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Indians Counter Occupy Wall Street Movement With Decolonize Wall Street
By ICTMN Staff October 6, 2011
Courtesy of Nadine and unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com
* Read More:
* Corporate Greed
* Decolonize Wall Street
* Jessica Yee
* JohnPaul Montano
* Occupy Wall Street
This artwork was created by Erin Konsmo, a Métis/Cree Indigenous Feminist
from Innisfail, Alberta. She is currently an intern for the Native Youth Sexual
Health Network and on the National Aboriginal Youth Council on
HIV/AIDS. She is an Indigenous artist, focusing on art forms that
incorporate traditional knowledge while telling stories of struggle,
resistance, self-determination, identity and sexual and reproductive
justice.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has taken root across the nation. Organizers
say protestors
are drawing attention to the 1% of the population who have destroyed the
country and its values through greed.
While many people in Indian Country can sympathize with the
protestors’ claims, there is also some growing criticism for the idea
behind its name, which overlooks the first occupants of the Wall Street
area. This has given rise to the response from Native bloggers and
activists to not Occupy Wall Street but Decolonize Wall Street.
“The ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET’ slogan has gone viral and international now. From
the protests on the
streets of WALL STREET in the name of ‘ending capitalism’—organizers,
protestors, and activists have been encouraged to ‘occupy’ different
places that symbolize greed and power. There’s just one problem: THE
UNITED STATES IS ALREADY BEING OCCUPIED. THIS IS INDIGENOUS LAND. And
it’s been occupied for quite some time now,” stated Jessica Yee
(Mohawk), the executive director for The Native Youth Sexual Health Network, in
a blog post originally posted on Racialicious.
“I also need to mention that New York City is Haudenosaunee territory and home
to many other First Nations,” Yee wrote.
Still, Yee clarifies that she supports the mission and integrity of
Occupy Wall Street. “I’m not against ending capitalism and I’m not
against people organizing to hold big corporations accountable for the
extreme damage they are causing,” Yee wrote. “Yes, we need to end
globalization. What I am saying is that I have all kinds of problems
when to get to ‘ending capitalism’ we step on other people’s rights—and in
this case erode Indigenous rights—to make the point.”
Yee goes on to excerpt a blog post from “An Open Letter to the Occupy Wall
Street Activist” published by JohnPaul Montano in Unsettling
America: Decolonization in Theory & Practice. Montano describes
himself on his Twitter account as a “Nishnaabe-language acquirer naïvely
believing that
multilingualism, JavaScript and respect for indigenous sovereignty
lead to less crabbiness and more peace.”
I hope you would make mention of the fact that the very land upon which you
are protesting does not belong to you – that you are guests
upon that stolen indigenous land. I had hoped mention would be made of
the indigenous nation whose land that is. I had hoped that you would
address the centuries-long history that we indigenous peoples of this
continent have endured being subject to the countless ‘-isms’ of
do-gooders claiming to be building a “more just society,” a “better
world,” a “land of freedom” on top of our indigenous societies, on our
indigenous lands, while destroying and/or ignoring our ways of life. I had
hoped that you would acknowledge that, since you are settlers on indigenous
land, you need and want our indigenous consent to your
building anything on our land—never mind an entire society.
The blog People of Color details the history of the occupation of
Wall Street, in which enslaved African peoples constructed the wall
“that barricaded the land white men had seized from native peoples.”
Courtesy of http://pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com/
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/indians-counter-occupy-wall-street-movement-with-decolonize-wall-street/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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