Fuck you, Columbus

Don't worry, this one is short (sort of)

I've been informed that numbers mean things! And specifically, the number that is today means it's American Thanksgiving, the holiday where people eat turkey, argue with drunk relatives, and pretend like their ancestors didn't just steal an entire continent wholesale, with a little help from Variola major. I said “their ancestors” as if my hands are clean in this matter, but I'm descended from white settlers, and I've got the same colonial debt to pay off.

I don't have any original ideas about how to go about repaying this debt, and I won't pretend that my paying lip service to it is in any way sufficient. I've got learning to do on this, and I'm open to suggestions on how best to direct my energies. But I've gotten some good direction in the past, and I'm going to pass it along to you:

Donate directly to grassroots organizations that are doing the real work on the ground. I donate monthly to Feeding Nunavut, an Inuit-led nonprofit dedicated to food security in Canada's northern territories.

You could also consider the Unist’ot’en Camp Legal Defense. These land defenders are currently engaged in a lengthy legal battle following the RCMP invasion of unceded Wet’suet’en territory. As of this writing, the Unist’ot’en tribe continues to have success in blocking pipeline projects that endanger the ecosystem and insult their sovereignty. Money is the thing they need most - the camp is remote, and the cost of shipping and then retrieving shipped goods is so high that the best solution is a direct monetary donation, so they can get the things they need for themselves.

With a little research, I'm sure you could discover small organizations that are making a difference in your own region. Local activism works - in June of this year, the Shoal Lake bands in Manitoba finally got the provincial government to build a bridge, connecting their reserve to a stable drinking water supply and reliable medical treatment. The great irony of this story is that the Shoal Lake 40 reserve was isolated in 1919 by an artificial aqueduct, built so that the settler-majority city of Winnipeg would have clean drinking water, while the indigenous residents of the town were under a boil water advisory for decades. After 5 years of dedicated activism and protest, the most recent campaign succeeded.

Another thing to do - consciously choose which narratives you follow and priotize. In this algorithmic age, you get more of what you already have. The cultural dominance of white, colonial stories means that you'll always be biased towards an over-representation of the privileged unless you make a real effort to correct this. Try adding these accounts to your feed, and see what new suggestions come up.

@indigenouswomenhike - fairly self explanatory, really great links to activists all over North America. Every thru-hiker should follow this.

@whatbringsushere - a documentary project on the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women crisis, based in Winnipeg.

@mmiw_sacred - for a more general account of the #mmiw crisis in Canada and opportunities for political action.

@lornecardinal - better known as Seargent Davis from Corner Gas. He lives in Squamish, you guys! I saw him at the grocery store once and did not make it weird, but it was close thing. He posts a mix of fun personal stuff and activism, and I found most of these accounts through him.

That's nowhere near an exhaustive list - please do comment and give me some suggestions for people to follow. Additionally, follow the hashtags #idlenomore and #mmiw to find even more ways to get involved.

There are other things you can do, too. Find who's land you are on, and make an effort to learn the languages of its rightful owners, or at least the correct name of the place you live. Educate yourself on the colonial history of your country or province - as Canadians, we've all heard mention of historical resistance movements and residential schools, but do you really know what those stories mean? Do you know the details? You should. If you're descended from settlers, your family's wealth and property was obtained by means of violence, and you owe it to yourself and your community to know what was done in your name.

I once took a workshop with an amazing and generous elder, whose name I have sadly forgotten - her last name was Star-something, but I can't find the receipt in my email. She answered all my dumb questions with patience, and looking back, I cringe at the uninformed and hurtful things I said. As part of the workshop, she showed an unedited recording of a hearing during the 1991 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The blatant disrespect of the Canadian government leaders towards their tribal equivalents was shocking and eye-opening, before the testimony on abuses within residential schools had even begun.

My very own uncle, a survivor of the 60’s Scoop, was adopted by my grandmother as a pre-teen, and struggles with the legacy of the racist foster care system to this day. This wasn't discussed when I was growing up. I researched the history on my own, and only connected it with my family years later. Indigenous kids are 7% of the child population of Canada, but make up almost 50% of the children in foster care. That's fucked up, and it needs to change.

And outright colonial violence continues - take the documentary podcast Boushie, which chronicles the mishandled trial of a white farmer who shot and killed an unarmed indigenous man in 2016, for the simple act of stepping onto the farmer's property. The farmer was acquitted. That's not even a spoiler, that's routine. Shit like this happens all the time, this case just happened to get coverage in the media.

There's so much work to do, and so much more for me to learn as I try to shake the colonial mindset, the idea that I am entitled to this land and the privileges I haven't earned. I'm not. So, for Thanksgiving, do something that future generations might thank you for, and give the colonizers past and present a giant “Fuck you!” by putting in the work of meaningful repair. It's literally the least you can do.

Talk soon, and take care (of others)

-Magpie