By Samantha Maltais (Aquinnah Wampanoag)
In some ways, holidays symbolize the values we maintain as a collective society. Much like statues and the histories we select to enshrine, these celebrations symbolize the load we connect to occasions, individuals, and concepts. At present, communities inside the US select what historical past they’ll commemorate — Some states and cities, memorializing Columbus and the method of colonization that displaced Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas, and others memorializing the resilience and continued presence of these Indigenous Peoples within the face of this colonialism. Indigenous Peoples Day, at its core, is a call. It’s a selection that we make collectively: to not overlook historical past, however to acknowledge it. But, it’s also a celebration. It’s a celebration of pleasure and life and the issues that hold our Indigenous communities vibrant and thriving. It celebrates range amongst our cultures, languages, and traditions and affirms our continued resilience within the face of tons of of years of tried genocide. This Indigenous Peoples Day, there’s a lot to rejoice, but in addition a lot to be taught.
Final week, the Canadian company, Enbridge, introduced that their Line 3 tar sands pipeline, a 1,097 mile venture slicing by delicate and life-sustaining habitats in what’s now thought-about Minnesota, would start to pump crude oil to refineries. The venture was allegedly undertaken to restore the present pipeline which has already prompted irreparable hurt to the land, particularly the wetlands and our bodies of water that lay as the inspiration of life, not only for Indigenous Peoples, however for the whole lot and everybody. To not point out the long-term impacts that continued reliance on the oil trade may have for generations to return, each with regard to local weather change and thru continued violation of tribal treaty rights. It’s nothing new to notice that whereas Indigenous Peoples solely make up lower than 5% of the world’s inhabitants, they preserve 85% of the world’s biodiversity.
Line 3 is just the newest of violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and environmental destruction. Water protectors, allies and activists have remained on the entrance traces in defiance of the capitalistic greed that may sacrifice the land and communities for a backside line. Line 3 is symbolic of the very foundations of colonialism, the extractive and exploitative motivations of “discovering” a brand new world. The rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples have at all times stood in the way in which of the colonial venture. For thus lengthy, historical past has tried to forgive or overlook the so-called “obligatory evils” of colonialism. The very fact is, Native Peoples are nonetheless attempting to forgive this hurt, attempting to justify our continued marginalization, the degradation of the environment, and the victimization of future generations that shall be tasked with addressing the impacts of local weather change. Colonialism is not only a part of our historical past, it’s a part of our current as properly.
This Indigenous Peoples Day, it’s my hope that the historical past we select to enshrine shouldn’t be one in all violence or genocide, however one in all resilience and resistance. Rejoice the Water Protectors and the frontline activists, rejoice elders and language lecturers and culture-bearers. Rejoice tribal leaders and youth teams and Indigenous college students pursuing their goals within the face of a world that also tries to steal their futures. This Indigenous Peoples Day, it’s also my hope that we as a society perceive the historical past of colonialism in order that we could at some point cease repeating it.
Initially revealed October 11, 2021
