#resistance150

[dylansfitnessblogandfunstuff]

Corrosion (friends from faraway places not being friends: look at what you're celebrating) . . #canada150 #colonialism150 #resistance150 (at Alberta Legislature Building)

[radicalgraff]

Denman Island, BC, June 30, 2017

via: nocanada

[striveattemptfail]

#colonialism150

[ Please do not share/repost without permission. First image designed by me + incorporates Curtis Wilson’s aboriginal flag design, #colonialism150 design by eritskes, final photo was a poster found on the #StandForCanada sign in downtown Toronto ]

📷 Insta || Full statement under the cut~!

As a Canadian citizen for 11 years—over half my life—I’m extremely grateful and blessed to be part of a beautiful country with a rich cultural community. If I couldn’t immigrate to Canada with my family, life would absolutely be that much harder for all of us, as is the reality for many filipino families abroad. I simply cannot articulate how much privilege I have to live in such a peaceful, resourceful country.

That said, as someone who is so proud of their country I also cannot overlook the harm and pain Canada has inflicted and continues to inflict upon people to this day. Prejudice exists, racism is still perpetuated everywhere, and the treatment of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples is especially awful. As welcoming as this country has been to me, my family and many others like us, I’m constantly humbled by the hard work and history of all FNMI communities who are still fighting for their rights. I’m grateful for being allowed on soil that does not and will never belong to me because it was forcefully taken from the peoples who came before I did. I want to respect and acknowledge this history and the work still being done today to show my support for FNMI communities and their struggle.

This, of course, doesn’t even begin to tackle the ongoing issues that other POC, LGBTQ2SIAP+, disabled, and other marginalized communities continue to face in Canada as well. To be proud of a diverse country means being part of the intersecting communities that creates it, and I also wanted to acknowledge that all of these communities have made significant impact on Canada’s history.

This message is nothing in comparison to the ongoing work done in person and offline—and is likely hypocritical of me to express after publically enjoying a weekend benefiting off the land of others—but as Canada 150 winds down in the east coast it would not be right to celebrate my Canadian identity without giving thanks to the communities who were harmed to make it possible. #Resistance150 demonstrates the struggles of people are continually abused and ignored but also shows the strength of which I’m beyond humbled to witness as history in the making.

So thank you to everyone, especially the FNMI community, who continue to fight for their cultures and identity, and thank you to Canada for giving me a chance to fight with them.

The red-white-yellow-black colour palette signifies the indigenous land that I live on, specifically that of the Anishinabek peoples. The incorporated aboriginal flag design [by an aboriginal artist] is to further the concept that Canada is built from, yet continues to erase, indigenous colonization.

Please do not hesitate to message me if you have any concerns because I am not FNMI myself! And thanks for reading.

[that-one-deaf-witch]

I was trying to boycott Canada day activities, then I saw a sparkler and opportunities #resistance150 #canada150 #photography #Canada

[tirashani]

Romeo Saganash is a residential school survivor and NDP MP in Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou, Quebec

I lose sleep most nights.

It started when I was young. Now I have a whole regimen of supports to help me sleep: exercise, healthy eating, music, darkness, relaxing tea, books of poetry. When it gets really bad: mandatory time off, writing, sleeping under the stars beside white pine trees, near a lake, on the land of the Eeyou, my people.

How colonization affects an individual is difficult to explain. How deep the tentacles reach. How vast the expanse of jarring totalitarian domination extends. Someone said to me recently that they like to have friends with different political and social points of view because it broadens their experiences and teaches them to refine arguments. For the past seven generations, in order to adapt to and accommodate the colonizer’s values, goals, institutions and society, I have learned to see so broadly that my eyes tear up.

You see, for us, nearly everything around us represents colonial domination and genocide and is an example of Indigenous resiliency. Except that I’m really tired of constantly having to fight to prove that I have the right to exist.

And I can’t sleep.

What does it mean to be safe and free in the context of a colonial state when it is celebrating its sesquicentennial? The front lines of Indigenous struggle are everywhere, now: from the prairies, boreal forests and rivers to city streets, in classrooms and in the buildings of Parliament. In a world where our very existence is criminalized and our presence is defiance, Indigenous people are forced every day to live in a world built by their colonizers.

Settler colonialism demands Indigenous erasure for the purpose of claiming Indigenous land. It is the symbolic and real replacement of Indigenous peoples with settlers who attempt to claim belonging.

The real problem with Canada 150 celebrations are the stories that the state is attempting to tell itself and everyone else. Specifically, that it has legitimate authority to make laws and policies, or even imagine a future, without Indigenous partnership. Any celebration of the state, the nation with its assumed sovereignty, stories of expansion and settlement or nation-building in general, replicate settler colonial narratives and are an insult to my ancestors, to my people, to me.

I have intentionally not told you the stories that you may have heard before. I have not given you a list of all the reasons that Canada 150 is a ridiculous concept to Indigenous people because this isn’t only a political and social reality: it is deeply cultural, spiritual and personal as well. I could list a thousand reasons why celebrating Canada 150 hurts and why it is just a magnified and compounded example of what every single day feels like. Instead, I will tell you a story because it is the clearest, most personalized example of settler colonialism and Indigenous erasure that I have found.

We never had family names. We were, and still are, connected by clan, community, band and tribe. Many of the surnames we use were written into treaty lists by priests or Indian Agents, the names distorted or assigned by the colonial representative. A friend of mine from Treaty 9 territory has the last name Nothing. When I first met her I thought that she was resisting and, like Malcolm X, had chosen to use a name that highlighted how, for a period, we weren’t even allowed to name our own children.

Anawtin is an Anishinaabe word that means Calm Wind. My friend’s grandfather was one of the signatories to that very problematic Treaty 9 and when it was his turn to add his name to the document, the Indian Agent heard him say “nothing.” With that one act, a name that was given in ceremony, one that would have connected her grandfather to his community, identified his character and attributes in stories and painted a beautiful image full of meaning and beauty, was reduced, literally, to Nothing.

The only appropriate way to respond to the narrative of the state whilst celebrating 150 years of genocide – the only way you can do it without losing your mind – is with a single-line press release reading, “Indigenous people are normal people deserving of the same respect afforded to anyone else and the recognition of their inherent rights – but they are rarely given that due to the machinations of settler colonialism.”

So I use the night to count how many different ways I can find to say that I am a human being, I am Indigenous and I am still here.

Canada 150 is just a year of revictimization. Like it wasn’t enough to colonize once, now we are going to shove it down your throat.

[christacouture]

Today I am celebrating the survival and resilience of Indigenous people. #resistance150

[outsidermagazine-blog]

#Canada150: What Exactly Are We Celebrating?

Can we celebrate "progress" while indigenous communities in Quebec and Ontario remain without water? Can we celebrate our rumoured kindness when we contribute to crimes against humanity abroad?

“In Quebec, the community of Kitigan Zibi has been without safe water since 1993. 

In the case of this particular community, uranium was discovered in the tap water approximately 24 years ago, but it was not until 1999 that the government finally declared the tap water unsafe for drinking following reports of residents getting cancer. 

Similarly, in Ontario, Neskantaga has remained without drinking water for 23 years. The Huffington Post cited testimony from an 18 year old girl who said showering at home left her body with blisters...

While the Canadian Federal government spends 500 million dollars on Canada Day celebrations, Inuit communities in Nunavut live in debilitating poverty, unable to feed their families...”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON OUTSIDER

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FOLLOW THE OUTSIDERS

[pas-daccord]

Wearing all black today instead of red because fuck le 150ieme I stand with our indigenious people #resistance150