Erica Violet Lee
@ericavioletlee
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once a cool girl was admiring my antler earrings and called them "so goblincore". I didn't have the heart to tell her I was just Cree
misāskwatōminihk
Joined April 2007
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I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
GENOCIDE TO STOP
June Jordan, “Intifada Incantation: Poem
#8
for b.b.L.”
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say genocide. call it genocide. it's not a war. it's not a conflict. it never was. it is genocide.
Israel is committing genocide.
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I asked a friend who seems to “have it all” for her productivity hacks. She said “napping”, so I followed that advice and it is working better than any app or book or trendy time management method I’ve ever tried.
Capitalism really works to dispossess us from our bodies, huh
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Found out that my 8-year-old cousin died of COVID on the rez this morning.
Just a few months ago his dad also passed away.
So much loss, so much grief. So little time to mourn in between the hits. We must make time.
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Native children’s lives were not “lost”, they were stolen.
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Feeling “too much”, being “too soft”, dreaming “too big” in a world where our minds and bodies are violently constrained by capitalism and colonialism is perhaps the deepest act of love for this universe, and for one another.
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Reminder that Canada, Aus, & New Zealand govts are agreeing to a ceasefire with a joint statement now
not because they are against the g cide in Palestine
but because all 3 rely on “Nice Colonialism” as a brand to maintain order with large NDN populations
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Two academic degrees haven’t taken me and my mom above the poverty line and probably never will. We’re really just supposed to incur tens of thousands in debt to a colonial state over decades in hope that one day, it all pays off with a job. What a lottery.
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My ancestors wildest dreams were so far beyond receiving recognition from colonizers.
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Did you know you don’t actually need the token white guy on a panel about race? That you can just have a panel with Black and Indigenous women? Weird right???
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Solidarity with my Ojibwe sister Tara Houska (
@zhaabowekwe
), who is fighting criminalization by the U.S. for putting her body on the line in an act of great love and resistance back in October.
Send love to Tara,
@GiniwCollective
, and Indigenous land defenders everywhere.
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Tonight I am thinking of those who menstruate, have endometriosis, pelvic pain conditions, PCOS, cysts, fibroids, those going through PMS or menopause, any kind of reproductive system health concerns or pains, all while trying to survive genocide.
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Canada’s hatred of Natives is not subtle. It is not polite. It is not peaceful.
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Fuck the Canadian media saying this pandemic should be a lesson in "becoming better at saving income" (3-6 months worth, they say). What sickening privilege.
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I need constant reminders that I only get one body and I need to be intentional in caring for her. Food, water, rest, and whatever else you know you need to be as well as possible.
I’m also privileged enough to be a writer/artist. I’m not rich but I can make time for naps.
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I’m Cree from Saskatchewan, currently down visiting Southern California.
I was in crisis earlier. I called 911 to ask for assistance accessing mental health counselling or a way to visit a hospital that my Indian Status would cover.
The dispatcher immediately sent the police.
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Today in “Natives Told You So”
A new analysis of horse bones revealed that horses were present in the American West by the early 1600s, earlier than many written histories suggest. The timing is significant because it matches up with the oral histories of multiple Indigenous groups.
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I wish that academics with supportive romantic partners gave more public credit to how loving, stable partnerships are a privilege that allows their academic work to flourish (or even exist in the first place), particularly men but also ww.
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“For the first time since the year 1876 a bison has been born on the land at Wanuskewin.” 😭😭😭🥰🥰🥰
For the first time since the year 1876 a bison has been born on the land at Wanuskewin. We thank the Elders for their guidance during this exciting time! Although the park remains closed at this time we cannot wait to welcome the community back to join us
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if canada were to admit that gerald stanley - a white settler farmer - killing a young nêhiyaw man is "murder", they would have to admit their nation is founded on genocide. this is what colonialism is. it is murder.
#JusticeForColten
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Do not call the police when someone Black, Native, or brown is in mental health crisis.
Do not call the police when anyone is in mental health crisis.
We need community care frameworks, not police intervention.
We need abolition now.
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White Canadians: your relatives are currently threatening to run over Indigenous people with vehicles, shoot us, murder us.
None of this is being talked about in media headlines, only the “inconvenience” of land defenders.
But our resistance is ancient and it is beautiful.
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After I get my PhD, the first article I publish will be:
a list of names of academic men who tried to harass, manipulate, exploit or take advantage of me,
starting in grade 5 with the principal who took me out of class and into an art supply closet.
