Hey friends!
Thanks to those of you who joined me for my super impromptu IG live the other day! It was shaky and quiet, but I’m enouraged by the experience nonetheless. It served as a test run for using IG’s platform to deliver this series, and I think we can make it work!
It’s July. So let’s decolonize.
Having grown up in the States and Canada, there’s definitely a… specific narrative I’ve been surrounded by during this month each year. Regardless of what Canada Day or the 4th of July might represent to people individually (trust me, I can appreciate that not every white person’s 4th of July is a jingoistic ritual of ‘murrikan nationalism…), it is impossible to separate them from their colonial origins, especially because those basic structures are still in place today. None of this is archaic – there’s still an enormous disconnect between the settlers for whom these ‘holidays’ were created to celebrate, and the Indigenous communities still displaced and disadvantaged by anti-Indigenous structures at all levels of government, anti-Indigenous attitudes in education, law enforcement, and healthcare systems, and anti-Indigenous discrimination pervasive in the community at large.
This month’s highlights:
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- Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre: doing tremendous work to provide meals, clothing, essential services, and community programming in Vancouver’s DTES. They also amplify Indigenous leadership, and you can read about Red Women Rising to learn more.
- Urban Native Youth Association: empowering Indigenous youth through community, health and wellness resources, housing and transition support, and education.
If you access my classes this month and are financially able, please consider dropping a donation at one or both of these organizations, and checking out their work and listed partners!
Tomorrow is a statutory holiday for me. So let’s get some movement in. See you there!