Indigenous Resistance Focus Points

Hey Friends, this was sent to me by Jenn LeBlanc. It is from an article entitled "The Politics of Identity" by Taiaiake Alfred and Jeff Corntassel. They wrote out a mantra for an indigenous resistance movement, and I liked what I read. We need to listen to these voices and support them and follow their lead.


These are the mantras of a resurgent Indigenous movement:

• Land is Life – our people must reconnect with the terrain and geography of their Indigenous heritage if they are to comprehend the teachings and values of the ancestors, and if they are to draw strength and sustenance that is independent of colonial power, and which is regenerative of an authentic, autonomous, Indigenous existence.

• Language is Power – our people must recover ways of knowing and relating from outside the mental and ideational framework of colonialism by regenerating themselves in a conceptual universe formed through Indigenous language

• Freedom is the Other Side of Fear – our people must transcend the controlling power of the many and varied fears that colonial powers use to dominate and manipulate us into complacency and cooperation with its authorities. The way to do this is to confront our fears head-on through spiritually grounded action; contention and direct movement at the source of our fears is the only way to break the chains that bind us to our colonial existences.

• Decolonize your Diet – our people must regain the self-sufficient capacity to provide our own food, clothing, shelter and medicines. Ultimately important to the struggle for freedom is the reconsti- tution of our own sick and weakened physical bodies and com- munity relationships accomplished through a return to the natural sources of food and the active, hard-working, physical lives lived by our ancestors.

• Change Happens one Warrior at a Time – our people must reconstitute the mentoring and learning–teaching relationships that foster real and meaningful human development and community solidarity. The movement toward decolonization and regeneration will emanate from transformations achieved by direct-guided experience in small, personal, groups and one-on-one mentoring towards a new path.

These mantras and the pathways they represent will be put into prac- tice by every person in their own way, in response to the particular context and set of challenges that form each person and community’s colonial reality.


(Taiaiake Alfred and Jeff Corntassel, "The Politics of Identity")