Mexihcatl Education
Yes, Mexicans today don’t all have one look.
But saying Mexican is “only a nationality,” or claiming we “come in every color,” erases the truth about our people. It promotes a false narrative that there is no primary root and places exceptions above the majority.
While Mexicans can appear in different shades, it is usually different shades of brown. The vast majority descend from the Indigenous peoples of this continent.
Diversity exists — but the foundation is Native.
I’m gonna see that ship amplified again here aren’t I. Remember that I as an Asian Indigenous Pasifika or API do not ship visibly Indigenous coded characters with genocidal settler colonizers.
I seen natives go into their problem with Zuko and this ship. He was redeemed yes. But he still was an active participant in his states war crimes. Shipping him with a native coded femme character Katara or native coded masc Sokka on top of that just irks me.
I dont ship Indigenous people with fucking settler colonizers. The only interaction we want Zuko to have with Aang Sokka and Katara before anything. Is Zuko paying reparations cuz of his colonizer ancestors genocide of their people.
My feelings and problems about atla as a whole comes from the fact it’s a white ass writers room and white created show with pan Asian monoliths. As well as erasure and appropriation of South West Asian, South Asian, and Southeast Asian cultures. A lot of the shows problems could be fixed if there was diversity, inclusiveness, and accessibility behind and in front of the camera in the cast, crew, studio, and network.
The animated shows problems was translated to the live action unfortunately. When a yt non native who lied about being Indigenous was casted as Sokka
Please Help Locate Benjamin Palluq
Benjamin has been missing since March 15, 2014
#missingperson #Unforgotten #unsolved #coldcase #sharethispost #truecrime #missing #truecrimecommunity #repost #unsolvedmysteries #news #vanished #MMIMW #MMIP #MMIWAwareness #Indigenous #Iqaluit #Nunavut #NU
TW: Minor talk of Indigenous oppression and genocide on Turtle Island (“North America”).
Talking about decolonialism to my friends who moved to what is known as Canada from the US (borders are silly lines) is such a whiplash experience sometimes because I have had to explain basic decolonial concepts to them. 40% of people from the US do not believe Indigenous people still exist or are oppressed. They have never heard of land acknowledgements, indian bording schools (the US equivalent to residential schools, they’ve only heard of it in Canada), MMIWG2S, and more.
There is soooooo much work to be done now decolonially, but sometimes I just have to stop for a second and be grateful for how far we’ve come. 58% of “Canadian” people in my age group support landback. I got to take multiple classes in high school dedicated to teaching Indigenous history, Indigneous culture, and decolonialism (grad ‘24). There are organisations out there that are super accessible, and I get to help that way.
I am saddened that the United States’ education system has not gotten them to this point yet, but I am happy I get to teach my friends and I look forward to a future where they start moving on the same path we are.
Sources:
Survey: People think Native Americans don’t exist/aren’t discriminated against
As a grandmother of Boriken’s original people, I do not write these words from a place of cold academia or politics, but from the sacred duty of protecting the memory of my female ancestors and the future of my grandchildren. I respond to the theses of Ms. Tanya Rodriguez not with hatred, but with Lateral Kindness, inviting her to understand that our identity is not a “lie,” but a spiritual, cultural, and biological victory over oblivion.
I. The Name vs. The Nation: The essence that does not die. It is true that the term “Taino” is partly a popularized academic construct. However, it is a fundamental error to suggest that the name is an external label, or that the people do not exist. As a grandmother, I do not defend a textbook term; I defend our essence as the original people of this land. My existence does not depend on how the colonizer names us, but on our millennial persistence in Borikén and the archipelago. Taino, an Indigenous word utilized by our ancestors, describes in its variations: “blood,” “kinship,” “family,” “good people”. It is not “thin air;” it contains gravity for a large number of Caribbean Indigenous Peoples and groups.
II. The “Paper Extinction” and the Erasure of Our Roots: The thesis of “erasure” relies on 16th-century Spanish censuses that were tools of control. Declaring “extinction” was an economic strategy to confiscate lands and remove protections. By reclassifying our ancestors as “mixed race” or “free people of color,” the empire executed a bureaucratic genocide. Validating those censuses today is to validate the same mechanism of dispossession that attempted to destroy our families.
III. DNA: The cry of resilience of our Grandmothers. Genetics is the record that the colonizer could not burn. The fact that 61% of Puerto Ricans carry Indigenous mitochondrial DNA is the biological testimony of the systematic violence against our grandmothers by the invaders. Our mixing was seldom by choice; it was largely a consequence of horror and a mechanism of survival. Our grandmothers protected life and culture despite the abuse and disregard for our people. To dismiss our identity because “we are mixed” is to re-victimize those women; we are the living proof that our grandmothers won.
IV. Ethnogenesis: The sovereign right to evolve. Science recognizes ethnogenesis, the living process through which peoples transform to survive. No culture is static. Our ethnogenesis– this resurgence of our consciousness– is not an “invention”; it is a revitalization. To deny our existence because we have changed is to deny the very humanity of original peoples.
V. Caribbean interconnectedness and Lateral Kindness: My voice as a grandmother is part of a larger chorus. We recognize our sacred connection to our relatives in Ayiti, Cuba, Kiskeya, and throughout the Caribbean. We are branches of the same ancient root, united by the sea.
