“I remember an elder once told me on my healing journey that I should start with myself, my family, my community, and then our nation. I never understood that until the day my sister, another young man and I went to lay logs over the road.” Continue reading No More! On the blockade at Grassy Narrows – Chrissy Swain (2004)

“This is the greatest gift we gave to you, the concept of freedom. You did not have this. Now that you have taken it and built a constitution and country around it, you deny freedom to us.” Continue reading The Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy stands in support of our brothers at Wounded Knee (1973)

“The way, and the only way, to check and to stop this evil, is for all the Redmen to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be yet; for it was never divided, but belongs to all for the use of each.” Continue reading Tecumseh’s speech to Governor Harrison at Vincennes, Indiana Territory (August 12, 1810)

“Métis scholar and writer Mike Gouldhawke visits with Sara Mai to unpack his take on The Globe and Mail front page news story on the ‘Water Crisis’ in Indigenous communities” Continue reading Colonial Problems rebranded as ‘Indigenous Issues’ – Mbwaach’idiwag Podcast

“We, the undersigned, are Métis citizens from across the homeland and supporters who stand in solidarity with Black abolitionist organizers and the families of Black and Indigenous people who have experienced police violence. Métis people taking a position of support for defunding the police are not the inconsequential dissenting voices.” Continue reading Grassroots Métis Statement on the WPG Police and MMF: Abolish the Police!

“This is the substance of decolonization; it is crucial that Indigenous peoples be free to develop and regain their relationships with the land rather than settlers taking it upon ourselves to do it in their stead.” Continue reading Another Word for Settle: A Response to Rattachements and Inhabit

“Land Back” en français. Continue reading 100 ans de lutte pour la terre / La terre comme relation sociale

This Brief outlines the compounding crises, and the resistance, that have constituted Indigenous healthcare in this country. Continue reading The Failure Of Federal Indigenous Healthcare Policy In Canada

“We, the native Americans, re-claim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery. We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land, and hereby offer the following treaty…” Continue reading Proclamation of the Indians of All Tribes at Alcatraz (1969)

“From the vantage point of the colonial state, by the time the 78-day standoff at Kanesatake had begun things were already out of control in Indian Country.” Continue reading IdleNoMore in Historical Context – Glen Coulthard (2012)

“We are inmates of not only institutions of incarceration, but every other institution that has dominated us for years. We are inmates of poverty, of high suicide rates, of disease, and of overrepresentation in the justice system.” – Cory Charles Cardinal Continue reading Prisoner Resistance Across the Prairies

Gerald’s Kaboni’s police custody related death reopened wounds in Victoria’s Indigenous community, as the family of Anthany Dawson, a 29 year-old Native man who was killed by Victoria police in August of 1999 continued to struggle for justice. Continue reading Police Brutality (2002)

Posts challenging the BC Metis Federation’s (BCMF) recent statements regarding Secwepemc sovereignty and false claims to Métis territorial rights in BC; a link to an article about similar claims made by a different organization, the Metis Nation of BC (MNBC); and some personal-historical commentary about Métis in BC. Continue reading Against false claims to Métis territorial rights in British Columbia

Since the September/October 2020 Land Back Issue of Briarpatch Magazine was published, there have been several podcasts that have had episodes expanding on the topics covered in it and on Briarpatch Magazine itself. Continue reading Podcast episodes related to the Land Back issue of Briarpatch

“Ce texte de M. Gouldhawke (2020) retrace l’histoire de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada, le corps policier fédéral aux racines coloniales, capitalistes et impérialistes.” Continue reading L’histoire de la GRC, police coloniale et impérialiste au Canada

“This type of cultural genocide was intentionally planned by a more aggressive, power-hungry nation of people in order to further exploit a nation of people whose socialistic ideas could not be destroyed otherwise.” Continue reading Cultural Genocide, Intentionally Planned – Rose Bishop (1975)

“We are proud that the Métis Society of Saskatchewan was one of the few organization that supported the Native people of Kenora as they fight for justice.” Continue reading The Truth About the Anicinabe Park Occupation of 1974 – Linda Finlayson

“We are a collective of community members, prisoner advocates, and penal abolitionists who stand in solidarity with prisoners at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre (SCC), where 130 people (107 prisoners; 23 staff) or roughly 20% of the population have tested positive for COVID-19 as of November 30, 2020.” Continue reading An Open Letter in Solidarity with Prisoners at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre

A short outtake from my interview with the Flash Forward Podcast (in reference to the Briarpatch Magazine LandBack issue), and a link to the full episode of the podcast. Continue reading Give The Land Back? – Flash Forward Podcast

“The white power structure has used every possible method to destroy our spirit, and the will to resist. They have divided us into status and nonstatus, American and Canadian, Métis and Indian. We are fully aware of their ‘divide and rule’ tactic, and its effect on our people.” Continue reading Native Alliance for Red Power – Eight Point Program (1969)

“The ‘nation’ among the white people is a recent concept. The U.S.A. was the first white nation as all the other countries were kingdoms.” Continue reading The Indian Claims Commission is illegal, unjust and criminal – Karoniaktajeh (1965)

