0:14 P Ali qualitynet seek Nia toka
0:17 Nicola halika Sanchez hood knee my
0:20 appeal Thank You Scotland I'm so happy
0:21 to be with all of you here today what a
0:25 special thing to come together to learn
0:27 thank you so much to than a handy family
0:29 for their beautiful welcome toward their
0:32 territories because I'm speaking to you
0:33 about decolonization today I couldn't
0:35 begin without once again recognizing
0:39 that not only are we on the territories
0:40 of this beautiful family but we're also
0:43 on the Musqueam cyber tooth and Squamish
0:46 nation's territory and although that's
0:48 become a really common thing to
0:50 acknowledge in Canada that you're on
0:52 someone else's territory what often goes
0:56 unsaid is that those are unser and 'red
0:59 and occupied territories so some of us
1:02 might be here today as guests and some
1:04 of us have found our way here in other
1:08 ways but ultimately we're on someone
1:09 else's territory and so I really invite
1:12 you to think about what that means as we
1:15 discus explore this idea of
1:19 decolonization and as a decolonial
1:21 educator I get to have a lot of really
1:22 interesting conversations with people
1:25 often really difficult conversations but
1:27 to my surprise one of the most difficult
1:29 conversations I have one of the most
1:31 difficult questions that I ask is if
1:33 people can name the territories and
1:36 nation on whose lands their grandmothers
1:39 were born and for a lot of settler
1:41 Canadians this is a really difficult
1:43 question to answer and it's also one
1:45 that brings up a lot of pain and that's
1:47 where I want to start this conversation
1:50 today is around this notion of
1:52 colonization in relation to historical
1:55 amnesia because although it's become a
1:56 common theme in Canada we talk about
1:58 intergenerational trauma for indigenous
2:01 people one thing that's not talked about
2:02 is the intergenerational trauma that
2:04 also had to happen for settler people to
2:07 be complicit in such a violent history
2:10 and in order for us to know where we
2:12 want to go together we need to know
2:14 where we are and for us to know that we
2:15 need to know where we've been so I'm
2:17 just going to speak briefly about the
2:20 history of colonization in Canada but I
2:22 really want to emphasize this is a
2:23 global phenomenon
2:25 there's not a single corner of the world
2:27 that colonization hasn't been enacted
2:29 upon so whether you're a settler
2:30 Canadian whether you're a visitor
2:32 whether you're a newly landed immigrant
2:34 this applies to you and if you want to
2:36 learn more about your own particular
2:38 history just go home and google
2:39 colonization and your nation and you'll
2:42 see a long and violent history but for
2:44 today's purposes we're just going to
2:47 talk about colonisation in Canada and so
2:49 one of the most common things that
2:51 people are really aware of in terms of
2:53 our colonial legacy in Canada is that of
2:55 residential schools however what's often
2:58 left out of that conversation is the
3:00 fact that those residential schools were
3:03 in effect for over 150 years that the
3:05 last residential school did not close
3:08 until 1996 that the mortality rate and
3:11 those residential schools was often
3:13 around 50% that the Canadian government
3:15 intentionally used the subjects of those
3:18 schools to test the impacts of
3:20 starvation on human bodies as well as
3:23 the impacts of electric chairs the
3:25 creation of the RCMP was in fact to
3:27 remove children from their homes in
3:28 order to bring them to these schools as
3:31 well as to police indigenous people to
3:34 remain on the lands that were designated
3:36 to them as a reserve lands in their own
3:39 home territories and finally this legacy
3:41 resulted in the kidnapping of over a
3:43 hundred and fifty thousand children and
3:45 that's just the children themselves that
3:47 were removed and that's not even talking
3:49 about all of the generations that were
3:51 implicated because of the horrible abuse
3:54 that went on in these schools so the
3:56 other forms that colonization took in
3:58 this country were that of biological
4:00 warfare intentional systematic
4:04 biological warfare ninety percent of
4:06 some of the first nations in British
4:09 Columbia were wiped out at a time when a
4:11 vaccine for smallpox was available and
4:15 and well used among settler Canadians
4:18 this is I think one of the most powerful
4:20 pictures that depicts the history of
4:22 colonization in this country another
4:24 strategy that was used to clear people
4:26 from the land and forced people into
4:29 submission into capitalism into living