We invoke Lateral Kindness to replace the colonial habit of insult and indignity in discussions, which created angry division, with respect and dignified dialogue. Let us stop using academia to attack the identity of descendants and use it instead to heal the wounds of erasure. We do not speak for others; rather, we witness and honor our collective persistence.
Conclusion: The native people of Borikén and the Caribbean are not a lie. The lie is believing that the pen of a 16th-century bureaucrat carries more weight than the heart of a grandmother who recognizes her face in her grandchildren. I offer these reflections as an act of lateral kindness, acting from the integrity of our bond, trusting that they will serve as a bridge for those who are lost in the archives or politics of the moment to find their way back to the living family.
– BiBi Naniki Reyes Ocasio, “Persistence and Truth: Reflections of a Grandmother Transcending Colonial Denialism”, A necessary response to the claims of Ms. Tanya Rodriguez and a reaffirmation of our living heritage throughout the Caribbean archipelago (source)
Susan Aglukark
Susan Aglukark is an Inuit, Canadain singer born in Churchill Manitoba but raised in Arviat Nunavut. I chose to talk about her because she is an advocate for northern communities while also being authentic. She is one of few singers that actually uses her career to centre her community’s voices instead of just speaking over them. She actually raises awareness about Indigenous youth’s wellbeing, food insecurity in the north and promotes healing which is what I liked about her. She creates good music yet provides important messages. This is her representing Indigenous people in a good way which inspires the younger generation of Indigenous people to speak up and understand that their Identity matters as much as any other person in this society. She shows resistance by challenging typical stereotypes and does this by using her music and voice to show real experiences and culture that’s beyond common misconceptions. Yet she also promotes reciprocity by giving back to her community as she continues to uplift Indigenous people. She uses her speaking, writing and advocacy organizations to have more conversations about culture and identity as she merges creativity, entertaining younger audiences. What I also appreciate about her is that her messages are actually authentic since they come from real experiences that’s backed up by consistent actions, not just words. This tells me that she has a long- term commitment to the issue of misconception instead of just being temporarily tied to trends when popular. An example of that is when she actively supports communities through initiatives like the Arctic Rose Foundation. She also doesn’t appear to rely heavily on brand deals and when she does have partnerships, they are mostly community-focused or charitable collaborations which really reflect her care for her Indigenous community. She mainly uses her platform to support Indigenous artists and social causes rather than just promoting commercial products like most influencers do. It shapes her authenticity which is what really earned my respect to her.
Let’s talk about her music now:
Something I really liked about her music was that she uses both English and Inuit to convey her message! An example of that is the song O siem that reached #1 in Canada as her album sold more than 300,000 copies which proves that anything can guide towards a dream. Even though i’m not Inuit myself, I find her music to be inspiring and I like that I can also hear it in English and have access to hearing her mother tongue, inuit at the same time. Before hearing Susan Aglukark’s music, I have to say I did make some assumptions. I thought that I wouldn’t understand her music just because I thought her music would just be in inuit, but after listening, I saw that there’s English lyrics I can still understand that help me feel her message and like her music, even if it’s not the genre I explored before. I feel like it expanded my music taste more as i feel more culturally educated. Finally, understanding Indigenous influence does shift my view of identity. I may not be Indigenous but I still have similar problems with my identity that I need to work out. I still need some courage and support to form my identity and Aglukark’s influence helps me since it teaches me to stay resistant. I still feel pressure to not speak up but seeing how powerful Indigenous people are despite going through generational trauma, i feel more confident in speaking up about my identity.
To show some appreciation, I tried drawing Susan Aglukark by using creativity to also merge art and powerful messages.
With all the posts I’m seeing from haole tourists in Hawaiʻi with the recent weather going on in our island home
Hawaii needs tourism is a lie haoles say to justify land theft displacement and illegal occupation
The settler state engineered it this way
To continue the land theft and illegal occupation of sovereign indigenous land
Tourism without our consent agency sovereignty and independence is unethical
Remember that
How much of that lie Hawaii needs tourism is tied into exploitation by the settler state and ongoing land theft
If we do become sovereign and we keep tourism
It will be with our agency and consent
Like god fucking forbid right
But the difference is it’s with our sovereignty and independence
We traded with other nations before being illegally occupied by the colonizer empire
Free Hawaii Papua Guahan Samoa etc from colonizer occupation
Some haole brought up Pearl Harbor again
The only reason why Hawaii was attacked in the first place was cuz America was occupying a sovereign Indigenous kingdom
I dream of a day when America isn’t squatting in Indigenous stolen land
Tourism without our agency consent independence and sovereignty
Just adds to more land theft and displacement
Makes our culture a spectacle to be performed for haole amusement
Also adds to more of our own Indigenous Pasifika people being unhoused on our own fucking land
You don’t need to come to Hawaii you can “find yourself” at a fucking Starbucks
With the weather emergency going on
My feed should be from other Pasifika
Not non natives
No non native white person you are not a Hawaii native or a California native
You are a resident
When I see California Native I expect you to be Hupa Yurok Chumash or Tongva Indigenous etc
When I see Hawaiian Native
I expect you to be Kanaka Maoli
Not a craquer
Don’t add to native erasure more than you already do
Don’t take up more space with settler violence
Bill C-15 is about to go for a final reading in the Senate and we need all hands on deck calling on senators to remove the so-called Henry the VIII clause. Send a message to Senators now! https://share.nwmd.social/s/FXZwvbVE