“All red races are born Socialists, and most tribes carry out their communistic ideas to the letter. Amongst the Iroquois it is considered disgraceful to have food if your neighbour has none.” Continue reading The Sea-Serpent – Tekahionwake (1911)

Since Canada can’t hide our Peoples’ lands, it seeks to remove our consciousness itself and break our mode of social relations. Continue reading Land as a social relationship

“Then, in the 1950s, inspired by the Black Civil Rights struggle in the southern US, Natives also began organizing for civil & treaty rights. In the southwest, Native students began organizing. In the Northwest, coastal Natives began asserting their treaty rights to fish.” Continue reading Indigenous Resistance, 1960s to 2007 – Warrior Publications

“What many people miss is that the book and film [The Spook Who Sat By The Door] are based on the solid foundation of African American folklore that were the bedtime stories told to my brother and me by my southern maternal grandparents; the Brer Rabbit tales, in particular.” Continue reading An Exchange Between Sam Greenlee and Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite (2007)

2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Sir George Williams University in Montreal in 1969 by Black and Caribbean students who were protesting racist treatment by professors at the institution, as well as the 150th anniversary of the Métis Nation’s re-occupation of Fort Garry at Red River (Winnipeg) in 1869. Continue reading Canadian Imperialism & Institutional Racism: Connections between Black & Métis resistance movements

“The established media focused their attention on who they judged to be the leaders and organizers — that is, Native American males. Their cameras and tape recorders only grazed the faces of Martha Grass from Oklahoma or Ann Jock from Akwesasne or the many strong women who like Anna Mae Pictou breathed life into an idea.” Continue reading The Brave-Hearted Women: The Struggle at Wounded Knee – Shirley Hill Witt (1976)

“Why, after killing an Indian, was an avowed political racist charged with manslaughter instead of murder and sentenced to a short prison term? Why was there no trial and no opportunity for a court to publicly examine the crime and Nerland’s political activities?” Continue reading The Killing of Leo LaChance – Ron Bourgeault (1994)

A police and “Goon Squad” reign of terror in the 1970s against traditional Lakota people who opposed the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) regime on the Pine Ridge reservation resulted in dozens of murders and assaults, and even an attack on a legal defence team. Continue reading Chronology of Oppression at Pine Ridge (1977)

Hundreds of residents of the Aboriginal community of Palm Island, Australia, burned down the local police station, court building and the housing barracks of local police officers on November 26, 2004, after a coroner’s report on the police custody death of island resident Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Aboriginal man, was read aloud to a community meeting. Continue reading Palm Island Insurrection (2005)

“We continue to live the laws of Creation. Is it enough to save the earth from destruction? As the disease of greed spreads itself like a blanket smothering all of the Creation’s breath.” Continue reading What is the Meaning of Sovereignty? – Sharon H. Venne (1998)

“Janet McCloud was a political force not to be ignored, as she defined an American Indian political agenda that addressed police brutality, race, economics and gender…”
– Agnes Williams, Seneca Nation Continue reading The Last Indian War – Janet McCloud (1966)

“The struggles taking place in the inner city ghettos are often misunderstood as mindless violence. The young struggling against exclusion and boredom are advanced elements of the class clash. The ghetto walls must be broken down, not enclosed.” Continue reading Breaking out of the Ghetto – Jean Weir (1988)

“In the attempt to be intellectual, the authors’ writings are largely incomprehensible within the context of Marxism and Native Americans.” Continue reading Marxism and Native Americans – Reviewed by Howard Adams (1984)

“But such a simplistic analysis ignores the patriarchal & racist ideological basis that makes up the domination & expansion of capitalism. Today, capitalism shapes & effects our cultural & social relationships like no other social culture has.” Continue reading Against Imperialism: International Solidarity and Resistance – Endless Struggle (1990)

“Four million Indians live in Mexico who, until twenty or twenty-five years ago, lived in communities possessing the lands, the waters, and the forests in common. Mutual aid was the rule in these communities…” Continue reading The Mexican People are Suited to Communism – Ricardo Flores Magón (1911)

“Elitism is a European ideology and philosophy. It is completely contrary to our traditional philosophy and ideology, and it is very dangerous to the survival of Indian communities.” Continue reading Traditional Indian Government: Of the People, by the People, for the People – Marie Smallface-Marule (1984)

Audio interview from 2010 with Wade Crawford (Oneida) from Six Nations of the Grand River talking about his participation in the “Oka Crisis” and other struggles (from the Vancouver Media Coop) Continue reading Audio interview with Wade Crawford from Six Nations of the Grand River (2010)

“From his younger years as a founder of the West Coast Warrior Society to a call for the province to eliminate discriminatory organ donation policies during the last year of his life, those closest to David Dennis will remember him for his fearlessness in the face of daunting adversity.” Continue reading Remembering David Dennis

The 2000’s were a time of heightened struggle and conflict for communities of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy located within territories fraudulently occupied and claimed by Canada. Continue reading From Six Nations of the Grand River to Tyendinaga (2006-2008)

