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Decolonization Is for Everyone | Nikki Sanchez | TEDxSFU | TEDx Talks | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Decolonization Is for Everyone | Nikki Sanchez | TEDxSFU
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Core Theme
Decolonization is a shared responsibility that requires confronting historical amnesia, acknowledging ongoing colonial impacts, and actively working towards a more just and equitable future for all.
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P Ali qualitynet seek Nia toka
Nicola halika Sanchez hood knee my
appeal Thank You Scotland I'm so happy
to be with all of you here today what a
special thing to come together to learn
thank you so much to than a handy family
for their beautiful welcome toward their
territories because I'm speaking to you
about decolonization today I couldn't
begin without once again recognizing
that not only are we on the territories
of this beautiful family but we're also
on the Musqueam cyber tooth and Squamish
nation's territory and although that's
become a really common thing to
acknowledge in Canada that you're on
someone else's territory what often goes
unsaid is that those are unser and 'red
and occupied territories so some of us
might be here today as guests and some
of us have found our way here in other
ways but ultimately we're on someone
else's territory and so I really invite
you to think about what that means as we
discus explore this idea of
decolonization and as a decolonial
educator I get to have a lot of really
interesting conversations with people
often really difficult conversations but
to my surprise one of the most difficult
conversations I have one of the most
difficult questions that I ask is if
people can name the territories and
nation on whose lands their grandmothers
were born and for a lot of settler
Canadians this is a really difficult
question to answer and it's also one
that brings up a lot of pain and that's
where I want to start this conversation
today is around this notion of
colonization in relation to historical
amnesia because although it's become a
common theme in Canada we talk about
intergenerational trauma for indigenous
people one thing that's not talked about
is the intergenerational trauma that
also had to happen for settler people to
be complicit in such a violent history
and in order for us to know where we
want to go together we need to know
where we are and for us to know that we
need to know where we've been so I'm
just going to speak briefly about the
history of colonization in Canada but I
really want to emphasize this is a
global phenomenon
there's not a single corner of the world
that colonization hasn't been enacted
upon so whether you're a settler
Canadian whether you're a visitor
whether you're a newly landed immigrant
this applies to you and if you want to
learn more about your own particular
history just go home and google
colonization and your nation and you'll
see a long and violent history but for
today's purposes we're just going to
talk about colonisation in Canada and so
one of the most common things that
people are really aware of in terms of
our colonial legacy in Canada is that of
residential schools however what's often
left out of that conversation is the
fact that those residential schools were
in effect for over 150 years that the
last residential school did not close
until 1996 that the mortality rate and
those residential schools was often
around 50% that the Canadian government
intentionally used the subjects of those
schools to test the impacts of
starvation on human bodies as well as
the impacts of electric chairs the
creation of the RCMP was in fact to
remove children from their homes in
order to bring them to these schools as
well as to police indigenous people to
remain on the lands that were designated
to them as a reserve lands in their own
home territories and finally this legacy
resulted in the kidnapping of over a
hundred and fifty thousand children and
that's just the children themselves that
were removed and that's not even talking
about all of the generations that were
implicated because of the horrible abuse
that went on in these schools so the
other forms that colonization took in
this country were that of biological
warfare intentional systematic
biological warfare ninety percent of
some of the first nations in British
Columbia were wiped out at a time when a
vaccine for smallpox was available and
and well used among settler Canadians
this is I think one of the most powerful
pictures that depicts the history of
colonization in this country another
strategy that was used to clear people
from the land and forced people into
submission into capitalism into living
on reserves was the intentional
extinction of keystone species like the
Buffalo in the prairies
but this happened in the north with sled
dogs it happened in the East Coast with
different fisheries and so this strategy
of extinction to force people into
submission is part of our colonial
history in Canada so this means that if
you're more than a 1st generation
Canadian this is historical bystander
trauma that your parents and
grandparents have lived through and that
in fact also lives in you and I really
want to dispel this myth today that
decolonization is the work of indigenous
people whether you have ancestors that
were colonizers or colonized we are all
colonized people and so this work of
decolonization has really work that we
need to come together to do with one another
another
equally accepting our roles our
locations our privileges and ways in
which we can start to move towards a
future that looks like healing that
looks like justice that looks like
dismantling systems of oppression so I'd
be very happy if I could say that this
historic colonization is where it ends
but unfortunately that's not the case
today colonisation in Canada looks like
the fact that we're here occupying
someone else's territory well there's
never been treaties made or honoured at
least on these territories it looks like
over 4,000 missing and murdered
indigenous women and girls in this
country a number that keeps on rising
despite government promises of an
inquiry or an intervention
it looks like common practices such as
the operation apprehension of indigenous
babies when they're born by child and
family services if their families are
deemed unfit by the state it looks like
over 200 First Nations who live without
access to clean drinking water and other
forms of infrastructure that almost
every other Canadian feels entitled to
