Chris Corrigan posted this after three days in Open Space with Aboriginal youth leaders in British Columbia…
…they seem to me to be taking on the predominant culture in many ways, crafting a series of powerful decolonization tools and methodologies as they go. The most important of these maybe the rejection of the corporate world’s modus operandi of stripping people clean of their culture and replacing their inherent self-worth with a need to consume. Instead of consuming endlessly to mount their identity these youth are exploring the opposite of consumption: giving. They are evaluating what they have to offer and trying to find practical ways to give that to the world.
I have been writing for a long time that the process of decolonization is ultimately not and external battle with systems and behaviours, but rather an internal fight to reclaim authentic intention and culture.
Of course, it is not just native people whose identities and specialness are being stripped away (consumed?) by the mainstream monoculture of big money and media.
And it’s about undertsanding what is happening RIGHT NOW for all of us. History shows us the patterns and gives us some of the tools to do stuff, but ultimately decolonization is a series of acts rooted in the present moment.
criminy! i saw jeff’s post last night and left the window open to comment today… well it’s taken all day to get here, so when i post just now WHAM! there is christopher’s posting. dang that guy’s fast! …forgot that the world might have moved today [grin].
ha hahahahahaha…. who us?
i’m telling you it was spooky as hell when i posted earlier today and chris showed up POW in the new window.
I agree, Michael, and as I look into my ancestry the plot thickens… my own indigenous ancestors in Britain and Judea had their traditions taken from them by empires of money and power… of course, many of my ancestors were also colonists and imperialists.
So for me it’s not about anger or guilt, or forgetting or homogenizing — it’s about understanding the dynamic as it ripples across the planet, across generations and cultures.
Muah ha ha ha ha ha ha….
ruthless, i tell you! they’re just ruthless!
those two are dangerous when they gang up on people, no?
inspirations flying everywhere!
yes and… appreciating your forceful post Chris… perhaps i rely too much on sharpening my understanding, and not enough on the daily risk of inventing. you and michael are greatly inspiring to me in this way, and hey thanks for inviting me into this blog world where such inspirations are freely distributed.
yes… and about the law of two feet… as in open space tech… where my responsibility is to maximize my own learning from and contribution to the larger world and community all around me.