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I lost a bunch of followers tweeting about Palestine. I’m Cree. What did you think was going to happen? Did you forget these internet servers are on Native land?
From Treaty Six to the inner city to the sea, Palestine will be free. 🇵🇸
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I want to listen to Palestinian music, hear Palestinian spoken word, read Palestinian poetry, fiction, non-fiction, children’s books.
Post your favourites.
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Another mass grave of hundreds of Native children uncovered at Cowessess, Saskatchewan.
This is genocide.
This colonial country is rotten to its core.
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I think an anti capitalist ethic of self-care means acknowledging that we know best the care we need to thrive in any given moment.
I know that I need to prioritize sleep *when I feel it* or I will bottom out and get very sick. I refuse to let work to do that to me anymore.
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still tending to life, small and soft, in the crosshairs of conquest’s oblivious rage. and still, tenderness. and still, life.
A boy from Gaza went to Khan Younis to feed a group of starving cats, who have become thin and scruffy from lack of food amid Israel’s ongoing war.
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I have found that very few Canadian academics have the ability to teach about Indigenous life in a way that does not reduce our entire worlds to the residential school experience, to that which has been done to us.
My ancestors burned down the residential school at Thunderchild.
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The Canadian/Aus/NZ vote for a ceasefire came because of people’s activism with an emphasis on direct action, led by significant Indigenous populations (a growing number of us have been in the streets almost every day since October)
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Of course she recorded it. Natives have known that hospitals aren’t safe places for us. We know, we have known. We deserve better health care than this. We deserve life.
#JoyceEchaquan
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Content warning:
the following tweets are regarding the horrific news about Kamloops Indian residential school & a conversation I had with my psychiatrist. Graphic content will be minimized to every extent possible, but because of the nature of the story it cannot be eliminated.
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Do not police the ways that Indigenous people are reacting to the news.
We have the right to mourn, be furious, cry and scream or dissociate or focus on pleasure or do whatever it is we need to do to be okay.
Let us exist. That’s all we’ve ever wanted.
This isn’t an ask.
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FYI Canada is known internationally by Indigenous folks for mining companies that poison water & kill women, not for being "polite"
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It’s actually so painful to endure white folks who make activism their brand when the activism is our lives.
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Nearly 100 percent of youth incarcerated in Saskatchewan are Indigenous.
(92% for boys, 98% for girls.)
Colonization hasn't ended here, so neither does our resistance.
We will bring them all home.
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My new piece for The Guardian:
Native children didn’t ‘lose’ their lives at residential schools. Their lives were stolen | Erica Violet Lee
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I’m young and thin and appear able-bodied so to publicly declare “I need to rest now or I’m going to die, anyone else?” and then provide an opportunity to peace out (thinking about academic settings here) can also help others
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Witnessing the way Black folks in canada are including Indigenous folks in their calls for justice against police violence even though there is no obligation to do that right now. Non-Black Indigenous folks, we need to be on that level of solidarity always, no excuses. None.
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When I tweet anything other than hot takes about racism & colonialism, my follows & interactions slow. Why?
Indigenous people on here are expected to be one-dimensional, constantly performing political rage or grief for the settler gaze.
Sometimes I just wanna talk about music.
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3 universities that still haven't paid me for talks delivered in 2018.
Constant back-and-forth emails, working through incomprehensible forms, EXCEL SHEETS, more and more information required each time.
You hired me as a young Indigenous scholar. It shouldn't be this hard.
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Thank you to everyone who has sent messages and resources. I can’t respond to everything yet but please know that I’m safe now. 🦋
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Messed up how Indigenous folks are seen as constant critics and complainers.
Like they think we *want* to be fighting colonialism and racism and poverty every day.
Trust me, we would rather be celebrating, having fun, and just living our lives. If only that were possible.
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I got the Canada Council grant for my book. My first national arts award 🥲
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Jasper is stolen land. Nakoda, Cree, Secwépemc & Dane-zaa were forcibly removed for the establishment of the national park.
This is the history of national parks in Canada.
This is the history of Canada.
We are living the consequences of ongoing colonialism.
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I told the 911 dispatcher that my masters degree is in Social Justice Education, including the dangers that police pose to Black, brown, and Native people in distress, and because of those facts and my own lived experience, I know very well that cops are not a safe option.
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Today should have been Colten Boushie’s 27th birthday. Halloween was his favourite.
We miss you. We remember you. We love you. 🎈
#JusticeForColtenBoushie
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Again with the posts about “ceded” vs “unceded” lands, folks speaking as though nations who signed treaties agreed to cede and surrender our homelands; the implication, that we gave up or didn’t fight hard enough for our freedoms.
