatic. Relationships with men and also women who date men. I've been detangling myself from both and trying to see things as clearly as I did before. The cultural programming and conditioning is so deep for me even though I came so late to the game but that's because it was taught since I was tiny. I'm single right now, have a life I'm rebuilding, after it was gutted by a man, a childhood destroyed by male molesters, and still the virus (the patriarchy) permeates me.

I find myself wanting the same sexual dynamic -- I thought it would stop on it's own but it hasn't. I'm going to have to work at decolonizing myself -- this shit predates me ever having sex, noticing men, or even realizing that sex was a thing.

I had some idea about safety with men, purity+ whiteness (im not), goodness, and girlness, and this leading to some place to offer vulnerability (including sexual at the top level) with men = specialness, princess concepts, and protection= love.

What is this even? It's out in the open. Underneath its some little girl screaming choose me, protect me, value me, respect me, and some grown woman showing up as pick me. 🤢

This virus is dizzying and is a nasty undertow in my life. I have to keep decolonizing myself.

Men don't protect women and the ones that do, are destroyed by other men anyway. I keep thinking about Wind River. I may watch it tonight.

Be safe, men are the greatest threat to the well-being of women, children, animals, and nature.

[shakespearenews]

Why decolonise Shakespeare when all the world’s a stage for his ideas on injustice? | Kenan Malik

The trend for cultural reappraisal could risk upholding the very ideas it aims to dismantle

Questioning the ways in which we think of national icons and the place they occupy in our culture is always a useful task. Yet, long before the decolonial bandwagon rolled in, the appropriation of Shakespeare by myriad global cultures should have told us something about his relationship to those challenging injustice and seeking to speak truth to power.

shakespearenews.com

[vegan-heterotroph]

Been reading “Decolonizing Our Diets by Recovering Our Ancestors’ Garden”- by  Devon A. Mihesuah-a Choctaw citizen- and I’m learning even more about Indigenous Americans as well as the impact western diet/food has on Indigenous American communities. 

“...it is estimated that 75 percent of American Indian adults have lactose intolerance. Yet the Dietary Guidelines advises that everyone eat two or three servings of dairy foods, despite the reality that other foods, such as green, leafy vegetables and beans, also supply calcium.”

There is also a video on YouTube about decolonizing diets:

Not Native myself, but it sucks hearing about how much damage western diets has negatively impacted Native cultures and communities. 

[shrinkrants]

"The possibilities that come from totalizing, universalizing, westernizing, heteropatriarchal, capitalist, and racializing dichotomies come from their cracks. These are the cracks of the dichotomies between either getting ourselves expelled from or included into a colonial system of oppression, or between the superiority/inferiority, white/brown-black, interiority/exteriority, inside/outside. However, cracks are often ignored, passed unseen, or forgotten “because of the myopic nature and naturalization of modern life and living”. It is our intent here to demodern ourselves and see the fissures of the totalizing concrete of westernized educational institutions in family therapy, from within. If we can see the cracks, the oppressive system is no longer totalizing. A nontotalizing system, in turn, makes it possible to recognize the value of western knowledge as one parallel to many other possible knowledges. Through the ruptures, not destruction, of the system we see the hurt but also the light of possible allyships with white people and their accountability—from some of them, at least. I (marcela) can also see the meaningful life-changing learnings from white men mentors I came across during my doctoral studies; or the powerful encounters among the included people into the institution that might have otherwise never taken place as it would have been the case for us (authors). But to see the cracks and the light that shines through, a movement from epistemic obedience to epistemic mischief or insurgence toward epistemic liberation might be required. Such movement, in turn, requires learning to unlearn institutionalized universalist knowledge to relearn pluriversal knowledges that come from our communities and ancestries, as in the decolonial alternative. -- Decolonially Speaking, Sensing, and Thinking: Racialized Tuition-Based Family Therapists Learning Without Teaching, by marcela polanco, Pankaj Kumar (पंकज कुमार), Fraol “Frada” Olyad, and Claire Henry Enemark

[decolonizingweeds]

Decolonizing the Language We Use

Alt-Text: Banner reads "Abolition, Decolonization, Liberation" held by protestors on the steps of a courthouse.

Attribution: activist group "Decolonize This Place"

Photo Description: Women standing on the steps of a courthouse holding a red banner encouraging the abolition, decolonization, and liberation of the systems in the United States (the protest took place in New York City).

Decolonizing language requires reflection on why we use the words we do when we do. Consider words that are now considered to be derogatory where they "didn't use to be," where language, particularly English, is a colonizer language that is continuously used to oppress and use stereotypes to limit groups of people.

How does the way we talk about our environment adjust the way we treat it? How would it change if instead of using ableist language we used inclusive language, free of judgment?

These are questions we need to be asking ourselves to be good allies, yes, but also to change the continued white supremacist system which only lends itself useful to the upper-class white men that continue to rule over society.

Alt-Text: Woman wearing a mask holding a sign that reads "Only Insecure Men Control Women's Bodies" with skyscraper buildings seen in the background.

Attribution: Katie Godowski

Photo Description: Resist the systems that control women's bodily autonomy

Decolonization can take place in many ways, and it must. I'm emphasizing the decolonization of language because it is a step most people can take without having to leave the comforts of their home, but I encourage participating in courses like "How to be Anti-Racist," reading on the topics from people who experience these oppressions.

Here is a list of recommended reading:

How to Be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown

A Beginner's Guide to Building Better Worlds: Ideas and Inspiration from the Zapatistas by Levi Gahman et al.

The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

The Feminist Killjoys blog by Sara Ahmed (https://feministkilljoys.com/)

A Knock on the Door: The Essential History of Residential Schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

These are only some of the books I've read on my journey, and there are always more to come. These provide a good starting point for research if you want to learn how to decolonize your language, your thoughts, and your land.

[natestarsher55]

TRICE FORGOTTEN IS THE BEST PODCAST EVER PROBABLY

so the hyperfixation hit hard (and for good reason) because trice forgotten is engaging and fascinating and absolutely wonderful. i figured i’d copy my official review on itunes, because it says everything better than i could, were i to rewrite it:

If you like queer found family narratives, scientific and nautical tales, and period pieces, this podcast is for you. (And even if you don’t, give it a listen anyways—it might surprise you!)

Trice Forgotten is one of my favorite podcasts of all time (if not my absolute favorite). As a science nerd who also likes history and wants to be a writer someday, the Below Decks episodes were absolutely fascinating. They add so much depth (haha) to the plot of the story, as well providing fascinating context for the historical settings.

Nemo Martin is such a skilled and hard-working writer, and it’s clear that the rest of the crew working on the podcast gave their very best. The sound design and music are excellent, as they set the scene(s) really well. Every part of the podcast was crafted with love and care, and you can see the level of skill and passion shine through in every detail.

From a story standpoint, I adore this podcast. I’m deeply attached to each and every one of the main crew (Siva and Noor being my absolute favorites). I was continually impressed by how Nemo and the other writers developed characters in a consistent and entertaining way while not sacrificing the plot—and in only 10 episodes! As a character-driven writer, that’s something I aspire to in my own works.

I could ramble on forever about this podcast, but all I have left to say is that it will forever have a special place in my heart. Trice Forgotten, I will never forget you! :)