Decolonization is an active and ongoing process which involves both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. While it is important for non-Indigenous people to decolonize their minds, Indigenous people are also actively trying to rid themselves from the oppression and consequences colonization has had on their culture. According to Cull et al (2018), decolonization means dismantling power structures that perpetuate the status quo and inequality, while at the same time valuing and revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and approaches. While there are many different ways and examples of how Indigenous people are decolonizing themselves, this article focuses on the following four areas of Indigenous decolonization: food sovereignty, language, art and music, and leadership in politics.
The first example of food sovereignty movements is Kôhkom Bea’s Café, a café at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina aiming to provide food while honoring indigenous traditions and fostering a sense of community. After years of closure and operation by outside vendors, Sheila Pelletier has headed revival efforts due to rising food insecurity among students and staff, acknowledging how accessing food can be a challenge for many individuals. They aim to provide affordable and nutritious meals that also embrace traditional ingredients. The café is named after Elder Beatrice Lavallee, honoring her legacy. In this way it is a decolonization effort that combines providing food, celebrating indigenous culture, community-building, and long-term sustainability efforts.
The second example is WOZU, a native-led community based non-profit in Standing Rock, North Dakota. The organization’s aim is to regenerate the land and promote ethical and sustainable ways of getting food, while also educating the community on their ancestral heritage, regaining traditions, and making the community more physically active to tackle health issues. They decolonize themselves and their community through five main aspects. Firstly, through the revival of traditional foodways by prioritizing indigenous food practices, followed by cultural revitalization through the organization of activities such as sewing or archery, countering the colonial erasure of indigenous culture. In addition, through the empowerment of indigenous communities to become self sufficient by providing infrastructure to make healthy food accesible, as well as eliminating governamental or external dependence by making the infrastructures accessible within the community, and finally, through making it a grassroots approach through the inclusion of all community members into decision making, for instance through surveys.
The final example discussed regarding food sovereignty is a legal battle faced by Mi’kmaq fishermen from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These fishermen are asserting their treaty rights to fish for a moderate livelihood, a struggle deeply intertwined with decolonization because it involves the reclamation of indigenous sovereignty and rights that were suppressed by colonial powers. Fishing for the Mi’kmaq is a way to reclaim their culture by practicing ancient tradition (Image 1), honoring political rights by upholding the treaties, and achieving economic autonomy because it provides a way of being self-sustainable. Indigenous people have a historical connection to the land and waters, enshrined in treaties, but they are still being contested and restricted by colonial authorities.
Image 1. Mi’kmaq fishermen preparing to go fishing
Another topic in Indigenous decolonization is language revitalization. Examples of this are movies being dubbed in Indigenous languages, for instance the Star Wars movie, A New Hope (Image 2) which was already dubbed in Navajo and is being dubbed in Ojibwe, or the Avengers movie which is being dubbed in Lakota. These ongoing projects are important for language revitalization because, as Dan Vandel, Minister of Northern Affairs, states: language is how knowledge is kept and passed on through generations. Having these famous movies dubbed in Indigenous languages provides Indigenous representation. Although this Indigenous representation is in white mainstream popular culture, this is often one of the main sources of information for children. These movies provide tools for Indigenous people to learn their Indigenous language and so revitalize it. This in turn allows them to be able to decolonize themselves by learning and passing on their knowledge fully grasping all the concepts of their culture.
Image 2. Promotion poster of the Star Wars movie A New Hope dubbed in Ojibwe
Another example of language revitalization can be found in the Immersion school led by Memory and Hokshila Whitemountain, as part of the Iyuha Acu Youth Center. The main concept of these schools, as the name indicates, is to be immersed in the culture and language. Children in the school choose their own curriculum and built the Earth lodges they use for different purposes (Image 3). Practices like building the Earth Lodges include many different areas of knowledge as they need math to calculate the length of the beams, engineering to make it stand up and even herbology to know what plants they need to grow on top to make it watertight. All of this while, at the same time, learning about their culture, language and history because their ancestors used to build those Earth Lodges for ceremony and other purposes. Projects like these are also an example of how decolonization can be explored through education.
Image 3. Inside of an Earth Lodge of the Iyuha Acu Youth Center
The next topic discussed is art and music. The first example of this is Hueca Omeyocan, an organization founded by Eduardo and Maria Cruz that focuses on promoting the cultural practices of the Anahuac people in Mesoamerica, particularly Meshica Chichimeca Aztec dance, music and art culture education based on ancestral values. Cruz emphasizes the importance of learning one’s own history as a foundation for decolonization, highlighting the significance of ancestral knowledge to reclaim indigenous identities and combating colonial mindsets. He also discusses the importance of sustainability in maintaining this ancestral knowledge and restoring balance with nature. He states how Hueca Omeyocan tries to create a safe space for music and dance to be used as a resource for all those who want to decolonize, in a way that dance becomes a source of happiness that doesn’t rely on colonial materialism.
