One of the most uncomfortable viewing experiences I’ve had in my life came watching an episode of John Safran vs God where the comedian organised for a group of Aborigines to knock on the door of a house, the front of which displayed a plaque reading, ‘We are proud to acknowledge the Wurundjeri People as the traditional owners of this land’.

Two young Whitefella women opened their front door to be met with a group of Blackfellas asking politely if they could move in. When one of the astonished women asked what made them think they could demand that, the Blackfellas pointed to the sign.

It was a brilliant skewering of the Left, a devastating reveal of the limitations of symbol. Watching the sketch was mortifying because I recognised myself in the young women’s embarrassed and confused reactions. I, too, have been in houses displaying such upfront identification with Aboriginal solidarity and land rights.

This is an absolutely brilliant article about the limitations of western liberal notions of equality and social justice, and it is a must read for all would-be-allies and leftist activists. Just how far do your ideals run? For most people, the answer is, “only the point where I become somewhat uncomfortable and no further”.

This is also an important article for marginalised peoples, because as Andrea Smith points out so poignantly,  we all have to face the way in which White supremacy pits us against one another through what she calls the three logics of that White supremacy: (1) slaveability/anti-black racism, which anchors capitalism; (2) genocide, which anchors colonialism; and (3) orientalism, which anchors war. So when we envision a truly post-colonial existence, where do we see ourselves in relation to other marginalised groups? What discomfort must we face to overcome these logics of White supremacy? 

SAN FRANCISCO — When Liz DeRouen needs any kind of health care services, from diabetes counseling to a dental cleaning, she checks into a government-funded clinic in Northern California’s wine country that covers all her medical needs. Her care and the medical services for her children and grandchildren are paid for as part of the government’s treaty obligations to American Indian tribes dating back nearly a century.

Holy shit, this is HUGE, and the first time I’ve heard about this!

For those who don’t know me, I am a trained teacher and an indigenous mother. I have very strong beliefs about the importance of education. You can read some of those opinions here: http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/calling-all-our-superheroes

So I am not anti-education, by any stretch, and I even feel it is necessary for our children, native and non, to succeed in this crappy colonial, racist system because unless we jump through those hoops (and yes often even if we jump successfully) our children face marginalisation.

Nonetheless, I have little to no faith in the structures we are given as ‘options’. What I mean is, most schools are shit, the teachers are often shit, the admin are often shit, and the educational policies are definitely shit. School systems are still mired in 19th century mentality, and more importantly, schools are NOT safe places for the majority of children. Not even for most White children. “Safe and successful” schools are experienced by a tiny minority of extremely privileged children.

You’d think that with things so bad for most people, that there’d be a continent-wide movement to change this, but inertia is powerful. Particularly when economies are centered around the absolute need for parents to work full time just to survive, making it imperative that children be in the hands of daycare workers and teachers for the bulk of the day. Which, btw WOULD BE FINE IF THE SYSTEM DIDN’T ACTIVELY PERPETUATE VIOLENCE.

But I’ll tell you this. People have successfully brought education back to the community level before, and it can happen again. Freedom Schools. indigenous Survival Schools. Language Nests, etc.

Our communities, native and non, need to figure this out again. And we need to make it happen, by supporting our kids, and structures which elevate rather than pacify them. Yup, we need to keep those full time jobs, because that shit is life and death, no lie. But we also need to figure out how to support new models of education NOW. Cuz trust me, by the time the state figures this shit out, it’ll already be too late for our kids, and probably even our grand kids.

If I can teach Chemistry to 9 year olds in a third of the time it usually takes to run through a highschool course (and I’m not talking little Einsteins here, just regular kids)…then we can teach ALL our kids everything they need to succeed in this stupid standardised testing system AND what they need to learn to decolonise and recreate or create sustainable, human structures into the future.

Do you believe that? I absolutely do. Now I’ve got to figure out how to do it without letting my kids starve in the meantime.

And I WILL figure that shit out.

So I need to address this, from my perspective as a White-coded Metis. I come from a family that continues to live in our territory (outside of myself and one cousin we are all still there). There were many in my extended family who passed as White to avoid racism; there are some in my family who take self-hatred to all sorts of levels and treat their fellow native people like shit; and there are those who stayed true to who they are despite all the crap. So that whole tangle is represented where I come from, including the knots of adoptions, muddled histories, confused lines etc. All of us from out there are still rediscovering our real histories, because they have been so invalidated by colonial structures for so long; though a large part of that rediscovering means simply putting faith in what our Elders have been telling us all along, without having to hear it from some White academic.

I understand that it is easier to be accepted as native when you look a certain way, both in terms of being accepted by other native people, and by non-natives.

But to call that Red privilege, is to me, bizarre, despite the fact that I understand why it was said.

When you look White, and get treated White and that isn’t your identity, it sucks, yes. Trust me, I’m aware. But privilege? Should we also start discussing dark skinned Black privilege? “Obviously gay” privilege? “Clearly disabled” privilege (compared to those with disabilities which are not immediately obvious)?

Each one of these things does impact how people react to you, and whether or not they see you as Black, gay, disabled, or native…and maybe to people who are not instantly coded as what they are, it can seem unfair and it can even cause problems in your life. But in order to see it that way, you have to ignore all the privilege YOU have as someone who is being coded as a member of a dominant group AND you have to ignore the way in which being instantly recognised as a member of a marginalised group impacts those people.

The struggle that split feathers go through because of the continuing policies which place our children with non-native families at astronomical rates is a serious and damaging one. The experience of attempting, sometimes with almost no information, to reconnect, cannot be compared to growing up in your community. The experiences are just too disparate. But neither should we be buying into a concept of ‘Red privilege’. For White-coded or other non-native coded split feathers, the understanding of what it means to be ‘Red’ and connected is necessarily limited by personal experience. On the other side, most communities have had extensive experience with dealing with people trying to reconnect to that community.

There is something there, to being already connected and to knowing your family and community AND being immediately identifiably native…but given what my dark-skinned connected relations go through, you will never catch me calling it privilege.

Success, sacrifice, and Indigenous education

- confused? Time to revisit Andrea Smith’s article, “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy”.

We’re talking about restoring our indigenous languages, and this is going to be a great quick conversation, come check it out! Just click on the link to join the spreecast.

Tansi - Kuei - Bozhoo-Wachiya-Kwe Kwe, Shé:kon - Ahni
join Leanne Simpson Christi Belcourt, Clifton Nicholas, Khelsilem Rivers,Chelsea Vowel and others to discuss how to restore our languages in our every day lives. Sunday March 31 for National Aboriginal Language Day

This is going down in about 15 minutes, hope you join us!

I didn’t think I’d be so glued to the computer, but I haven’t missed a second of this conference yet. So much wisdom, so much being shared. From long ago kayas history to the struggles to have section 35 included in the Constitution; present day struggles, women, youth, elders, amazing.

If you’ve never seen this short film, take the time. It’s an absolutely brilliant look at colonialism in Australia done in that ‘tables turned’ way so many settlers seem to need to understand that something is wrong. The ‘reporter’ is wonderfully straight faced and does such an awesome job of acting like a self-absorbed white saviour type.