[Indigsol] article on Taiaiake Alfred from linchpin.ca

[Greg Macdougall]

http://linchpin.ca/content/Indigenous/Mohawk-Anarcha-Indigenist-Taiaiake-Alfred-Speaks-McMaster-University
Mohawk Anarcha-Indigenist Taiaiake Alfred Speaks at McMaster University
By Petre Marin

November 29, 2008

A Kanienkeha (Mohawk) militant, intellectual and professor at the
University of Victoria, Taiaiake Alfred was invited to McMaster
University because he is widely acknowledged as among the most renowned
scholars in indigenous studies on the continent. But Taiaiake is not a
typical academic nor was he here to give an academic talk as he made
clear right away. Speaking at Convocation Hall surrounded by portraits
of bearded upper class white men, the wealthy elite of McMaster's past,
Taiaiake, a former US marine had this to say: “In the marines we have a
saying. 'The enemy is in front of us, behind us, on our left and on our
right. We have the SOBs right where we want them.” The scene captured
perfectly the situation of all rebels today: within and against the
system that exploits and oppresses us.

Taiaiake is first and foremost a Mohawk warrior or militant. His
revolutionary goal is the decolonization of his people and the
achievement of cultural, political and economic autonomy for all
indigenous people on the continent. The message of his lecture, like
his written work, was thus mostly intended for the indigenous people
who made up a good portion of the audience. (He later spoke on the Six
Nations reserve near Caledonia).

The heart of his message was that decolonization cannot be achieved
by working through the legal-institutional process set up by the
Canadian government for dealing with the demands of indigenous people.
According to Taiaiake, this system, which includes “Aboriginal” rights
defined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the land negotiations
process, is in fact only the latest form of colonization.

This is because this process demands that indigenous people give up
their claim to being separate nations in a nation-to-nation
relationship to Canada, claims enshrined in international treaties with
the British Crown, in return for “aboriginal” rights and a small piece
of the profits made by exploiting indigenous lands. Put differently, it
demands that indigenous people be redefined as another Canadian
minority protected by minority rights and as part owners of privatized
land rather than as a militarily conquered people seeking autonomy and
the return of and de-commodification of their land.

This is a subtle but deadly form of colonization appearing as a
negotiated compromise, complete with official apologies for past wrongs
(i.e. Harper's apology to residential school victims) while working to
end how indigenous peoples have traditionally imagined their
communities and their relationship with the Crown and later the
Canadian state.

According to Taiaiake, indigenous people need to respond to this
assault in two related ways. One, the traditional ways of life of
indigenous people must be recovered and re-established in every area of
their societies from personal conduct to forms of government. To do so
means to recover and put into practice ways of life radically opposed
to capitalism, the state and their accomplices, racism and patriarchy.

Two, enough stolen or annexed land must be recovered and placed
under the autonomous control of indigenous communities. The two
struggles are really one and the same. Since land is central to
indigenous cultures, enough of it must be recovered if these cultures
are to survive and recover. In turn, the recovery of indigenous ways of
organizing life builds up the strength of the community and becomes the
foundation from which to strike at the Canadian state and re-gain
enough stolen land to provide a resource base upon which local autonomy
can be established.

Listening to Taiaiake as an anarchist and non-native, I was struck
by the similarities between Taiaiake's vision of revolutionary struggle
and the anarchist vision of “building a new world in the womb of the
old.” For Taiaiake this means drawing upon existing and past indigenous
ways of organizing life and re-claiming and decommodifying land. For
anarchists this means drawing upon our histories of small and large
rebellions which have given us the ideas of direct democracy, mutual
aid, free association, direct action and models such as the
neighbourhood assembly, the worker-run workplace and the
decommodification of all goods and resources.

In both cases the struggle is to recover or create, in the here and
now, forms of cooperation and community that challenge patriarchical
capitalism and the state and that provide a growing foundation from
which to launch further attacks on the system placing more and more
resources under the control of our communities.

I asked Taiaiake if he came to define himself as an
anarcha-indigenist because of these similarities and he agreed. He also
jokingly said that once you come out against capitalism and the state
the anarchists are the only non-native allies left as the “lawyers and
liberals” scatter away. With this in mind it is good to know that many
anarchists across the country and here in Ontario have stood in
solidarity with indigenous peoples at Caledonia, Tyendinaga, Barrier
Lake, Ardoch and elsewhere.

There is still much to learn about being effective allies. Most
importantly we have a long way to go before we can build up the kind of
political support and community strength within non-native communities
that can act as a real barrier to further state oppression of
indigenous struggles. As indigenous organizers have said over and over
again, this is best achieved by educating and organizing our fellow
non-native neighbours and co-workers. As anarchists we should also
argue that we can best support struggles against decolonization by
struggling against capitalism and the state in our own communities.


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