From Turtle Island to Palestine, none of us are free until we are all free.
I stand for a #FreePalestine.
Hi friends,
I created this monthly newsletter back in September 2021 as a way to share my (un)learning journey as I move towards imagining and inventing a more equitable and just future and I am humbled that you’ve subscribed to join me on this journey.
In moving towards that equitable and just future, it is my responsibility to share in this very critical moment in history that I am unequivocal in my support of a free Palestine.
I have spent the last couple of weeks on the traditional, unceded, and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), shíshálh (Sechelt), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations learning from Indigenous leaders about the history of genocide on the nation state we now call “Canada”.
I’ve also spent the last week listening to voices from Gaza about the ongoing displacement, violence, and dehumanization that Palestinian people have endured for decades and that is frighteningly ramping up right now.
The history of Indigenous struggles for freedom and sovereignty is vastly different from that of Palestinian people, and yet the dynamics of power and oppression play out ever so similarly.
It is, sadly, a tale as old as time.
And it is one that is mirrored in many of our own histories as people from diasporas around the globe who have been harmed by colonization, occupation, racist immigration policies, and other oppressive systems.
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Dr. Martin Luther King wrote these words in his now famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” addressed to fellow clergymen across different religions. I remind myself, and all of you who have joined this journey of practicing anti-oppression, of Dr. King’s teachings of interdependence and interconnection.
These are teachings that exist in so many of our cultures around the world and that have existed across generations.
Echad. Ubuntu. Kapwa. Lak'ech Ala K'in.
Unity. I am because you are. Our shared identity. You are my other self.
These are not empty platitudes. These are universal laws that govern our world whether you choose to believe it or not, in the same way that gravity works whether you believe it or not.
I have been asking myself a lot of hard questions this week, and I invite you to wrestle with them too:
Can we take the grief and rage of this moment to radicalize us towards compassion and courage? Can we learn how to hold and harness power without domination? Can we imagine a world that invests more heavily in our healing and shared liberation than it does in continued violence and harm? Can we be the generation that breaks this vicious cycle?
In these heady days when the news and social media cycle are unrelenting, may we remember that compassion is not a zero-sum game.
I, personally, am holding compassion for all Palestinian people who are mourning the loss of their homeland and who have been struggling for their freedom and basic human rights. I am holding compassion for all Jewish people whose grief in this moment has been weaponized by corrupt leaders of oppressive systems to perpetuate even more senseless violence.
I am holding immense, immense compassion for both Palestinian and Jewish communities who have been unfairly thrust into a position where they must tirelessly educate the rest of the world about their complex history and remind us all of their humanity.
I have been spending my time on the West Coast looking at and studying the ancient natural systems that teach us so much about how to live and be, and trying to remind myself of these lessons and how they all apply to social movements. How the roots of the forest system wind and wrap themselves together so tightly to create the strongest foundations so as to be immovable. How their strength is deeply and inextricably intertwined with each other. How each living being serves a purpose for the growth of the whole.
And so it must be for our struggle for collective liberation.
The lessons and answers are all in the natural world in front of us. It’s time we listen.
May we rise to meet this moment and build a just world together.
Isang bagsak.
Justine
Umm, you didn't originate here. No humans did. The first people in the americas are of south pacific, east Asian and Siberia. DNA testing has confirmed this as well of records of great migrations from Asia and Siberia in which most of the first people date back to.
Furthermore, there wasnt one civilization or nation here, there were many but very sparse, in other words, not enough to rightfully claim all the land. It was very tribal and nomadic, most archeology has shown us areas would become desolate and a tribe would move.
We also know there was slavery and genocide and massacres and wars and pandemic well before europeans showed up.
Again, certain tribes claimed the land they were on. Many Europeans traded land and made treaties for land. Typically the wars being fought against natives early on was an alliance of Europeans and natives, fighting another tribe.
So point is, land was acquired by either treaty or war, centuries ago and much land was not claimed. There was no unity among tribes as they were a warrior society. War was the way of things.
So to claim your land was stolen is just playing some victim card.
Then when it comes to Palestine, Israel has had no problem with them living there but Radicals cannot accept that. Some Palestinians are indigenous to those lands though, as are some Israelis. This is a very old and diverse region where civilization originated.
They both have rights in those lands which date back before your people ever migrated to North America.
So stop trying to lay claim to something that was never yours and you have no right to claim. Your land is what you buy, that is how the world works. In North America, the freedom is greater then anywhere. In Canada, the first peoples (first nations) are treated better then any citizen anywhere in the world, yet many still play the victim card like you while they ignoring just how much they have compared to anyone who isnt first nations.
Point is, a couple hundred years or a couple thousand years, both people have equal rights and the recognized state is who has claim.
Im not trying to be rude here either as my mother's side is First Nations Algonquin. Absolutely no disrespect, just hate when someone tries to deceive people.
Fyi. Turtle Island actually originated in a Dutch journal from like sometime in the 1600's as a story from Algonquin and Iroquois beliefs. Ones that were not shared or even known by the rest of the continent until the 1900's and was like 1970's when suddenly natives everywhere had accepted this cultural heritage.
So you may know the stories of it but trying to claim it as heritage is ridiculous. Also, learn the difference between colonization and settling.
If there was empty, unclaimed land, land won in a war or land received through treaty/trade, it is being settled, not colonized. Colonized applies to going into somewhere that is already settled. Vast majority of settlements developed where native tribes were not settled.
Europeans brought alot of good and native culture and nobility is high, especially in Canada. Everyone benefited. Nobody took your peoples land though. It was either bartered for or acquired through an alliance or treaty. If Europeans teamed up against a tribe with another tribe, well the other tribe was involved and that is war. You can't call that colonization or stealing land.
Have some appreciation and make something of yourself that can let you respect yourself because you should be ashamed of the deception you are spewing. I can feel the passion but you are either misinformed or ill informed or just plain uninformed.
Do more homework and learn your heritage instead of creating content such as this garbage.
"Turtle Island..."
For the Love of God, could you maybe tone down the virtue-signaling for even just for a moment?
You may see yourself as some kind of impeccably irreproachable high-minded social justice warrior;
fine. But someone should let you know what the rest of us outside your precious bubble see:
A naive, privileged, sanctimonious individual playing dress-up, and looking down on the rest of us --- who actually have real doubts as to your histrionic screaming about "genocide" and "de-colonization," and simply want to go about our own lives without being judged by a holier-than-thou finger-pointing cultural tourist who seems to think she is somehow more politically aware and evolved than we are.
Wearing you very own keffiyeh may seem to you like "an act of resistance and solidarity," but don't be surprised and don't complain when the rest of us roll our eyes, and smirk at your self-righteous cluelessness.
People have had enough.