Alfred and Corntassel (2005) remind us that unity is needed in order to combat the all- consuming force of colonial imperialism (603). However, Canada is built on imbalanced relationships and broken trust between invader/settler society and Indigenous peoples. Systems of privilege continue to make unifying a difficult task. Decolonization involves building solidarity through long-term and meaningful relationships based on mutual respect and trust, or what Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox calls “co-existence through co-
resistance” (2012). Evaluating oppression also means evaluating privilege. This means that settler groups need to evaluate their position of privilege within the colonial system.
Decolonizing the settler mind involves facilitating discussion about topics which are difficult to address. Decolonization involves identifying entitlement, including the privilege and desire to occupy someone else’s land. The process of deconstructing colonial ideology is not easy. Even identifying who is considered a “settler” is difficult. What of people, like me, who possess some Indigenous ancestry? When we begin to converse about how much “Indian” blood runs through our veins, we enter into colonial territory which has used blood quantum to categorize and demonize people under the colonial regime—we engage in racism. At the same time, I must ask myself (as others should too), whether my adherence to—and pride about—possessing Mi’kmaq ancestry is rooted in a desire to appropriate a cultural identity which I have not grown up with. Further, it must be contemplated whether my attachment to my Mi’kmaq ancestors is used to validate the illegitimate occupation of land; I live in traditional Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe territory.
I am inspired by Scott Morgensen’s (2012) approach to decolonization. Morgensen asks that settlers consider the implications of our own desires to join in the decolonization struggle as a means to legitimate the ongoing occupation of Indigenous lands and the appropriation of Indigenous cultures:
Settler radicals desperately need to investigate this truth. It is relevant in particular to those for whom anarchism links them to communalism and counterculturism, such as in rural communes, permaculture, squatting, hoboing, foraging, and neo- pagan, earth-based, and New Age spirituality. These “alternative” settler cultures formed by occupying and traversing stolen Indigenous land and often by
practicing cultural and spiritual appropriation. Their participants have imagined that they act anti-colonially by “appreciating” Indigenous culture or pursuing what they imagine to be Indigenous ways of life. But using these methods to try to be intimate with Indigenous land and culture expresses settler desires without necessarily contradicting them. Critiquing and separating from these practices may be necessary for settlers to commit to work for Indigenous decolonization (2011).
Settlers must also begin to question the motivations which drive us to express “solidarity” with Indigenous movements. This means reflecting on whether we are aligning with Indigenous actions in order to further our own personal, professional, social, or political agendas. Walia (2012) warns settlers not to appropriate and then compartmentalize
Indigenous struggles to fit neatly into “the machinery of existing leftist narratives”. Realizing that all systems of oppression intersect is key in unification, however, it must also be recognized that oppression is not experienced the same way by all groups. As such, various systems of oppression need to be “approached as incommensurable but not incompatible” (Snelgrove, Dhamoon, and Corntassel 2014:3). Settlers must realize that aligning with Indigenous struggles to further their own gains is not only an extension of cultural appropriation, but it is also an appendage to the colonial mentality of “saving” the “Savage”.
Reserves were largely created to make the Indigenous population invisible. When
racialized people are invisible, those who are in dominant positions are free to express the same prejudiced attitudes which perpetuate injustice. Racist statements are said aloud behind closed doors every day. And in turn, interpersonal discrimination and racism unfolds on the streets at the hands of settlers who have come to believe that racism against Indigenous people is socially acceptable. The Indigenous have been successfully Othered.
Beyond the indignity of facing daily prejudice, racialized people face discrimination within public institutions, as exemplified by the disproportionate presence of Indigenous bodies in the justice system (see Iacobucci 2013). Another example is the racism which proliferates in health care delivery institutions. The death of Robert Sinclair, a double amputee who died in a Winnipeg hospital after waiting 34 hours in the emergency room for a treatable bladder infection is a case in point (Puxley 2014). Racism exists as an outcome of colonial capitalism. The Indigenous were successfully Othered so as to justify their extermination. For those who survived, violent assimilationist policies and laws were imposed, which in turn causes more violence at the personal and interpersonal level. This system exists so that the elite may continue to rule and oppress. Settlers must learn to address racism and discrimination head-on, not only within the academe and from the comfort of our desks, but also in our personal lives and conversations.