Excerpts from here: http://www.standingrocksolidaritynetwork.org/resource-packet.html
If You’re Thinking About Going to Standing Rock
First of all, thank you! The whole world has been moved and inspired by the water protectors at Standing Rock and many people feel called to go there. It’s important to think through whether you will be able to contribute best by going in person or by doing support work from home.
Good reasons to go:
- To commit civil disobedience blocking construction of the pipeline
- To do needed physical labor
- To deliver supplies
- To bring a necessary skill
- To bring messages
of support from your national or tribal group and share your traditional ceremony and culture - To support the presence of young people or elders
- To provide media coverage and documentation
Not good enough reasons:
- To experience indigenous culture and wisdom
- Because it seems cool
- Curiosity
Do not go to Standing Rock “just to see.” Every person in camp needs to pull their weight and contribute in substantial ways.
Joining Standing Rock
WELCOME to Standing Rock. Thank you for coming to be part of this powerful moment in history. The fight to stop the pipeline is part of our global struggle for liberation, to protect our planet from extractive capitalism, and to heal the devastation of oppression on all our lives. We are winning, and we still have a long way to go. We need everybody. That includes you. This is an indigenous led struggle, on indigenous lands, rooted in centuries of resistance and the specific cultural strengths of the Native peoples gathered here. This means it will look and feel different from non-Native activism.
We understand this moment in the context of settler colonialism
- Settler colonialism is a process of “destroying to replace.” A colonizing power exports resources and people, and seizes and settles on land, exercising violent control over the original inhabitants. Indigenous versions of governance, land management, cultural practices, etc. are destroyed through conquest, disease, land theft, and cultural genocide, and are replaced with the settler versions of those things. Settler colonialism is not an event that we can neatly box into the past, but rather a persistent form of violence that impacts every aspect of life in settler states. Settler colonialism is still happening.
- Indigenous history in the Americas is one of uninterrupted resistance to colonization, from 1492 to today. You may be unaware of this history, or not recognize the forms it takes in indigenous cultures. Be curious.
- We do this work as ourselves. We bring all of who we are and where we come from. This includes gender identity, race, class, sexual orientation, age, body/mind ability, culture and place of origin. We all have inherited historical relationships to sort out in order to become more powerful, effective and whole.
- As white allies we must figure out how to shift out of European cultural modes, unlearn and interrupt settler colonial patterns and develop anti-racist awareness and skills.
- As Non-Native People of Color we have many different historical relationships to settler colonialism and Indigenous struggles, and may have unconsciously internalized settler attitudes toward this land and indigenous people. Native leaders and scholars have asked us to recognize that although we are targeted by white supremacy, we also participate in settler colonization, and are settlers in relationship to Indigenous people.
READ MORE: http://www.standingrocksolidaritynetwork.org/uploads/4/2/9/2/4292077/joining_camp_culture_final.pdf
THE ANTI-OPPRESSION NETWORK 