The only hope for a sustainable future is sustained grassroots resistance and revolt against the global system that TODAY is destroying our world.
The global crisis is very real. This Beast, the global Empire, is made up of an interconnected conglomerate of colonizing and colonized “nations” of the world and it has its grip on the lands of every continent of our beautiful world. This Beast is the source of the global crisis unfolding. The system that supports it is fuelled by the myth of perpetual growth which advances the reckless exploitation of limited resources – this path is unsustainable.
This global system is incapable of responding to the current global crisis. A machine that cannot be stopped from within. Empire itself is the source of the unfolding global destruction and, because it is locked into this way of knowing, will inevitably witness its own destruction.
Colonization is the process of one group invading the lands of Original Peoples, exploiting both the lands and its peoples, and the imposition of an alternative understanding of reality upon them. Colonization has been very effective on the Great Plains. The very knowledge that colonization sought to remove from collective thought, through genocide and assimilation, is the very knowledge we will need to survive through the coming storm.
TODAY, the greatest risk to the pan-Indigenous sovereigntist movement are the co-opted voices of the “Indian” elite. It is doubtful that this elite is capable of effectively standing firm on things that for the sovereigntist are non-negotiable. Those who embrace western ideology as a legitimate lens with which to understand reality align themselves with the nation-states that today perpetuate the continued destruction of our world. Unless the land and its Original Peoples are liberated from further destruction and free to determine their own way forward there can be no reconciliation.
Today, there is much talk among elected “leaders” of a new “partnership” that seeks to pacify the growing resistance through promises. However, what is unfolding is a rapid awakening that is spreading hand-in-hand with the reality of the unfolding global crisis. The time for promises has past. Today, we need action.
Those who are ‘awake’ – both settlers and Original Peoples - are determined to overcome their collective colonial legacy. This is why the pan-Indigenous sovereigntist movement is gathering strength. Those within this growing movement will accept nothing less than sovereignty in the context of international law. Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination as defined within the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP).
The legitimacy of elected ‘leadership’ must be challenged given the current global crisis. Those who embrace western ideology as a legitimate lens through which to understand reality are aligning themselves with the processes and purposes of the Empire that is the driver of the global crisis. The current election system is not a legitimate process as it was imposed on Original Peoples. Today, it is critical that appropriate leadership be established.
A ‘new’ relationship cannot be defined by those who do not acknowledge the role western ideology has played as the driver of the global destruction unfolding around us, therefore, by blindly following elected ‘leaders’ we place the well-being of future generations at risk and, more significantly, as a collective we fail our duty to them. Today, it is the duty of all peoples to stand united to defend the lands that sustain all life.
THE fundamental, non-negotiable starting point for the pan-Indigenous sovereigntist movement is the liberation of the lands and its Original Peoples. To this point, our shared journey has been one of countless broken promises by colonizers - one after another. We do not have time for empty words or promises used like dope to continue to numb us, desensitize us, and ultimately control us.
Our treaty elders tell us that our treaties are sacred and are a bridge to our collective future. Today, the oral version of our treaties are living arrangements that need to be enforced, not implemented. It is the peoples who must do this; not governments nor their officials. Not ‘elected leaders’ nor anyone who has any vested interest in the ‘resources’ of this great land. The oral version limits use of the land to nothing deeper than 8 inches or 20 centimetres – and that applies to both settlers and Original Peoples.
What is reconciliation?
It is healing. Healing of the damaged and corrupted peoples who walk this land and the very land itself.
If one is to have an accurate understanding of global history and the history of so-called Canada, one must also understand that history from the telling of Original Peoples. Otherwise, any ‘vision’ is a distorted illusion drawn from a deceptive narrative. We must know where we have come from to understand where we are going.
Without liberty of the land there cannot be reconciliation. Liberty of Original Peoples and the land itself are two parts of the same coin, and it will be through this liberation that we will save ourselves and others.
This article is a collection of excerpts from: https://www.facebook.com/notes/wendy-lynn-lerat/reconciliation-as-liberation-of-peoples-and-lands/1029080290483033
