“We have to be political actors” says Evo Morales in webinar on indigenous resistance to militarism and imperialism
Photo Credit: (Verdad Digital / Google Images)
Written by: Lahari Nanda
On the National Indigenous Peoples Day and the Andean New Year, the Communist Party of Canada hosted an online panel on Indigenous resistance to colonialism and imperialism.
The panelists were President Evo Morales of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Kanahus Manuel of the Secwepemc nation of British Columbia, Hayden King of Beausoleil First Nation on Gchi’mnissing in Huronia, Kolin Sutherland-Wilson of the Fireweed Clan in the Gitxsan Nation and Gina Mowatt of the Frog Clan in the Gitxsan nation.
The event presented a “unique opportunity to promote solidarity and friendship between the people fighting against a common enemy, that enemy being imperialism,” said Tyson Strandland, one of the MC’s.
The panelists drew on the different aspects of the political revolution that characterizes Indigenous resistance to Western imperialism.
The first part is Indigenous jurisdiction over land and the resources of that land.
Hayden King, head of the Yellowhead Institute at Ryerson University said, “as Indigenous people, we’re often told to abandon hope.” He described provincial and federal jurisdiction over land that should have Indigenous title, calling it “hollow and meaningless and based on lies.”
The Doctrine of Discovery has been cited by Canadian courts to justify colonial ownership of Indigenous Nations’ lands. Through his project “Land Back,” King has provided Indigenous land defenders with legal and factual research to back their arguments.
The second part of Indigenous resistance is allyship which entails “an understanding of what it means to belong to the land,” said Sutherland-Wilson. He added that Indigneous people perceive very differently their relationship with land as compared to the colonizers of that very land.
President Morales explained that the keepers of Indigenous lands know how to “work together with Mother Earth,” unlike capitalist colonial empires and nations which exploit the Earth seamlessly.
Morales said America’s colonized nations’ governments today are “aimed at taking our identity, our tradition, our cultures,” leading to unsustainable, inequitable growth and the exacerbation of economic and social unrest. Prior to the United States’ coup in Bolivia, President Morales created policy that nationalized natural resources and divested from corporations to invest in social programs, he said.
“For Indigenous people, life is sacred, most sacred over everything else. Capitalism does not care about this,” he said.
On the 500th anniversary of Indigenous resistance to imperialism, Bolivia celebrated the move from “resistance to power,” but then the coup began and colonialism once again began to shadow Indigenous liberation.
Despite this, King said, “settler colonialism can’t contain Indigenous resistance.”
George Floyd and indigenous resistance to Canadian colonialism
According to Kanahus Manuel, “Right now, here in Canada, we are facing a genocide against Indigenous people,” citing the recent killing of Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi amongst 4 others since April 2020.
She said, “We’re constantly losing our young people to colonization and imperialism.”
Following the killing of George Floyd, the conversation around the police being an imperialist pawn has grown worldwide. According to Manuel, Indigenous people have always been “warriors” defending their land and title, and they continue to do so today.
So what is the way forward in the movement to denounce and deconstruct colonialism?
According to Gina Mowatt, “the revolution is us healing.”
Kanahus Manuel’s grandfather said that if Canadian immigration were to be under Indigenous jurisdiction, then not only is Indigenous title guaranteed but people immigrating as refugees would be taught the truth about Canada, Manuel said.
Other ways to continue to stand in solidarity with Indigenous resistance include denouncing capitalism and the exploitation of land resources, the nationalization of resources and public funds, and the redistribution of wealth.
Kanahus Manuel herself is part of the Tiny House Warriors, land defenders who are stopping the Trans Mountain Pipeline from expanding. In fact, Manuel participated in the panel from her house on the encroachment path planned for the pipeline through Secwepemc Nation.
But for Mowatt, problems also exist even within the movement for Indigenous liberation and resistance.
These are the familiar evils of patriarchy, misogyny and trans-exclusion which force Indigenous activists to choose between their identity and the wider purpose of eradicating imperialist policy and colonisation.
“The movement, really, is for nothing if we’re guided by patriarchy, misogyny and western ways of thinking,” said Mowatt. “Western ways” here refers to capitalism, trans-exclusion, binaries of gender and sexuality, amongst others.
Indigenous resistance opens a gateway for other social and economic movements, especially those that protect the environment. The Alberta (Athabasca) Tar Sands is one of the world’s largest bitumen deposits, contributing to massive environmental pollution from fossil fuel extraction and power generation.
“We need an alternative to the big oil and gas if Indigenous people are to survive,” said Manuel.
For change to come about, political action must be inseparable from resistance.
President Morales said, “They [settlers] would no longer be allowed to be the owners of our resources. We have to be political actors.”
More Articles