“Under such conditions, there is little doubt that European military commanders welcomed the effects of disease on hostile Indigenous populations. Nor would they have been ignorant to the concept of biological warfare itself.” Continue reading Biological Warfare: Disease and Depopulation – Zig-Zag (2004)

After almost exactly 20 years of struggle and land reclamation, St’at’imc people’s resistance has successfully stopped the development of a proposed ski resort in their territory, as the British Columbia government’s assessment office has finally canceled the Environmental Assessment Certificate for the project. Continue reading Sutikalh – It Takes a Whole Community to Stop a Ski Resort

The Mapuche have always believed that the world would end if they did not resist the colonizers, and have called on the spirits of their ancestors to aid them in battle. Continue reading The Unconquered Mapuche (2005)

The Secwépemc people’s resistance to colonization is rooted in their spirituality, which is based on the balance brought by the Creator and his helper, Coyote. Continue reading Secwepemc History of Resistance (2005)

How the Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk community stopped a police invasion and decommissioned the band council’s police force. Continue reading Mohawks Kick Cops Off Rez (2004)

Connected to wâhkôhtowin are several other principles or laws, such as miyo-wîcêhtowin, which is the intentional cultivation of good relations, as opposed to the tolerance of just any way of relating to each other, however harmful. Continue reading Contorted & Contrived: The “Indigenous Politics” of the Red Braid Alliance

Since the 2002 Woodwards Squat, non-houseless activists in Vancouver have consistently tried to co-opt “squatting” for their own self-promotional media stunts and organization-building purposes, rather than to meet the immediate needs of the houseless. This was criticized back then too. Continue reading Pandemics, Schools and Squats in a Civil Society built on Stolen Land

“Capital has stolen our time from us (it needed it for production) and it has stolen our space (it needed it first as places of production, then as a system of control and repression, then to get general consensus). Now we are faced with the need to move toward expropriating our time and space.” Continue reading The Struggle for Self-Managed Social Space – Alfredo M. Bonanno (1987)

Strikes and occupations and riots, holy heck! Continue reading The Great Depression & Radical History in Vancouver (2002)

“Expropriation / occupation, I would argue, poses an even greater threat to capitalism than does property destruction alone, because the occupation opens the door to new forms of social relations, and moves beyond economic critique towards a politics of everyday life.” Continue reading Anarchy in BC: Anti-Capitalist Struggle Outside the Union on Canada’s ‘Left Coast’ – Roger Farr (2007)

“We want our children to be brought up as Métis and not as middle class pseudo-whites. These children belong in our Métis culture and nation.” Continue reading Métis Women Against the “Adopt Indian and Métis” Program – Phyllis Trotchie, Nora Thibodeau & Vicki Racette (1971)

“White liberals are quite anxious to usurp our creations, as well as to embrace them as successes of the imperialist nation. But Aboriginal culture is not an appendage of white bourgeois culture.” Continue reading Challenge to Colonized Culture – Howard Adams (1995)

“Just as colonialism could only provide work for a privileged few, technology has made it so that capitalism, the final stage of exploitation, will not be able to provide workers with work.” Continue reading Capitalism, the Final Stage of Exploitation – Lee Carter (1970)

As Barnholden says, the riot doesn’t herald the revolution. But the riot can prefigure the structure of the revolution in its contrast of equality to democracy and of freedom in practice to the legal abstraction of human rights. Continue reading Review: Reading the Riot Act, A Brief History of Riots in Vancouver (2006)

“The 1876-1877 smallpox epidemic demonstrates how Aboriginal dispossession and settler-colonialism were linked through the overlapping governmental apparatuses of territoriality and public health.” Continue reading A Smallpox Epidemic & Colonial Quarantine around Lake Winnipeg

“My role in the ‘Oka Crisis’ was inevitable because of my great-grandfather and my grandmother, my parents and the history of my community, but also because of the two governments’ intentional disregard of Natives’ legitimate protests and demands.” Continue reading How to Become an Activist in One Easy Lesson – Joe Tehawehron David (1991)

“Although there are fundamentalists within both groups, it would be unfair to state that either Marxists or Native Peoples’ movements are ideologically static. Both are capable of responding to changing realities and each appears able to incorporate the thoughts of the other to some degree.” Continue reading Marxism from a Native Perspective – John Mohawk (1981)

“In an atmosphere charged with the idea of rent strike, almost all landlords perceived the danger of providing provocation for further strikes. Even those considering the purchase of rental property in Vancouver may have paused for a short period before buying. In this way, the strike’s atmosphere of tenant resistance slowed the rate of rent increases for the average Vancouver tenant.” Continue reading A Rent Strike in Vancouver – Anders Corr (1971)

“Each community must follow its own distinct pattern. Central leadership only preserves and stabilizes the present capitalist system. Likewise, local councils should guard against the formation of any kind of hierarchy or bureaucracy or any distinction by age, sex, or education.” Continue reading The Form of the Struggle For Liberation – Howard Adams (1975)