This is a cruel lie and a misreading of treaty.
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I told the dispatcher I didn’t need police, I needed connection to mental health services - he said “yes, the police will help you”.
I said “I am Native American. Police routinely kill Black, brown, and Native people on mental health calls. Please do not send the police.”
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My white friend is with me and he dealt with them, mostly. That reason alone is, perhaps, quite literally why I am still alive and safe right now. I know this to be a fact, and anyone Black/NDN/brown knows it too.
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Native people don’t owe settlers our trauma. We don’t owe settlers tragic stories.
If we choose to share those stories, there are ways to honour those stories in their complexity without consuming us whole.
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seeing my words handwritten on a protest sign with a sharpie is a far greater honour than any prestigious literary award could ever be.
it means I’m doing my job as a writer.
(thank you for the photo, Nevra)
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The dispatcher replied “You’re not well and you need to go with the police.”
I said “I did not ask for police. If you send police, my life will be put in danger. All I need is a counsellor to speak with or a safe place to go that my Indian Status (NIHB) will cover…”
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so anyway, boycott Loblaws:
Superstore
No Frills
Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix
Real Canadian Liquor Store
Freshmart
Supervalu
T&T Supermarket
Zehrs
Valu-Mart
Provigo
No Name
Your Independent Grocer
City Market
Fortinos
Wholesale Club
Maxi
Extra Foods
Dominion Stores
PC Express..
Loblaw’s new chief executive, as well as chairman Galen Weston, pushed back on what they called “misguided criticism” of the grocer as a push to boycott the company gains steam online.
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The 911 dispatcher scoffed. He scoffed.
“I’ve never heard of that happening.
The only reason that would happen is if you are a danger to them, if you have a weapon.
Do you have a weapon?”
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Treaty doesn’t mean ceded. Treaty doesn’t mean surrendered. Treaty doesn’t mean sold. Treaty doesn’t mean given up.
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Now watching the cops give a man downtown a loitering ticket for collecting bottles.
We need community supports that are not police. DESPERATELY.
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Who checks in on you? Who really, genuinely checks in on you? Hold them close.
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The Guardian’s review of
#PreyMovie
“whoa did u guys know the Native Americans brushed their teeth??? Wacky!!!”
Natives: quite literally introduced basic hygiene to British colonizers
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“The thing is that people are still alive who played and play direct roles in this genocide, who facilitated its hiding.”
This is undeniably true and it terrifies me. There are still people IN POWER who played and play direct roles in Canada’s genocide of Indigenous people.
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I talked to my psychiatrist about the Kamloops residential school mass grave discovery. He’s from Nigeria and we talk openly about colonization every visit.
His first remark, after listening deeply, was “It takes high-level strategic planning to hide something of this scale.”
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I ended the call.
5-10 minutes later they banged at the door.
Knowing they would break it down if I didn’t answer, I prayed and prepared to open it. Time slowed to a stop.
In that moment I was seconds from possibly being killed by the police like so many of us before & still.
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Your daily reminder that feeling fucked up is a legitimate emotional and physical response to living in a world built on capitalism and colonialism. We are not meant to live like this.
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Awful, infuriating. Jaskirat Singh Sidhu should be allowed to stay in Canada. This is unbelievably unjust. He is a permanent resident. Deporting him to India does nothing to repair harm.
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the colonial project of Canada is rooted now and forever in multiple genocides.
the colonial project of Canada is irredeemable, and it is irreconcilable with life.
The United Nations has just voted 145-7 in favor of a resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlement building in Palestine (inc. East Jerusalem) & Syria.
The countries voting against the bill:
🇮🇱 Israel
🇺🇸 USA
🇨🇦 Canada
🇭🇺 Hungary
🇲🇭 Marshall Islands
🇫🇲 Micronesia
🇳🇷 Nauru
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The murdering of Indigenous people - of nêhiyawak - by canada and by saskatchewan has always been legal. And we have lived, and fought, and loved in spite of it. And we will live, and fight, and love in spite of it.
#JusticeForColten
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I'm high, and I just remembered I was chosen to greet Princess Anne - queen Elizabeth's daughter - on her royal visit to Saskatoon when I was in grade 8 because I was a good student and therefore, a good little Native subject.
I wish I could go back in time and steal her purse.
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We need to start organizing less ableist gatherings. Not everyone in our community can march for blocks on end, without water, without breaks or places to sit and rest. I’ve seen too many people physically left behind by marches.