The use of art in the decolonization process can be seen through art exhibits. One very powerful exhibition in Halifax was called ‘This is what I wish you knew’, a clay tile mural project, where each of the 50 tiles represents the urban indigenous identity through participant’s personal stories or struggles, serving as the inspiration for the art work (Image 4). Another noteworthy art exhibit, also in Halifax, is called ‘Finding a way forward’, inspired by the discovery of residential school children’s remains, aiming to raise awareness about the impact of residential schools on indigenous communities in Canada. Mi’kmaq artists created designs representing Mi’kmaq values which are translated into rugs (Image 5). These projects appear as ways for Indigenous people to reclaim their stories, identities, and voices, contributing to decolonization by asserting indigenous storytelling, a very important component of indigenous culture. Participants assert their humanity, resilience and agency, challenging colonial narratives. The second exhibit also has the component of healing and remembrance for residential school survivors and their descendants.
Image 4. The clay tile mural This is what I wish you knew at Mi’kmaq Native Friendship Centre in Halifax.
Image 5. A rug at piece from the Finding the way forward, at the Mi’kmaq Native Friendship Centre in Halifax.
The final example is on the use of music for decolonization, looking at Stuart James, an Indigenous hip hop artist from Spirit Lake reservation, North Dakota. In interviews, he often talks about how he uses his rap as a creative outlet to address personal struggles and issues affecting indigenous communities. In his lyrics, he often mentions the broken treaties, acknowledging the fact that the land is stolen, and the murdered and missing indigenous women movement, referring to the disproportionate rates of violence faced by indigenous women and girls. James aims to make music that resonates with the experiences of ‘rez kids like himself’, and he wants to spread positive messages to the youth to combat drug problems. James is also a boxing coach and does multimedia workshops to provide these ‘lost youths’ with opportunities to express themselves and release frustrations, as well as finding objectives in their lives. James Stuart and his music embodies a form of decolonization that reclaims indigenous voices, narratives, and agency, providing paths to self discovery and expression beyond colonial constraints.
Finally, the last topic of decolonization is leadership in politics. As the definition of decolonization presented in the introduction states, decolonization is the process of dismantling power structures and dynamics that perpetuate the status quo. A very good example of this are Indigenous people taking leadership and power positions. The first example of this is Michelle Glasgow (Image 6), who was elected first female chief of the Sipekne’katik First Nation. The fact that as a woman she was elected chair, is in its own already an example of decolonization, since many First Nations were and are matriarchal and historically governed by women. As Sheilla North, another female chief, states, colonization caused an attitude or thinking to arise that leadership is only for men. Glasgow’s position decolonizes that notion and brings back their traditions. In addition, in her way of leading we can see the goal of decolonizing her people by protecting their way of life and the ability to assert their treaty rights.
Image 6. Michelle Glasgow
While this is an example of decolonizing on a tribal level, an example on a federal level would be that of Deb Haaland, 54th Secretary of the Department of the Interior of the United States of America (Image 7). Deb Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo de Laguna and 35th generation New Mexican. The main role of the Department of the Interior is to oversee the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Haaland was sworn in in 2021 and since then, nearly 19.000 acres of National Bison Range in Montana have been transferred back to the Salish and Kootenai tribes and 80 acres of “federal land” in Hawaii have been transferred to the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust. Yet, this is only a drop in the bucket of the 200.000 acres promised and part of the 2 million usurped from the Hawaiian Kingdom. Although environmentalists’ and Indigenous peoples’ hopes were a bit crushed since they were hoping for greener policies – Haaland attended the #NODAPL protests in 2016 -, it is important to keep in mind that she still works for a moderate president and change is slow and hard to push forward. Yet, her most consequential action thus far addresses the legacy of the Indian Boarding schools by creating the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, whose goal was to identify boarding school sites and facilities, the location of possible burial sites and identities or tribal affiliations of buried children. Finally, what is really important in Indigenous leadership is that Indigenous people and their interests are represented in spaces where decisions are taken. Indigenous people in power, like Deb Haaland, allow their requests and concerns to be met by someone who understands them and their importance and can actually do something about it. As she says in the documentary Oyate, “Native people can have all the best ideas in the world, but unless they are in decision making positions to change what’s happening in the country things will stay the same”.
Image 7. Deb Haaland being sworn in
In conclusion, decolonization can take many forms and be done throughout many aspects of life and society. The common ground for all these efforts is that there has to be space for Indigenous people to lead in decolonizing the world. As Robin Diangelo states in the foreword to the book ‘Me and White Supremacy’, as non-Natives we ask ourselves questions of what we can do to decolonize ourselves but we do not take the time to reflect on our complicity to the problem. Indigenous people have been telling the rest of the world what is needed for a very long time, showing the problem and how it grows. What is left now is for society to have a listening ear, decentering priviledged people from the discourse, and acting in consequence. Decolonization is not comfortable or convenient, but it is an individual effort before it becomes collective, and for this reason all individuals must take their part in the responsibility of building a better and more just future.
Referneces
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Googoo, M. (2023, September 25). More than 50 Mi’kmaw fishers charged with fishery offences in Nova Scotia courts – Ku’ku’kwes News. https://kukukwes.com/2023/09/25/more-than-50-mikmaw-fishers-charged-with-fishery-offences-in-nova-scotia-courts/
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