4:31 on reserves was the intentional
4:34 extinction of keystone species like the
4:36 Buffalo in the prairies
4:38 but this happened in the north with sled
4:40 dogs it happened in the East Coast with
4:42 different fisheries and so this strategy
4:44 of extinction to force people into
4:46 submission is part of our colonial
4:53 history in Canada so this means that if
4:54 you're more than a 1st generation
4:57 Canadian this is historical bystander
4:59 trauma that your parents and
5:01 grandparents have lived through and that
5:04 in fact also lives in you and I really
5:06 want to dispel this myth today that
5:08 decolonization is the work of indigenous
5:10 people whether you have ancestors that
5:14 were colonizers or colonized we are all
5:16 colonized people and so this work of
5:17 decolonization has really work that we
5:20 need to come together to do with one another
5:20 another
5:22 equally accepting our roles our
5:24 locations our privileges and ways in
5:27 which we can start to move towards a
5:29 future that looks like healing that
5:30 looks like justice that looks like
5:34 dismantling systems of oppression so I'd
5:37 be very happy if I could say that this
5:39 historic colonization is where it ends
5:41 but unfortunately that's not the case
5:44 today colonisation in Canada looks like
5:46 the fact that we're here occupying
5:48 someone else's territory well there's
5:51 never been treaties made or honoured at
5:54 least on these territories it looks like
5:56 over 4,000 missing and murdered
5:58 indigenous women and girls in this
6:00 country a number that keeps on rising
6:02 despite government promises of an
6:05 inquiry or an intervention
6:07 it looks like common practices such as
6:10 the operation apprehension of indigenous
6:12 babies when they're born by child and
6:14 family services if their families are
6:18 deemed unfit by the state it looks like
6:21 over 200 First Nations who live without
6:23 access to clean drinking water and other
6:25 forms of infrastructure that almost
6:27 every other Canadian feels entitled to
6:30 and finally it looks like the ongoing
6:32 poisoning and removal of indigenous
6:34 people from their traditional lands and
6:35 territories for resource extraction
6:37 processes like the tar sands and like
6:39 when we're all probably very familiar
6:40 with right here the trans mountain pipeline
6:47 I've worked with a lot of settler people
6:49 who really want to do something about
6:52 this but they don't know where to begin
6:55 and they feel paralyzed with guilt and
6:58 shame about this truly ugly history that
7:02 we've all found ourselves in and so if I
7:03 could just leave you with one message
7:07 today it would be this this history is
7:10 not your fault but it absolutely is your
7:14 responsibility what happened what has
7:16 been done is not your fault but where we
7:19 find ourselves here together whether
7:20 we're indigenous people whether we're
7:22 settler people whether we're somewhere
7:24 in between this is work that we need to
7:25 pick up we need to have the courage to
7:27 look at our past we need to have the
7:29 courage to look at where we are now and
7:31 we need to work together to figure out
7:33 how we can collectively heal moving
7:37 forward I think it's really important to
7:38 make the distinction between indigenous
7:41 Asian and decolonization as Nigel
7:42 mentioned I had the incredible privilege
7:45 of working on the vice land documentary
7:47 series rise and in that role I got to
7:48 work with indigenous communities and
7:51 every continent of the world and I want
7:52 to give a shout out to all the
7:54 indigenous people on earth because the
7:56 work of indigenous Asian the work of
7:58 linguistic revitalization the work of
8:00 ceremony the work of land based practice
8:02 the work of land based defense
8:04 indigenous people are holding it down
8:07 and that is work for indigenous people
8:10 to do that is not work for anyone else
8:12 to pick up and start to appropriate and
8:12 call their own
8:15 however decolonization is work that
8:19 belongs to all of us decolonization we
8:21 are never going to go back and erase
8:23 that past it has already been done but
8:25 what we can do is we can start to put
8:27 spokes in wheels of oppression of
8:30 movements that create our our social
8:34 systems of inherent inequity and to be
8:36 totally honest if you wanted to just be
8:38 motivated to do this for selfish reasons
8:41 that would be good enough we're looking
8:43 at a state of global climate catastrophe
8:45 we're looking at mass migrations because
8:47 when people can no longer inhibit their
8:49 homelands and these are all
8:51 ramifications of a colonial and
8:54 capitalist world view that eradicated a
