[Sundaycommunity] Fwd: [Ruah] Science Matters - Indigenous Land Back movement charts better way forward

Fri Jun 25 09:19:04 PDT 2021

These are three short videos about the Land Back project. I found them to
be clear and enlightening. Indigenous and Settler, we’re all in this
together. Listening to Indigenous voices is the first step towards
reconciliation.
Blessings of Summer, Catherine

Begin forwarded message:

*From:* David Suzuki Foundation <subscribers at davidsuzuki.org>
*Date:* June 25, 2021 at 7:01:55 AM EDT
*Subject:* *Science Matters - Indigenous Land Back movement charts better
way forward*
*Reply-To:* subscribers at davidsuzuki.org

The Indigenous “Land Back” movement isn’t new, but it’s gaining increasing
public attention and support.
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(Photo: Screenshot from Land Back video series)
Indigenous Land Back movement charts better way forward

The Indigenous “Land Back”
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3Dxn-ZEAEVSLIULGM1X8WXTJD-pCRt5rbiFgeprgDn9WnsOpMCXiPTMDOY2fDQFDNQI=>
movement isn’t new, but it’s gaining increasing public attention and
support.

In this time of facing uncomfortable truths about past and ongoing harms
inflicted on Indigenous Peoples and others, it’s important to understand
the history of colonial oppression, and the roots and goals of Land Back
and what it means.

It’s not just about land. In the first of three short *Land Back* videos
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3KPJtEYnL-nEMgHoXiL5q240OyuS1LRyr0y9Ci3qi6B7CBaFVCfo9xrzKTT8mtWM6Z4=>
(about 12 minutes each) — “Past
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3HMcgwA2-W84gJA8GDJAYczDCJcuJcQ8VMnNCzp0WFWXpUfMP9ZJDrhuPN14ryK28r4=>,”
“Present
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3KgVh0T9UEuW-UwaeeFSXL7VHJAwLEvJdfr5bobC8EtYMZ39_8iq_Bq26YQd1dwMTm0=>”
and “Future
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3NERYhDMpbUpizoiwwx24GQnMSVnj7WMFCb56Z-UjG7Na2TOlLxiuSVin0c8HIXHvcQ=>”
— Ojibwe journalist Jesse Wente says, “It’s about self-determination for
our Peoples here that should include some access to the territories and
resources in a more equitable fashion, and for us to have control over how
that actually looks.”

Throughout Canada’s history, Indigenous Peoples have been forced from the
lands that sustained them for millennia to ever-diminishing “reservations”
so colonizers could exploit “resources.” Even national parks, including
Jasper and Banff, and municipal parks like Vancouver’s Stanley Park
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3F9XXNfWIV5CBqTnA4q2m0a-KG9T280E3y_9gIJfFxwyM0kotrB2zTQY3bFZlR9mLzc=>,
were created after the original people living there were expelled.

As Jasper’s website says
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3GJK0UeXKrHFKI-gq22RcDGbF_xiFmTGnYshyi4GV8O4Qn6V4PGrijdFz7Ao8UQ0_WI=>
of the park’s creation in 1907, “Indigenous peoples were considered
incompatible with nature and so couldn’t live in, hunt, or harvest within
park boundaries. First Nation and Métis peoples were physically removed
from the landscape, blocked from accessing it and banned from harvesting
plants and animals, holding gatherings and accessing cultural sites.”

Most federal and provincial Crown lands are viewed as storehouses of
timber, oil, gas and minerals to be exploited and mostly exported.
Indigenous Peoples have no say over what happens on most of it, so land
defenders
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3J8uxv4nsxeS7ZaiU5HdklfpbKK6oD_kkRHJUOk0-acv0SbupHNWgZPnklPNC_MkLm4=>
have to step in.

Wente argues that Canada was established more as an “extractionist
corporation” than a country.

“When Canada formed and became its own country, they created something
called the Indian Act, which was to force people off their traditional
lands, have them contained onto reservations and then filtered into
colonization so that they would never, ever become a threat to resource
extraction.”

Anishinaabe storyteller and artist Bomgiizhik agrees: “When Canada formed
and became its own country, they created something called the Indian Act,
which was to force people off their traditional lands, have them contained
onto reservations and then filtered into colonization so that they would
never, ever become a threat to resource extraction.”

As with the recent finding of 215 children buried on the grounds of the
former Kamloops Residential School (and evidence of many more throughout
the country), growing awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women
and girls, the appalling foster care and “’60s scoop” systems
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3GEeviTTzhH3mlOH2gotx4k9-g4Gf3km3NmjogZuTHot8vB5cmpNqv0dnJFQ3cpWLik=>
and more, these issues are not history; they’re ongoing, with impacts that
continue through generations.

Ultimately, Land Back is about confronting these colonial abuses and
charting a new path. But it holds different meanings for different people.

Anishinaabe-Ininew 4Rs Youth Movement co-ordinator Ronald Gamblin writes in
a blog
<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/MTg4LVZEVS0zNjAAAAF94c3-3LLTUcSAf-k-gE1AMLyqiqzqT5-PM0VYhKnb37AucOM-JNQmPQAIvnvY6JbKBdsTGis=>,
“When I hear Indigenous youth and land protectors chant ‘Land Back!’ at a
rally, I know it can mean the literal restoration of land ownership. When
grandmothers and knowledge keepers say it, I tend to think it means more
the stewardship and protection of mother earth. When Indigenous political
leaders say it, it often means comprehensive land claims and self-governing
agreements. No matter what meaning is attached, we as Indigenous nations
have an urge to reconnect with our land in meaningful ways.”

It’s about responsibilities as well as rights. Beverly Jacobs, acting dean
at the University of Windsor’s law faculty and a member of the
Haudenosaunee Confederation, says Indigenous laws are about responsibility,
relationships and reciprocity. “It isn’t until we bring in the colonial law
that all of a sudden we’re talking about rights,” she says, noting that
rights are based on the individual whereas Indigenous law is based on
responsibility to “all our relations,” including land.

“It’s not that the Earth can’t sustain all of humanity. It’s that the Earth
can’t sustain what humans are doing.”

That’s important, as western ways are unsustainable. “It’s not that the
Earth can’t sustain all of humanity. It’s that the Earth can’t sustain what
humans are doing,” Wente says.

The goal is to move forward together, not return to some idealized past.
“Every relationship evolves, and our relationship with land has to be one
that accepts our modern circumstances as Indigenous People,”
Anishinaabe-Métis associate professor Aimée Craft says.

Bomgiizhik says Canada must listen to Indigenous Peoples not just when
they’re protesting or blockading. “How we’re going to win is by people
working together and actually getting on the land and building sustainable
economies with their bare hands.”

Land Back is rooted in Indigenous Peoples’ rights and responsibilities, but
it’s also about finding a better way forward for everyone who lives here.

*Written by David Suzuki with contributions from Senior Editor and Writer
Ian Hanington *

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