‘We have awakened to the Indigenous Nationhood Movement’

We must not be content to live a life that holds us down in restless corners, that writes our stories for us, that continues to belittle our cultures and languages, that offers our children, lands, waters, and everything we hold sacred a future of destruction. Each of us must keep this New World alive by personally and collectively acting.  We must never let go of our languages, cultures, children’s futures, love for the land we stand on, and waters we drink. We need to rewrite a history of colonial silencing. We have to understand that the Old World that held our voices and personhood down no longer exists for us. When we see reminders of oppression against ourselves and our lands, we must remember that these are the actions and thoughts that are still alive and thriving in the Old World, and we must not let them affect our walkings through Shki-kiin, our new and powerful world. [...]

Pauwauwaein. We have awakened to the Indigenous Nationhood Movement. Now there is work to be done to harvest and plant new seeds in this world which has been visioned for us. INM is throbbing and living and expanding by the second, like the sprouting of a new plant, perfect and arching toward maturity and vitality, a strong green root sunk deep into a rich and ancient soil, breathing the breath of the newly birthed, yet held tight by the ancestors thick memory and lovesong. Pauwauwaein: We are together, inhaling the dreams of our future.

Read More | “Pauwauwaein: Idle No More to Indigenous Nationhood Movement” | Lesley Belleau | Decolonization Journal: Blog