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Session Objective: to consider our own positions within racist structures and identify how we can work against oppressive systems
As we prepare for the final week of our class meetings, we turn to questions of ‘allyship’ and ‘solidarity’. What does it mean, to do anti-racist work? How can we support marginalised communities? How do the answers to these questions differ, depending on our own positionality?
Our last group discussions will be reflective conversations about our key takeaways and personal areas for continued growth. Today’s Learning Log is meant to help you identify concrete areas for action you might take to promote environmental justice.
Challenge: the racism, paternalism, and performativity that often accompanies ‘service’ and ‘support’ from well-meaning white people and/or individuals from the Global North.
This speech by Ivan Illich was given in 1968. As you read, think about: What’s changed? What hasn’t? How is the ‘white saviour’ complex connected to ideas and practices of ‘allyship’?
Illich - Good Intentions.pdfIvan Illich was born in Vienna, Austria to a Croatian father and a Sephardic Jewish mother. A philosopher and historian, Illich wrote and spoke widely against the mass institutionalisation of education and medical systems as part of his critique of modernity. He spent years as a Roman Catholic priest before being rebuked by the Vatican for his growing criticism.
Illich spent much of his life in Puerto Rico and Mexico, and founded the progressive Centro Intercultural de Documentación (Intercultural Center for Documentation) in 1961. The Center hosted anti-imperialist language and culture classes for missionaries and others.
Consider: various perspectives on anti-racist action with these pieces exploring allyship, solidarity, and ‘woke’ culture.
optional: You might also learn from this critique of “Solidarity as a Settler Move to Innocence” by Miranda Grundy, Jessica Jiang, and May Niiya, which references Tuck and Yang’s “Decolonization is Not a Metaphor” from earlier in the course.
Listen: to Lyla June’s “All Nations Rise”. You are also strongly encouraged to read her essay, The Story of How Humanity Fell in Love with Itself Again.
read lyrics
Indigenous people
Shine your light – we are equal
I remember the days
When our prayers were illegal
I remember the days
When being Indian was lethal
Yeah, we had a rough past
But get ready for the sequel
Get ready for the glorious comeback
of our people
Rise up – all you warriors of love
All you answers to the prayers
of our ancestors from above
I can feel it in my heart
Can you feel it in your blood?
I can hear the Seventh Fire
Calling us to wake up
All nations rise
Rise up ’cause now’s your time
We don’t have to hide anymore
’Cause now’s our time
With forgiveness as my bow
And my prayers as my arrows
Pull it back & let it go
I watch ’em fly like sparrows
Have hope
Yeah, have hope
With compassion as my shield
And faith down to my marrow
I will walk the Pollen Path
Even when it gets narrow
Resurrect
Yes, you can bet
That we’ve seen the single mama
Raising children on the rez
We’ve seen domestic violence
Terror, power, we have left
We’ve seen the alcohol
Take it all and leave us dead
We’ve seen the children take their lives
When they can’t take the dread
anymore – it’s a war
Can’t take the dread anymore
No we can’t take the dread anymore
It’s a war
It’s a war, but we’ve seen it all before
And now we know we can change it
’Cause that’s why we were born
We know we are the ones
That we have been waiting for
We are the ones grandma has been praying for
in Spanish:
Pueblo Hermoso
Levantense es nuestro tiempo
No tienes que esconderte mas
ahora es nuestro tiempo
mujer indigena, tu eres tan sagrada
tragas medicina de tu suelo todavia
a pesar del abuso de tu cuerpo y tu tierra
respetamos tus ancestros y la suya cultura
Hombre Indigena
Tu eres honorable
y yo veo la fuerza que todavia sobrevive
y a pesar del abuso de tu raza venerable
yo respeto tus ritos, tus danzas, tus padres
Somos los guerreros del amor y guerreros de la paz
No vamos a escondernos mas
Somos guerreros del amor y guerreros de la paz
No vamos a escondernos mas
They say that history is written by the victors
But how can there be a victor, when the war isn’t over?
The battle has only just begin
And Creator is sending his very best warriors
And this time, it isn’t ‘Indians versus cowboys’
No, this time, it is all the beautiful races of humanity
Together on the same side
And we are fighting to replace our fear with love
And this time, bullets, arrows, and cannonballs won’t save us
The only weapons that are useful in this battle
Are the weapons of truth, faith, and compassion.
Lyla June Johnston is an Indigenous public speaker, artist, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages from Taos, New Mexico.
Her messages focus on Indigenous rights, supporting youth, traditional Land stewardship practices and healing intergenerational and intercultural trauma.
She blends undergraduate studies in human ecology at Stanford University, graduate work in Native American Pedagogy at the University of New Mexico, and the indigenous worldview she grew up with to inform her perspectives and solutions. Her internationally acclaimed presentations are conveyed through the medium of poetry, music, and speech. Lyla is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in Indigenous Studies with a focus on Indigenous Food Systems Revitalization.
photo by Hemmie Lindholm and Come to Life Media
Celebrate: these stories about solidarity, mutual aid, and allyship between and within a variety of communities.
Brainstorm: ways to practice solidarity and engage in anti-racist work by learning from the creative community initiatives highlighted below.
Donate financially to groups like the Segorea Te’ Land Trust, La Via Campsina, the Mining and Environmental Justice Community Network of South Africa, and others we’ve learned about in class.
Organise with your local community through groups like Showing Up for Racial Justice, the Climate Justice Alliance, and the Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice.
Learn about Indigenous and environmental struggles around the world by regularly tuning into platforms like Earth Matters, Deep Pacific, and Just Us and the Climate.
Commit: to a new creation story with Chief Lady Bird, as she calls for people to “add mud to the Turtle’s back” in the piece below.
“We Have to be the Muskrat in a New Creation Story” (2020)
Nancy King (Potawatomi/Chippewa) is a visual artist from Mnjikaning Rama First Nation and has paternal roots in Moosedeer Point First Nation in Ontario. King signs all her artwork with her Anishinaabe name Ogimaakwebnes, which means Chief Lady Bird in the Ojibway language. She completed her BFA in 2015 in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University and has been exhibiting her work since she was fourteen years old.
Through her art practice she looks to the past (both historically and traditionally) to help her navigate her Anishinaabe identity whilst living in an urban space as well as advocate for Indigenous representation as an integral aspect of Canada’s national identity.
This piece is inspired by a Creation Story, in which Muskrat – an often overlooked animal – successfully dives to the seabed and carries mud up to place on Turtle’s back, creating Land.
“Every time we unlearn toxic behaviour...resolve our trauma...fight against systemic & environmental racism...that’s another chunk of mud on the turtle’s back.
Complete: your final Learning Log via the form below.
bonus!
Browse: the materials below for more resources on community organising, anti-racist solidarity, and environmental justice. (And remember you can add your own to our Community Bookshelf, or email us to suggest additions to our Recommended Resources!)
4Rs-Framework-Final.pdfDecolonization Handbook.pdfGoogle Sites
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