2020-10-24, Settlerday October 24 2020

Normally when I talk about what I broadly categorize as “settler nonsense,” I do it through short posts, usually right after I’ve digested whatever the nonsense was. As I said earlier this week in a newsletter, I’m planning to stop doing that, and instead put together a weekly look at what settler nonsense I saw through the week. This week I wasn’t on the computer too much, and still ended up with around twenty-five instances of nonsense.

A thug with a gun walks around in front of land defenders.

But before I even get into any of that, I want to talk about this excellent opinionshared by Pax Santos on Medium.

Through it, Santos led me to reason that all settlerism is terrorism. There are a few conclusions that can be drawn from this, but most relevant is: I’m going to try and transition away from the calling it “settler nonsense,” and start calling it “settler terrorism.” As someone exposed to this sort of terrorism with sad frequency, there’s a comfort in calling it “nonsense:” it makes it sound like teens breaking windows, not an international eugenics project.

So, with that in mind, here’s a selection of acts of terrorism I saw in the news this week, that y’all may have missed. Again, this is my first time putting together something like this; it’ll probably be clunky and disjointed. Even if it were well-written, it’d probably be difficult to read given the potential emotional weight of the content.

Oh - sorry, one more thing: please watch this video on intergenerational trauma first. As you learn about these contemporary events, try to remember that they will last far past these headlines, into *all *future human generations. (Then maybe watch this short video, with some headline coverage of events and cool music.)

• The US court system continues to drop its pretense as anything but a theocratic club, as a federal judge basically overrules the Supreme Court, approving the continued development of the “Keystone” oil pipeline on the belief that permanent harm is unlikely, even though the pipeline has leaked multiple times and allegedly inhibits animal migration.
• A bit north, settler privilege erases the disproportionate affect of COVID on Indigenous populations. Coming not-long after colonial medicineworkers let an Indigenous women die after mocking her, the news paints a dim future for colonial and Indigenous relations as COVID progresses.
• Back here in the United States, a tradition of “broken promises” continues, as Native nations get ignored in favor of supporting settler-colonies. But even as they ignore us, they imitate us.
• COVID has hurt lots of Indigenous populations, especially in South America. And settlers don’t want to hear it.
• “But if Native folk are separate from colonial folk, they shouldn’t get support!” Disagree, but also could y’all at least stop breaking our shit?
• Medicine isn’t the only mechanism of terror against Indigenous peoples: in Canada, Indigenous people are 10 times more likely to be shot by police than white folk. (I recall here in the US it’s about 8x)
• Colonial infrastructure threatens humans and salmons in California.
• In out-right acts of “Western” magic, Canada says laws should be enforced, like that wasn’t… already the case. Seriously, imagine if someone shot at you with a flare gun, the police never showed up when you called, so you went straight to the courts, and the courts said “yea, that isn’t cool!” and then told you to go home. The whole Mik’maqi “Lobster Dispute,” is a cluster-fuck only Canada could manage.
• And, as an interesting counterpoint to the formality of that kind of magic, here’s law enforcement openly taunting land defenders after they expanded their defense
• So far these have all been from around Turtle Island, but of course that’s just where the closest issues are, not the most, if you’ll excuse it, nonsensical. Here’s a documentary about how Indonesia is “secretly” at war with West Papua.
• Hawai’ian colonists are always terrorising their Indigenous neighbors. Recently, they used their thugs to cage people defending their ancestral burial grounds. Here on Turtle Island, folk have to argue for the return of stolen ancestors.
• At a protest against the wall the US is building on its border with Mexico, which divides the land of Native nations, tear gas and rubber bullets were used. But like, it’s late 2020: if you haven’t been tear-gassed and hit by composite rounds yet, you’re probably just lucky.
• A lot of the Karuk people won’t be able to rebuild after the Slater fire destroyed their homes.
• No specific event, but a new report says climate change (settler terrorism at an uncontrolled rate) enables food apartheid.

I’d also like to share this piece from an uncle of Angela McConnell, one of the many murdered (or missing) Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits. While most of the other links are fine un-clicked, I’d ask that everyone reading this take the time to read what Albert Bender took the time to write and share.

Thanks for taking the time to read, everyone. I know it wasn’t a fun read, but I hope it helped share my perspective on what’s happening around the world.