After two hundred years of slavery in Canada, only now do we have our first institute of slavery studies. It's about time to talk about anti-Black racism in Canada.
If you're unsure how anti-trafficking laws harm migrant sex workers, or how sex work isn't trafficking, start here.
Southern Alberta, also home to Métis Nation Region 3, is bound by Treaty 7, a living document signed on Sept. 22, 1877 between the Crown and five First Nations communities:
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the Blackfoot Confederacy (the Káínaa (Blood), Siksiká (Blackfoot), and the Piikáni (Piegan))
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the Îyârhe [ee-YAH-hhay] Nakoda (Stoney: Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley)
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the Tsúùtínà (Sarcee is considered an offensive term by most of the Tsuut'ina Nation)
These First Nations communities generally understood it to be a peace treaty to share, not surrender, their traditional lands.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 presented a roadmap forward that refers to the UN's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to address Canada's colonial, anti-Indigenous genocidal past and present. As of June 2021, eight to thirteen of the 94 calls to action have been implemented.
I can continue petitioning and protesting for the land and water rights of Indigenous Peoples in "Canada" by amplifying what they believe is best for the land and for their right to clean water and safety on their own land. I can continue challenging my biases and learned discrimination towards Indigenous persons and support their knowledge, stories, and well-being inside and outside my classrooms. I will not euphemize the ongoing Indigenous genocide, history and effects of residential schools, unaddressed MMIW2S, nor other issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples. I can volunteer for Indigenous-led initiatives like Bear Clan Patrol. I will continue learning about past and current Indigenous issues and accomplishments on my own, and if I do seek the expertise and knowledge of Indigenous persons, to compensate and respect them for their energy and time.
How is Canada still hurting Indigenous people through environmental racism, land dispossession, violence, and murder?
Briarpatch, a fiercely independent mag, has an issue on what Land Back is all about.
Here's a documentary.
A website with resources.
Cathy Park Hong's essays in Minor Feelings:
"Hong succinctly notes one of the key aspects of white supremacy in action: pitting non-white communities against one another in order to sow distrust as a means of preserving the current system." - Julia Shiota
How safe would you feel if you were Transgender and living in Canada?
Transgender and a person of colour?
Disclosure documentary (on Netflix)
Paris Is Burning documentary (on Netflix)
BIPOC writings I've enjoyed: poetry / novel / essays
Ian William's Personals and Reproduction
Raven Leilani's Luster
Stephanie Roberts' rushes from the river disappointment
Micheline Maylor's Whirr & Click and Little Wildheart
Joshua Whitehead's Jonny Appleseed
Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel and Edinburgh
Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and Night Sky With Exit Wounds
Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties (short stories)
Yōko Ogawa's The Diving Pool (three novellas) and
The Housekeeper and the Professor and Hotel Iris
Zadie Smith's Feel Free and White Teeth
Felicia Rose Chavez's The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom
Matthew Salesses' Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear and Craft in the Real World
Junot Díaz's Drown (short stories)
The Selkie's Very Much Alive anthology (short stories)
Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere
Kim Thúy's Ru
Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being
Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl
Han Kang's The Vegetarian and Human Acts
Kōbō Abe's The Woman in the Dunes
Ryū Murakami's In the Miso Soup
Natsuo Kirino's Out
Yasuko Thanh's Mistakes to Run With (memoir)
Cathy Park Hong's Engine Empire
Last updated: April 2021