Decolonization workshop, a video from Unist’ot’en Camp 2014
During my time working at AVP, I had the privilege of watching a video of a workshop held in 2014 at the Unist’ot’en Camp.
It’s a good workshop though the video is at times hard to hear. The workshop covers many topics ranging through decolonization and colonization, the liberation of Indigenous people, domination, violence, privilege, entitlement, whiteness, racism, white guilt, defensiveness and so much more. What does colonization really look like and what does resistance really mean? How does colonization/decolonization affect society and how can we go about creating change, not just for those around us, but also for ourselves?
The workshop was led by Molly Wickman from the Gitdumden clan of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, an Indigenous scholar and activist, with a Masters Degree in Indigenous Governance. The Unist’ot’en Camp is on unceded Unist’ot’en territory and is a part of a non-violent occupation and decolonization effort.
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Some of my thoughts:
I spent so many years of my life completely oblivious to colonization, not understanding my role in its perpetuation, or recognising how buying into all the colonial ideology around me continues to promote the status quo.
Growing up and being raised to understand my role in society, as a woman for example, meant that I had to grow up, find a man to take care of me, have his children, clean his home, prepare his meals, answer to him etc etc etc, if this is the only story I knew and understood to be true, how would my life turn out and how does this vision continue to promote colonial ideology?
How do ideas such as this one get into the minds of so many young people? How do these agendas get perpetuated? I still don’t have all the answers but I’m on a journey of learning to think critically about it all.
