Tag: colonialism. decolonization

Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors

Taiaiake

The original 1995 book description:

This book is the first comprehensive study of the driving force behind Native political activism, and the only scholarly treatment of North American Indian politics which integrates an explicitly Native perspective. With a broad historical scope rich in detail, and drawing on the particular experience of the Mohawks of Kahnawake, it offers an explanation of Indian and Inuit political activism focusing on the importance of traditional values and institutions in shaping Native responses to the state.

The book explains the recent rise of a militant assertion of sovereignty on the part of Native people in terms of three major factors: the existence of alternative institutions in the body of the nation’s traditional culture; the self-conscious development of an alternative identity; and a persistent pattern of negative interaction with the state. It differs from other analyses focusing on similar factors in that it views nationalism not as a movement which activates in response to external factors, but as a persistent feature of political life which manifests itself in either a latent or active form in response to the interaction of the three factors discussed in the model.

Alfred – Heeding the VoicesDownload

Resurgence*: paths to decolonization in the thought of Taiaiake Alfred

Taiaiake

To contribute to the debate on decolonization from the perspective of Indigenous Peoples, we present the notion of Resurgence elaborated by Taiaiake Alfred, one of Canada’s most important Indigenous thinkers. Alfred proposes his notion of Resurgence as a strategy for breaking away from colonial power relations that focus on Indigenous Peoples’ ability to live and develop according to their own thinking systems. We will see that, besides questioning colonial domination, the notion of Resurgence, anchored in the millenary experiences and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, shows how to prepare the way and create the necessary conditions for a true decolonization.

[Paper written and published in Portuguese]

Link: http://portal.amelica.org/ameli/journal/815/8154373016/

Zema Drummond Pataxo – Resurgence PaperDownload

It’s All about the Land – Photography

Taiaiake

Full colour versions of photographs in the book, It’s All about the Land, published in 2023 by the University of Toronto Press. All images are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission.

Warrior Life

Taiaiake

Listen here to the extended interview with host Pam Palmater in June, 2020 about the development of the idea of Indigenous resurgence, and striving to live as an Indigenous resurgent.

Warrior Life podcast, Episode 25