8:56 balance a sense of reciprocity a sense
8:58 of spiritual
9:01 connection to our homelands and so if we
9:02 continue forward without acknowledging
9:04 the indigenous people on whose lands and
9:07 territories we live we're headed for
9:13 certain certain disaster one of the
9:15 biggest gifts I've ever been given my
9:16 life is the gift of my own prophecy the
9:19 Mayan prophecy which speaks about this
9:22 time particularly on earth and it
9:24 teaches us that this is the time for the
9:26 first time in all of human history that
9:28 our consciousness have come to a level
9:30 of evolution where we can actually see
9:32 from one another's eyes the way that
9:34 it's explained is that the eyes of the
9:35 serpent can see through the eyes of the
9:38 eagle and so the eyes of the north and
9:39 the eyes of the cells can actually see
9:41 through one another's eyes and begin to
9:42 work together and understand each
9:45 other's worldviews and the secondary
9:47 part of that prophecy is that absolutely
9:49 every person who came to be alive on
9:52 earth at this time came for a specific
9:55 reason and came with specific gifts that
9:56 are needed to do this work that we have
9:59 laid out in front of us and I really
10:01 believe that and that's why I really
10:04 want each of you to pick up this work of
10:06 decolonization as your own because we
10:11 need you whether we like it or not
10:14 colonization is a messy and shameful
10:16 history that connects us all here we are
10:19 all in this room together so what do we
10:21 do moving forward when people ask me
10:24 what can I do to colonize I give them a
10:26 caveat and I tell them well that's not
10:28 going to be a one answer it's not going
10:31 to be a one-day fix however I can give
10:34 you a few first steps because if you do
10:36 your work then we can come back together
10:38 and collectively do the real work that
10:41 needs to be done so if you want to go
10:43 home today and start to enact your
10:46 journey of decolonization you can figure
10:48 out how to answer that first question I
10:50 said to you where do your people come
10:52 from how did you get here
10:55 learn whose land you live on and what
10:57 has been done to them in order for you
11:00 to occupy their lands address the
11:02 oppressive systems and history that
11:04 enable you to occupy the territory you
11:07 do now find out how you benefit from
11:09 this history and activate one strategy
11:11 where and you can use your
11:15 village to dismantle that and share this
11:17 knowledge share this conversation with
11:19 your barista with your babysitter with
11:22 your tinder date I don't care but I want
11:24 you to have these conversations and I
11:26 promise you when you start to have these
11:28 conversations of looking at a longer now
11:30 of asking the history of people your
11:32 world will suddenly become a lot more
11:36 interesting and so will your identity
11:39 finally what's it all for why should we
11:39 do this
11:42 well because decolonization looks like
11:44 living without paralyzing guilt and
11:46 shame about who you are and the social
11:50 identity you've inherited decolonization
11:52 looks like giving up social and economic
11:53 power and privilege that directly
11:56 disempowers appropriates and invisible
11:59 eyes as others do colonization looks
12:01 like smashing the patriarchy [Laughter]
12:03 [Laughter]
12:05 decolonization looks like doing the work
12:07 to find out who you are where you came
12:09 from and committing to build communities
12:12 that work together to collectively
12:14 create a more sustainable and equitable
12:18 future and finally decolonization looks
12:19 like celebrating
12:21 who we are and connecting with the
12:23 unique knowledge with the unique
12:24 knowledge that we each bring to this
12:25 time and that we need to solve the
12:27 problems that are laid out in front of
12:33 us so it's really easy to think about
12:35 our future ancestors because we have
12:37 such beautiful little ones in the room
12:39 good reminder thank you so much for
12:42 opening this space today but I really
12:43 invite you to look back and think about
12:44 your grandmothers that I asked you about
12:46 and take a moment to look forward and
12:48 ask yourself what you can do in your
12:51 lifetime what you can do today and in
12:52 your work and with your passions and
12:55 with your gifts to start to dismantle a
12:57 history that none of us should be proud
13:00 of so that maybe we can offer our an
13:02 inheritance for our future and ancestors
13:05 for not only a planet that's livable but
13:07 a social system and community that's
13:11 equitable and just plus commodity thank
13:12 you so much [Applause]
