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My self-directed anti-racism training brought me first to studying racism itself (a system, distinct from individual prejudices), to Indigenous studies, to worldviews, and then to religion. I have been struggling with my own relationship with religion since I left Christianity in my late teens.   The Abrahamic Origin Story In Trans-Indigeneity, and a loss or lack of Indigeneity I referenced where/who I was from, and that the Indigenous worldviews of my peoples were long ago replaced by Abrahamic worldviews. In Is religious freedom camouflaging ongoing colonialism and empire building   I discuss how Abrahamic religions all share core worldviews, even if the various splinter groups disagree on specific details. (Christianity split from Judaism, Protestants split from Catholicism, Islam split from Christianity/Judaism, etc). The book of Genesis writes down the Abrahamic origin story, and from this we can see the core Abrahamic worldviews.  Much of what people think of as we...

I have written about UNDRIP and Uyghurs and China vs Hong Kong, Canada vs Haudenosaunee Confederacy ., and how I consider the narrow focus on China to be misplaced whether we are talking about Hong Kong or the Uyghurs. Michael Chong recently tabled a motion which he called "Religious Minorities in China" that I want to write about.  I first want to document some of the biases that caused me to initially form the opposite opinion to Michael Chong. Michael Chong's biases I have been following Michael Chong's political interventions since I met him in the context of his Conservative Party leadership campaign . I really liked what I heard so I re-joined the Conservative party (sorta - I had been a member of the Progressive Conservative party) and voted for him as #1 on my ballot. I have noticed a growing focus on China in his interventions in the house, growing to the point where he seems to talk about China more than he talks about Canada. While there are other sources,...

Last evening I watched An Evening with Desmond Cole , hosted by the Canadian Museum of History. I read "The Skin We're In", and watched different interviews. This one was particularly inspiring. This will partly be because Desmond Cole has been on a tour of this highly successful book, and with each presentation he will be getting interesting questions to think about himself. The questions given him by Adrian Harewood and some of the students watching were not easy ones. Adrian challenged Desmond with far more than a discussion of his book. The two most interesting answers for me were about Canada, and about the chapter on Canadian colonialism.   Do you love Canada?   Using a quote from James Baldwin, Adrian asked Desmond about whether he loved Canada. I don't have the quote handy, but this quote conveys the theme: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” - James Baldwi...

I find discussions on these issues from many Canadians, including in the federal parliament, to be -- well -- irrational, and full of "I know you are, but what am I" type childish behavior. I've already written China vs Hong Kong, Canada vs Haudenosaunee Confederacy , but the focus of certain politicians is now directed at the Indigenous Uyghurs rather than post-British-occupation Hong Kong. The Uyghurs are an indigenous peoples that have a history in that region dating back thousands of years. They call the region East Turkestan (or Uyghurstan), and reject the name Xinjiang (Sinkiang, meaning "New Frontier" in Mandarin Chinese). Many converted to Islam in the 10'th century, but that doesn't take away from their status as Indigenous peoples, and should not misdirect the focus of discussion toward religion. Even the type of name imposed by China should sound extremely familiar to Canadians, given we have a province called "New Found Land" on one...

As part of the NS 161 course, we have been assigned chapters from âpihtawikosisân (Chelsea Vowel)'s book INDIGENOUS WRITES: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada .  Last week's lecture included an interview that Tasha Hubbard (one of our professors) did of Chelsea Vowel, where they discussed how the book came out of some of the work she was doing on her blog creating "Indigenous Issues" Primers ., as well as on her twitter and other social media. They discussed how, if she was going to do this all over again, she would have avoided the use of the term "Indigenous Issues" as they are really Canadian issues. These primers discuss things all Canadians are involved in, and it is not narrowly about some subset of the population on this land. I've heard it said in another way, which is that there never was an "Indian problem", only a "settler-colonial problem". Repeating my confession I haven't read every single ...

I finished reading one of the articles for last week's coursework:  Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities , by Eve Tuck ( https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15   , PDF available for free ). I have previously discussed Decolonization is not a metaphor which is co-authored by Eve Tuck. This article caused me to realize something about my own activism around Indigenous political issues, including LandBack. I'll offer some context first.  When I started my self-directed antiracism training, some key books helped give me the language and context of everything I've learned since. There are two key aspects of that reading that direct my activism: Individuality as a form of white privilege.  Whites see themselves as individuals, but they see non-whites as representatives of entire groups. This leads to huge misunderstandings. One is the notion there is a pan-Indigenous perspective on any issue. Individual prejudices vs systemic racism.   Turtle Isla...

A social media friend brought up the topic of their work and how they weren't just lucky, but put a lot of work and schooling into their career. This made me think about my own situation. I feel privileged in my career -- beyond lucky. I have one attribute which in some ways is a disadvantage, which is that I'm not neurotypical. I was lucky in that people (such as amazing teachers) directed me towards a profession where that personal feature was a benefit, even if there are regularly translation problems when communicating with more neurotypical coworkers.   I also entered into this profession in the early 1990's at a time when neurodiversity was not seen as a problem, while today things have become a bit more complex and neurodiversity gets people into conflicting situations with some interpretations of other diversity.   I am quite aware of my white cis-hetero-male privilege, where I don't have to be as exceptional as non-cis-hetero-male or non-white counterparts in o...

This is my opinion, and it is a controversial one. Skip this article if you will feel triggered by a conversation involving the confederate flag, and because of that be unable to read the entire thought before jumping to conclusions. As I watched what was happening in the US Capitol yesterday, I noticed some familiar themes. One of them related to a series of photographs of the flag of the Confederate States of America being flown outside and within the halls of the US Capitol.  It disgusted people because it is seen as a symbol of white supremacy. The USA fought a civil war and won against the separatists that fly that flag, which to most people that means that they aren't the white supremacists. Never during the civil war did that flag fly in the capitol, and yet it flew yesterday because of a riot incited by opportunistic politicians.   Canadians regularly tell a similar story, of how they (well, their British loyalist ancestors) fought a series of wars against the separati...