In March, a small #nonprofit in #BritishColumbia cut 10 cheques worth approximately $5,500 each & hand delivered them to as many #FirstNations on southern #VancouverIsland. The money, collected in the second half of 2023, is the first annual installment of #voluntary#rents paid by residents & business owners who live & work on the First Nations’ homelands.
Sheila, a family friend, a neighbour, a mother - stolen from her family as a child during the #sixtiesScoop - a woman who did everything she could to care for her community - our community, was left impoverished and without any help from the same state that destroyed her family.
She was couch surfing, staying with my uncle when his house caught fire in the middle of the night. The others barely made it out. Sheila did not.
Sheila was the first friend to go during the pandemic. There have been 9 more since then. I haven't even been able to begin process Sheila's passing.
I'm greatly looking forward to this permeant public reminder of a friend, but more importantly a role model - a person who despite having very little, gave it all. The same cannot be said about most.
May her death bring positivity, and foster a sense of community over consumption.
Canadians should especially recognize the politics of starvation used in #Palestine, we invented it, and used it against our Indigenous population. Many genocides have employed the template, since. We owe it if we mean it about #Reconciliation to call it out, #Canada.
Whether it’s through her #poetry or while in conversation at home making homemade mayonnaise, Rebecca Thomas of Lennox Island #FirstNation has a lot of powerful insights to share.
"I Place You Into The Fire", a new #documentary by #Indigenous filmmaker Stephanie Joline, gives Thomas the space to share personally emotional stories about intergenerational trauma, the impacts of #colonialism, performative #reconciliation and #healing.
Even while it gives land acknowledgments and takes Truth and Reconciliation Day off with pay, the Canadian government is actively invading foreign nations on the regular. The RCMP has always been used to terrorize Indigenous Peoples. It’s why the RCMP were formed in the first place. Reconciliation is not paramilitary occupation. #Reconciliation#Wetsuweten#Canada#IndigenousMastodon#RCMP#NativeMastodon#LandDefenders#Apartheid
In the short time we have been annually observing Canada’s record on its supposed progress, we’ve held the tension of the promise of #Reconciliation with the actual reality — and are exasperated by the deep chasm between the two and frustrated by the discrepancy between inaction and Canada’s fantastical myths of benevolence." #trcCallsToAction#cdnPoli https://yellowheadinstitute.org/trc/
The European Network's Ken Sweeney argues that, despite 15,000 deaths at the hands of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), the world is behaving like rabbits in headlight and needs to call Israeli actions what they are.
The world should force them to accept peace and reconciliation.
The Indigenous economy is continuing to make progress, with corporations and governments working to partner with Indigenous Nations to include them in business and industry successes.
Reconciliation may be driving the inclusion, said a panel at the Indigenomics Bay Street conference in Toronto, but it’s up to everyone to ensure that progress is built on what is best for future generations.
Results released Friday of a vote held by the #CowichanTribes show 83 per cent of the 416 citizens who cast ballots were in favour of the new #law that would prioritize supports to keep children with their families or place them with relatives or in other #Indigenous homes.
'It is time to stop pretending the overwhelming “No” vote at the referendum wasn’t fanned by racism, underlying all the lies and misrepresentation. This is not to say all those who voted “No” were racists. Rather, it is increasingly clear racism was the mostly unstated agenda of some of the referendum’s strongest public opponents: those who clung to the concept of White Australia, and the supremacy of white settlers, their dependents and subsequent settlers, seeking to preserve our Constitution as originally drafted. The proof is in their actions since the referendum – they have used the result as a platform to undermine several important elements of an effective approach to recognition.
#TheMetalDogArticleList #MetalInjection
DAVE ELLEFSON Can Finally Wear A METALLICA Shirt Again
"I'm not in Megadeth. I can finally wear my Metallica shirts again."