[IPSM] Hitchhiking mission statement: Denendeh or Bust

[Macdonald Stainsby]

This is the second of the two call outs. Hitchhiking has taught me much 
about life, and about the reality of Canada, so as I will hitchhike my way 
through this trip, I intend to scribe the stories of the various encounters, 
people, events and places I get to, for their own sake. Life on the road is 
never boring, and though I may put the political into the hitchhiking 
stories, I will not put hitchhiking (unless impossible to avoid) into the 
political reports. The two are separate missions, but both are the the 
journey, and neither will be silenced.

Hitchhiking mission statement:
Denendeh or Bust: Hitchhiking across Indian Country to the Arctic

from:
http://www.digihitch.com/article662.html

(clip)

As a revolutionary, one of the greatest problems any of us face is trying to 
find ways to communicate with people who are of a completely different bent, 
background and life situation than yourself. If we can't talk to the people, 
we are lost. As Bernd "The Thumb" Wechner once described it, the unspoken 
agreement that you are signing on for when you get into a stranger's car is 
to find a way to relate to them, to entertain them, to make them comfortable 
and happy with having picked you up. This is a social skill that is almost 
impossible to learn in the same way in any other dynamic. This is how you 
pay for the ride: you are performing a service just as much as they are. And 
in this is the greatest gift the road has given me: I have been able to make 
that special connection with almost all manner of people on the road, 
because it's a necessity. This has given me a general discomfort with the 
radical "echo chamber" where we all speak a certain language, reinforcing 
certain ideas to only certain people. If we can't communicate with the 
"average" person, we are not going to reach them ....

(clip)

I will be posting stories about my adventures as a hitchhiker to 
digihitch.com, and will be keeping the political work I do and am able to 
write about separate; these will be available at independentmedia.ca. The 
struggles are not about my joy in hitchhiking, but a matter of simple 
resistance to genocide. As such, the two will be kept separate.

Much like the organization "The International Solidarity Movement", a 
movement made up of international citizens who generally have privilege 
enough to come and go as they please into Palestine to work and carry out 
actions against the Occupation, so too is the idea of this journey I am 
embarking upon inherently problematic and based on racial privilege. It is 
my hope that so long as I aim to use the privilege of being a white settler 
and turn it back upon itself, perhaps the worst aspects of this dynamic can 
be avoided. This is my number one goal and priority.

(clip)

The Arctic and sub-Arctic regions look to be the main battlefield for 
indigenous survival as a people and as a nation, and it is also in some of 
the most beautiful places on the earth we are a part of. For these reasons, 
I am making my next hitchhiking trip to head to the Arctic, the Mackenzie 
Valley, as well as to the various nations that I must pass through to get 
there. I will find a way to hitchhike into the Mackenzie Valley where the 
threat of building the single largest industrial nightmare in the history of 
this country exists. As of my writing this, there still are no roads into 
the Valley, and that's as a result of amazing and inspiring resistance from 
Dene nations who have lived throughout the valley for 30 thousand years. 
There is, however, the Deh Cho-- otherwise known as the Mackenzie River. The 
Big River will get me there, to a small community known as Fort Good Hope. I 
refuse to plan ahead.

(clip)

I hope you will follow my progress while it is happening and, if you have 
any money more than the average hitchhiker, consider helping the trip 
receive the photographic montage and audio clips it will need to do it justice.

whole statement:
http://www.digihitch.com/article662.html

to help with supplies (digital camera, internet connection, etc) please go 
to the bio webpage below and click on the PayPal button near the bottom. 
Anything greatly appreciated!

My bio as a Digihitch writer in general (with silly photo; take it as tongue 
in cheek as I wrote it) and PayPal button/link:

http://www.digihitch.com/featured_macdonald.html

All my solidarity,
Macdonald,
still "Welsh Against Nato".
-- 

Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
	--Bertholt Brecht.