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I get tired when white folks have ceremonial names, ceremonial access, $ to pay for language classes, objects like pipes or drums, regalia - things which Native kids in the inner city or on the rez too rarely get.
Tired of colonialism’s endless taking.
Like, step back.
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Legally Blonde remains truly great cinema because Elle was literally never a shallow character, even at the beginning of the movie. She is femme and in love and loud and emotional and smart and ambitious. In this dissertation I will
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Before you settlersplain to Indigenous communities why direct action is “the wrong way to go about things”, consider this: don’t
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Yes, the term Indian “residential school” or “boarding school” is inadequate, despite the fact that many of us understand schools themselves to be violent institutions of assimilation and colonization.
These “residential/day schools” were prisons. They were forced labour camps.
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Journalists asking Singh questions on CBC right now are missing all the points, in every way possible.
“Do you stand by calling him a racist?” has been asked at least 3 times.
An absolute disgrace in such a meaningful moment.
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I’ve been an organizer for 10+ years in Saskatoon and grew up here. SPS have files on all of us and they hunt us down for information when they hear about any actions being planned.
When I talk about police brutality, they have literally CALLED MY MOM as an intimidation tactic.
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A lot of Native folx in Canada have deep connections with Palestine. There’s a solid reading list’s worth of stuff out there.
I’ve done work with
@m7mdkurd
,
@stevesalaita
, &
@AyyashMohannad
and I recommend you read & listen to all their stuff. 🌻
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In the midst of terror, know that Saskatchewan has a long, beautiful history of resistance to colonialism.
Our families never quit fighting for us. Parents camped in tipis outside those residential schooling prisons, waiting to see their kids.
They never gave up. Nor will we.
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The small, gentle languages we have been taught to use to politely name fascism. Say hatred. Say fascism. Say ecocide. Say genocide. Say dictator.
Name fragility.
Say this empire is breakable. Say this empire will be broken.
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Shitty mental health is actually a sane reaction to racism and colonialism and sexism all day everyday.
Our bodies and brains are smart enough to know that this isn’t natural or normal.
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Yes, it’s that deep. The language we use matters. The language we use when discussing Native life defines the past, the present, and the possible.
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When Indigenous femmes do theory it’s dismissed as poetry. When we do poetry, it’s dismissed as part of our biology. We are never permitted genius.
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I cannot emphasize enough how important it is in our movements right now to entirely end the stigmatization of drug and alcohol use by Indigenous people.
That we should be able to drink and take drugs and STILL not deserve to be murdered is not some crazy radical idea.
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all I want is a peaceful life, unburdened by colonialism, racism, poverty, war, sickness, and violence. all I want is a life of music, of writing, of travel, and love, and good food, and clean water, and hope. I long of sleep with no nightmares and a safe place to call home.
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Critiques of capitalism and colonialism are often dismissed as unproductive, angry, and destructive.
In fact, refusing the violence of these systems is one of the most loving acts possible.
We can (re)build worlds so far beyond what capitalism offers.
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I have grown to fucking hate the idea of “self care” for what it’s become. For me, self care would mean being able to access and afford healthy, substantial food, and when you live in poverty that doesn’t happen.
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Colten Boushie should be here today.
His mother, Debbie, asks us all to keep her son Colten in our thoughts today.
Colten Boushie should be here, today.
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This being said, I do not believe that poverty, as designated by the state or otherwise, means tragedy. We still have dreams and none of them necessitate capitalism.
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I don’t want to be the first Indigenous person. I don’t want to be the only Indigenous person.
The emphasis that media puts on these things contributes to scarcity mentality, pushing us to find “success” in a western worldview over community building.
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In the next world we build, no Native child will have their childhood violently stolen away by colonialism.
They will be free. We will be free.
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*sighs in Plains Cree*
🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 How would Americans act if this happened to them?
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As a full-time writer and not a student for the first time ever, I have more availability for talks this semester.
If you want a lecturer with expertise in Native feminisms, organizing/movements, anticolonial thought, and urban geographies, hire me!
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what would you do with your day if you were unbound by racism, colonialism, poverty?
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🌱 what would it look like if universities opened up their libraries to everyone in the community and quit hoarding all the access 🌱
I want to seriously raise an idea, it will sound provocative, but: what would it look like for universities to provide their graduates with lifelong library privileges?
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In Canada, Native men are largely viewed as the storytellers, the knowledge keepers, the ceremonialists, the big deals, the funny ones, the public intellectuals, the ones worth investing in. "Leading roles" for Native femmes are often based on our looks and image.
Burn it down.
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