[Indigsol] IPSMO Honouring Indigenous Women Campaign launch and March newsletter!

[ipsm ottawa]

Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa

March 2012 newsletter

Contents:


*1) Recommended Videos and Reading:*

   - *Don't Need Saving: Aboriginal Women and Access to Justice*
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5bqUjdbzls

   - *Kanawayandan D'aaki - Protecting Our Land*
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXrjcRnaxxs

   - *Algonquin Nation and International law*
   http://treatynow.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/algonquin-nation/


*2) Upcoming Events*

*

   - March 19: Honouring Indigenous Women Campaign Launch Party!
   - March 24: Expose & Oppose Racism, Communities March Against Racism

*


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*March 19: Honouring Indigenous Women Campaign Launch Party!*
*

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*
The Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa (IPSMO) is inviting you
to the launch of its Honouring Indigenous Women Campaign and its Honouring
Indigenous Women: Hearts of Nations – Vol. 1 booklet!

*7 – 9 PM. Monday, March 19, 2012*
*Arts Court Studio, 2 Daly Ave. Ottawa*
*Unceded Algonquin Territory*

*Join us for a night of poetry, drumming and more, in celebrate the Power
of Indigenous Women and their Special Relationship to Water!*

MC: Cindy Gaudet (Métis)

Opening ceremony and women’s teaching: Verna McGregor (Algonquin)

Featuring …..

 Elaine Kicknosway (Swampy Cree from Northern Saskatchewan)
Earth Mothers women drumming group

Water teaching by Grandmother Francine Payer

Vera Wabegijig (Ojibwe),

Suzanne Keeptwo (Métis – Algonquin/French & Irish descent),

Jaime Koebel (Métis),

David Groulx (Ojibwe/Métis)



* There will be items made by Indigenous peoples for sale at this event.


To invite your friends via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/320011758055132/
*
*
*
*
*About our campaign:*

Our Honouring Indigenous Women Campaign aims at raising awareness on and
putting an end to the violence perpetrated against Indigenous women. As a
group mostly composed of non-Indigenous peoples who have participated or
been complicit in the past and present colonization of Native peoples and
lands, it is of utmost importance for us to support the work of Indigenous
peoples in this regard. *This campaign is an act of solidarity, and aims at
supporting existing efforts from Indigenous women.* As such, we are hoping
to* mobilize over 500 people to take part in the annual Families of Sisters
in Spirit Vigilorganized in Ottawa on October 4th*.

This campaign also aims at understanding the links between *the violence
against Indigenous women, colonialism, land and Indigenous Sovereignty*. We
echo the demands for *equity, justice, and decolonization* formulated by
Indigenous women whom we have tremendous respect for.

We support self-determination of Indigenous peoples and work towards
creating and maintaining *respectful relationships* with the First peoples
of this land.

The campaign would not be as strong without the publication of
the Honouring Indigenous Women: Hearts of Nation-Vol. 1. The booklet,
composed of five sections – *Struggle, Resistance, Power, Liberation, and
Be Solidarity*, gives to Indigenous women their due space to express their
lived realities through various art forms. Through this publication, we
strive to *augment the voices of Indigenous women* in their many efforts to
break the silence surrounding the systemic violence perpetuated by
colonialism. It is, for us, a concrete and creative form of solidarity.

As a wise woman told us, we cannot achieve the ethic of respect by
formulating demands, we will clearly state our hopes and expectations for
this campaign and beyond, as well as announce our upcoming projects at our
March 19th event. Stay tune!

To download Honouring Indigenous Women: Hearts of Nation-Vol. 1:
http://ipsmo.wordpress.com/honouring-indigenous-women/

For more info: www.ipsmo.org


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*March 24: Expose & Oppose Racism, Communities March Against Racism*

*
*
*1pm Saturday March 24, 2012*
*Confederation Park, Ottawa*
*Unceded Algonquin Territory*
*
*
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination honoured
on March 21st marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in
South Africa when white apartheid police opened fire on hundreds of South
Africans protesting against Apartheid's passbook laws, killing 67 and
wounding 186. It has become a day for anti-racist action around the world,
not only to remind ourselves of the past and present racism in our society
but also to strengthen our resistance against white supremacy in all facets
of life. The 1960 incidence in South Africa will not be remembered as a
single example of racialized violence that happened in a far off place and
in a distant past, but as a continuing process of colonization that has
also existed here on Turtle Island (also known as North America) for more
than 519 years.

Canada is a white settler country established on stolen Indigenous lands.
Canada is also an apartheid state that supports other Apartheid regimes
such as Israel that occupies Indigenous Palestinian territories. The legacy
of ongoing colonialism lives on as the Canadian government actively
participates in the violent dispossession and destruction of Indigenous
peoples’ lands through resource extraction projects like the Alberta Tar
Sands and through assimilation legislation such as the Indian Act. The
consistent silencing and lack of justice for the over 600 missing and
murdered Indigenous women and the socioeconomic deprivation of First
Nations peoples living on Reserves like Attawapiskat exposes Canada's
ultimate objective of genocide of Indigenous peoples.

The speedy and undemocratic passing of the Omnibus Crime Bill and the
ironically named Human Smuggling Bill C-4 now in its second reading, are
further examples of the Conservative's racist agenda. These racist laws
backed by the recent expansion of prisons are intended to criminalize and
incarcerate marginalized peoples including Indigenous and other racialized
peoples, migrant workers and asylum seekers. In addition, the racial
effects of mechanisms such as Security Certificates that targets foreign
nationals and non-citizens living in Canada, has had devastating effects on
the lives of those subject to a certificate and on the lives of their
families. We also know that in communities of color, racial profiling is
often practised by the police to put our youth behind walls and bars,
stacked like sardines, their bodies commodified into the prison industrial
complex. Once these prisons are full, private industry then lobbies the
state for private for-profit super prisons.

Racism dehumanizes us all. Ending racism is a precondition of a just world;
it is the responsibility of all peoples.

Please Join us in solidarity on March 24th as we rally in our communities
to expose and oppose racism.

On this day we are remembering those who have fought and died fighting
against racism and other forms of oppression by actively renewing our
steadfast resistance within our communities.

We encourage our friends and allies to be pro-active in countering racism.

For more info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/313183112074279/ or
http://exposeandoppose.wordpress.com/




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In Solidarity,

IPSMO

on unceded Algonquin Territory

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Web Site: http://www.ipsmo.org
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ipsmo
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