START

Want to keep yourself engaged in Indigenous rights content but don't have the capacity to read more books? Here’s a place to #start (we love the puns!): @pampalmater is a Mi’kmaw lawyer, professor, activist, and educator who has an incredible selection of blogs and YouTube videos that we highly recommend you check out! Dr. Palmater is an inspiring Indigenous warrior who generously shares her strength with others in the fight for Indigenous rights. Check out her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/pp2cool. #PamPalmater #warrior #Indigenous #students #trentu [Image description: quote: "inspiring the next generation of warriors to protect our people and the planet", Dr. Pam Palmater, 2021 above a misty forest and mountaintops].

Great event coming up next week!

Our new winter semester meeting times are Mondays at 9:30am via Zoom! We chat about things like settler colonialism, our responsibilities, what it means to be a treaty person, and where we need to learn more or do more action. This space is geared to settlers, but it is open for all people affiliated with Trent. Please DM us for questions or Zoom information. [image description: a sunset with bright red skies and trees in dark shadows with the words "Mondays at 9:30am, DM us for the Zoom link"]

Reminder of our event tomorrow!!

Join us and @theseasonedspoon for a Screening of Invasion on THIS Thursday, Jan 21 at 7pm via Zoom. Invasion is a short documentary about the Unist’ot’en Camp, the Gidimt’en checkpoint and the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s ongoing struggle in standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people. The Unist’ot’en Camp has been a beacon of resistance for nearly 10 years. It is a healing space for Indigenous people and settlers... alike, and an active example of decolonization. The Wet’suwet’en people have been locked in a fight for the future health of their land, unceded traditional territory which remains relatively intact. We will lead a short discussion following the film. For those who attended the previous attempt at this event in November, we apologize again for the chaos that ensued. We have taken greater precautions and security measures to again offer this very important discussion about ongoing Indigenous resistance. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

A settler is someone who has come from another place & established their livelihood on lands they are not Indigenous to. They attempt to replace the original inhabitants of that place and/or disrupt Indigenous ways of living and being (unconsciously or consciously, but regardless of intention the outcome is still the same). Settler is an important word to designate non-Indigenous people to point to how we directly benefit from settler colonialism even though it can make folx ...uncomfortable or defensive. The word ‘settler’ implicates our responsibility as settlers on this land to the First Peoples of the Territories we live on. While it can be discomforting & you may feel defensive, unsettling our embedded colonial ideologies & identities that are predicated on the theft of Indigenous lands should be uncomfortable! There is space for this discomfort in specific spaces (like our meetings). Please, do not burden Indigenous peoples with your settler guilt by randomly apologizing for your existence or making up excuses for why your family hasn’t been *that* bad. Take responsibility for your discomfort and own your feelings. It is completely normal and actually good to feel uncomfortable! Feeling lost or overwhelmed? By looking to Indigenous leadership & alliances through social media accounts or organization websites, we may be able channel our discomfort to more productive actions. And, you can find appropriate spaces to work through some of these feelings like our meetings! We now meet this semester on Mondays at 9:30am. DM us for details. (This conversation can become more complicated when you consider the descendants of slaves and/or refugees.) References -Davis, L., Hiller, C., James, C., Lloyd, K., Nasca, T., & Taylor, S. (2016). Complicated pathways: Settler Canadians learning to re/frame themselves and their relationships with Indigenous peoples. Settler Colonial Studies, 7(4), 1-17. -Regan, P. (2010). Unsettling the Settler Within. Unsettling the Settler: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation. Vancouver: UBC -Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1(1).