Indigenous Solidarity An (Un)Settler's Place

Friends of Grassy Narrows:
Becoming allies: working in solidarity with the Anishinaabe
http://newsocialist.org/newsite/index.php?id=334
by Dave Brophy

This is the last part of a three-part series of articles about Indigenous struggle in what is now known as Northwestern Ontario. The first article, in the Feb/March/April 2005 issue of NS, provided some history of the relationship between the Anishinaabe and the Canadian state during the years leading up to and following the signing of Treaty 3 in 1873, including the Canadian state’s violations of the agreement and the state-led campaign to destroy the Anishinaabe’s indigenous economy. The second article, in the May/June 2005 issue of NS, examined how the Canadian state continues to undermine the livelihoods of the Anishinaabe and the political factors that are shaping Grassy Narrows’ present fight for their lands.

This article will look at the Friends of Grassy Narrows, a group which works in solidarity with the Anishinaabe.

I first visited the road blockade at Slant Lake, near the reserve of Grassy Narrows First Nation, shortly after it went up. Activists from Grassy Narrows, which is called Asubpeeshoseewagong by the Anishinaabe, had started denying logging trucks entrance to the Whiskey Jack forest, located on the community’s traditional territory, on December 3, 2002. I was with Peter Kulchyski, head of the Native studies department at the University of Manitoba, and Alon Weinberg, a long-time environmental activist. We drove out from Winnipeg to offer moral and, we hoped, future material support to the courageous stand that was being taken by this small but determined community.

After spending an evening and the early part of the next day with the blockaders, (most of whom were from Grassy Narrows, although supporters from other First Nations were also there) we were truly inspired by the warmth, dignity and solidarity demonstrated among them. Clearly, there was much to be learned here from a group of people, made up of women and men, youth and elders, working together with few resources to stop a huge, state-sanctioned corporation from plundering their homeland.

Friends of Grassy Narrows formed shortly thereafter. The group never formulated an anti-racist politic explicitly, so I cannot specify a unanimously-held position for all members of the collective. I would nevertheless say that the implicit intent of our work has been to expose and condemn the systemic racism faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada, especially in terms of being deprived of control over, and even access to, their own lands. Most of this work so far has been focused around building a political relationship with the Anishinaabe at Grassy Narrows, although we have tried to also lend support to other related struggles as much as possible.

The group’s implicit anti-racist politic has been implemented primarily through popular education and public protests. While we have learned a lot in the process, a major challenge remains in trying to reach people beyond the far left. But the most interesting challenge for those interested in anti-racist organising has occurred in the course of building a political relationship with Asubpeeshosee-wagong activists.

As allies, our approach has been to be responsive. Though we have not always shied away from discussing politics with people at Grassy Narrows and Indigenous activists in Winnipeg, we have most often tried to ‘follow the lead.’

From my perspective, this was an appropriate attitude at the beginning. I didn’t feel I had any insight to offer activists at Grassy Narrows when I first got involved. For a long time I just took a lot in, through listening and reading, hoping to better understand the situation. No doubt this process continues, and will remain incomplete. Nevertheless, I have gained some relevant knowledge over the last two or more years concerning the oppression of indigenous peoples in this country.

After a certain point, I think, limiting oneself to strictly listening can take on a colonial, parasitic dynamic. There comes a time when the exchange should be more balanced. And it is indeed a balancing act, since Euro-Canadians have done virtually all of the talking, historically, when interacting with the Indigenous peoples. Bearing this in mind, we have to be conscious about affording space to Indigenous peoples if we are to learn from them and earn their respect.

But if there continues to be little dialogue of substance even once some trust has been established and some insights potentially gained on our part as allies, ‘following the lead’ becomes an unnecessary form of hand-holding. I think members of our group, myself included, have at times been overly reluctant to truly engage with the Indigenous activists who we’ve gotten to know. Too much reluctance in this respect reduces our effectiveness as allies. We need to be willing to share our ideas about strategy and tactics, rather than avoiding them simply out of our own shame or fear.

Nevertheless, while it is important not to succumb to the shame or fear that may come up while attempting to act as an effective anti-racist ally, such feelings may reflect a real need to better articulate what ‘common ground’ can potentially be shared by Natives and settlers. I am sure that my own anti-racist work, at least, would benefit from a more developed expression of this, going beyond simple appeals to “protect the Earth,” or to “resist corporate and state domination,” and identifying how the realisation of such objectives in practice is actually in the interests of Natives and settlers alike.

Clearly, part of the challenge in this comes from the fact that Natives and settlers are extremely isolated from one another both historically and in the present day. Our isolation in day-to-day living sustains and adds to the sense of ‘otherness’ that has been created over generations of apartheid, adversely affecting many Native-settler interactions.

Therefore, long-term relationships where trust, respect and even friendship can be built are crucial. Once those kinds of relationships are established, a gradual development of understanding, in terms of identifying concretely how oppressed and oppressor both lose under white supremacy, becomes more likely.

One of the reasons that I believe this is because, personally, I have come to better understand the oppression that I suffer and reproduce as a man under patriarchy, primarily through the long-term relationship that I have shared with my partner, who is a woman. Conversely, I suspect that I have yet to come to a more fully emancipatory understanding of anti-racism, because I have so far not had that kind of sustained dialogue in an inter-racial context.

To build those kinds of relationships may not be easy, but it should be simple, in the sense that all it really takes is a commitment to consciously challenging the racial segregation that exists in both our personal and political lives.

Similarly, reaching a broader spectrum of people even within white-dominated domains, should be straightforward, if unfamiliar. Community associations, high school, university and college classes, labour councils, union locals and churches will all most likely host presentations and discussions with us if we ask.

Anti-racist allies of Indigenous peoples should also strive to cooperate, if possible, with groups like No One Is Illegal (NOII) and other immigrant and refuge rights campaigns that have formed in response to the struggles of immigrants and refugees against the systemic racism they face. Many such groups have expressed a desire to link immigrants’ and refugees’ struggles with those of Indigenous peoples. Identifying and responding politically to the parallels between ‘third world’ and ‘fourth world’ neo-colonialism should come more easily as we work towards bettering both the expression and practice of our anti-racist politics, whether our focus is on the struggles of Indigenous peoples or those of immigrants and refugees.

Dave Brophy is a member of the Friends of Grassy Narrows Winnipeg.