Last post prior to dealing with this fone - sooo many thanks to all of my Indigenous Ancestors for accepting me. Many thanks to those family found using DNA genealogy for accepting me. Yay for the love!!! Prayers going and staying up you all - my Indigenous Turtle Islander, indigenous Afrikan, indigenous Asian, and indigenous European help me learn and enact other ways to handle hostility and outright hatred ~ *keep* me on this healing path while even engaging in activism/organizing. Niya Nehiyaw/ I am fully Cree - Danette Jubinville Photo by Tashina Lewis (Nisga’a, Tahltan, Tlingit, Tsimshian) This image confronts the idea of mixed identity. My ancestors are Cree/Saulteaux, French, German/Jewish, and Scottish/English, and for most of my life I identified myself in fractions: “I am one-quarter this” or “one-quarter that.” However, it never felt good to talk about myself this way, and I couldn’t help but notice that whenever I was asked why I looked so “exotic,” the person asking would hardly ever share their own ancestry in return. While non-white features have to be explained or justified, whiteness is the norm that goes unquestioned and unseen. Although I know that I have passing privilege, it has always been made clear to me that I look “not quite white.” At the same time, people don’t automatically assume that I am Native, and I have heard many racist remarks that were made in what was thought to be the safety of a non-Native audience. Conversely, although I strongly identify as Indigenous, in Indigenous spaces I still get asked if I am Native. The message is that I am not white enough to be white, nor am I Indian enough to be Indian. While I am told I don’t belong, I am also told ‘white’ and ‘Indian’ are legitimate categories. But really, these are false binaries that uphold hierarchies of power. In order to fully love myself, I have to fight back against the identity labels that are put on me by settler society. After 500+ years of colonization, it is not useful to have a preconceived notion of what Indigenous looks like. Today, when I hear someone say that they are “one half” of something, I want to know, which half? We are whole people, not pies. Identity labels serve the colonizer because they are divisive and they create a breeding ground for self-hate. My Cree family loves all of me, not a part of me, and when I walk in Treaty 4 territory I know the land loves all of me, too. This is why I say Niya Nehiyaw, I am fully Cree. bannockandbutter.tumblr/…/niya-nehiyaw-i-am-full… Bannock + Butter ᓂᔭ ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ Niya Nehiyaw/ I am fully Cree Danette Jubinville Photo by Tashina Lewis (Nisga’a, Tahltan, Tlingit, Tsimshian) This image confronts the idea of mixed identity. My ancestors are... bannockandbutter.tumblr
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 23:26:47 +0000
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