Indigenous Solidarity An (Un)Settler's Place

What We Believe

The white race is a historically constructed social formation. It consists of all those who partake of the privileges of the white skin in this society. Its most wretched members share a status higher, in certain respects, than that of the most exalted persons excluded from it, in return for which they give their support to a system that degrades them.

The key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race, which means no more and no less than abolishing the privileges of the white skin. Until that task is accomplished, even partial reform will prove elusive, because white influence permeates every issue, domestic and foreign, in US society.

The existence of the white race depends on the willingness of those assigned to it to place their racial interests above class, gender, or any other interests they hold. The defection of enough of its members to make it unreliable as a predictor of behavior will lead to its collapse.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a long-time activist, university professor, and writer. In addition to numerous scholarly books and articles, she has written three historical memoirs, Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie (Verso, 1997), Outlaw Woman: Memoir of the War Years, 1960–1975 (City Lights, 2002), and Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War (South End Press, 2005) about the 1980s contra war against the Sandinistas.

Much of Roxanne's work can be accessed here: http://www.reddirtsite.com/papers.htm

Stop Saying This Is a Nation of Immigrants!
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

A nation of immigrants: This is a convenient myth developed as a response to the 1960s movements against colonialism, neocolonialism, and white supremacy. The ruling class and its brain trust offered multiculturalism, diversity, and affirmative action in response to demands for decolonization, justice, reparations, social equality, an end of imperialism, and the rewriting of history -- not to be "inclusive" -- but to be accurate. What emerged to replace the liberal melting pot idea and the nationalist triumphal interpretation of the "greatest country on earth and in history," was the "nation of immigrants" story.

http://uppingtheanti.org/node/1333

Ward Churchill is one of the most outspoken activists and scholars in North America and a leading commentator on indigenous issues. Churchill's many books include Marxism and Native Americans, Fantasies of the Master Race, Struggle for the Land, The COINTELPRO Papers, Genocide, Ecocide, and Colonization, Pacifism as Pathology, and A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas. In his lectures and published works, Churchill explores the themes of genocide in the Americas, racism, historical and legal (re)interpretation of conquest and colonization, environmental destruction of Indian lands, government repression of political movements, literary and cinematic criticism, and indigenist alternatives to the status quo.

Paulette Regan

This evening I will talk about the impetus behind developing this framework to explore the role and responsibility of non-indigenous people – the Canadian public - in decolonization. I begin by telling you about a conference dialogue, and the writings of two indigenous thinkers and activists.
http://web.uvic.ca/igov/research/pdfs/A%20Transformative%20Framework%20f...

Solidarity Activism, Identity Politics and Popular Education
http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/story18.html
by Tim Anderson

Solidarity movements have proven valuable in struggles for Aboriginal rights, and in neocolonial liberation struggles across the world. Yet time and again the same problems of paternalism and conflict over appropriate support roles arise, fragmenting campaigns and creating confusion. The problem is chronic. Aboriginal activist Gary Foley (1998) has discussed the long history of "white hegemony over our political movement" and refers to Ruth Frankenberg's (1993) argument for the need "to reconceptualise the way in which white activists participate in anti-racist work". This suggests there are important lessons to be learned about how such activism is carried out. And while a range of views have been expressed about the often complex relationships involved, in one sense we are simply talking about the principles of good friendship.