and finally it looks like the ongoing
poisoning and removal of indigenous
people from their traditional lands and
territories for resource extraction
processes like the tar sands and like
when we're all probably very familiar
with right here the trans mountain pipeline
I've worked with a lot of settler people
who really want to do something about
this but they don't know where to begin
and they feel paralyzed with guilt and
shame about this truly ugly history that
we've all found ourselves in and so if I
could just leave you with one message
today it would be this this history is
not your fault but it absolutely is your
responsibility what happened what has
been done is not your fault but where we
find ourselves here together whether
we're indigenous people whether we're
settler people whether we're somewhere
in between this is work that we need to
pick up we need to have the courage to
look at our past we need to have the
courage to look at where we are now and
we need to work together to figure out
how we can collectively heal moving
forward I think it's really important to
make the distinction between indigenous
Asian and decolonization as Nigel
mentioned I had the incredible privilege
of working on the vice land documentary
series rise and in that role I got to
work with indigenous communities and
every continent of the world and I want
to give a shout out to all the
indigenous people on earth because the
work of indigenous Asian the work of
linguistic revitalization the work of
ceremony the work of land based practice
the work of land based defense
indigenous people are holding it down
and that is work for indigenous people
to do that is not work for anyone else
to pick up and start to appropriate and
call their own
however decolonization is work that
belongs to all of us decolonization we
are never going to go back and erase
that past it has already been done but
what we can do is we can start to put
spokes in wheels of oppression of
movements that create our our social
systems of inherent inequity and to be
totally honest if you wanted to just be
motivated to do this for selfish reasons
that would be good enough we're looking
at a state of global climate catastrophe
we're looking at mass migrations because
when people can no longer inhibit their
homelands and these are all
ramifications of a colonial and
capitalist world view that eradicated a
balance a sense of reciprocity a sense
of spiritual
connection to our homelands and so if we
continue forward without acknowledging
the indigenous people on whose lands and
territories we live we're headed for
certain certain disaster one of the
biggest gifts I've ever been given my
life is the gift of my own prophecy the
Mayan prophecy which speaks about this
time particularly on earth and it
teaches us that this is the time for the
first time in all of human history that
our consciousness have come to a level
of evolution where we can actually see
from one another's eyes the way that
it's explained is that the eyes of the
serpent can see through the eyes of the
eagle and so the eyes of the north and
the eyes of the cells can actually see
through one another's eyes and begin to
work together and understand each
other's worldviews and the secondary
part of that prophecy is that absolutely
every person who came to be alive on
earth at this time came for a specific
reason and came with specific gifts that
are needed to do this work that we have
laid out in front of us and I really
believe that and that's why I really
want each of you to pick up this work of
decolonization as your own because we
need you whether we like it or not
colonization is a messy and shameful
history that connects us all here we are
all in this room together so what do we
do moving forward when people ask me
what can I do to colonize I give them a
caveat and I tell them well that's not
going to be a one answer it's not going
to be a one-day fix however I can give
you a few first steps because if you do
your work then we can come back together
and collectively do the real work that
needs to be done so if you want to go
home today and start to enact your
journey of decolonization you can figure
out how to answer that first question I
said to you where do your people come
from how did you get here
learn whose land you live on and what
has been done to them in order for you
to occupy their lands address the
oppressive systems and history that
enable you to occupy the territory you
do now find out how you benefit from
this history and activate one strategy
where and you can use your
village to dismantle that and share this
knowledge share this conversation with
your barista with your babysitter with
your tinder date I don't care but I want
you to have these conversations and I
promise you when you start to have these
conversations of looking at a longer now
of asking the history of people your
world will suddenly become a lot more
interesting and so will your identity
finally what's it all for why should we
do this
well because decolonization looks like
living without paralyzing guilt and
shame about who you are and the social
identity you've inherited decolonization
looks like giving up social and economic
power and privilege that directly
disempowers appropriates and invisible
eyes as others do colonization looks
like smashing the patriarchy [Laughter]
[Laughter]
decolonization looks like doing the work
to find out who you are where you came
from and committing to build communities
that work together to collectively
create a more sustainable and equitable
future and finally decolonization looks
like celebrating
who we are and connecting with the
unique knowledge with the unique
knowledge that we each bring to this
time and that we need to solve the
problems that are laid out in front of
us so it's really easy to think about
our future ancestors because we have
such beautiful little ones in the room
good reminder thank you so much for
opening this space today but I really
invite you to look back and think about
your grandmothers that I asked you about
and take a moment to look forward and
ask yourself what you can do in your
lifetime what you can do today and in
your work and with your passions and
with your gifts to start to dismantle a
history that none of us should be proud
of so that maybe we can offer our an
inheritance for our future and ancestors
for not only a planet that's livable but
a social system and community that's
equitable and just plus commodity thank
you so much [Applause]
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