Dear Community Members,
As the College honors Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we acknowledge the ongoing movements for justice many Indigenous communities work for every day of the year. We wish to share resources and information from the powerful ongoing presence and joy of Indigenous people. We also seek to share content that further examines the history of colonization, settler colonialism, and the ongoing struggles that Indigenous communities face across the world.
Background images and artwork by Mer Young @youngmer
Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness
Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Orange Shirt Day
On September 30, 2021, Canada honored its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, remembering the victims and survivors of Indigenous residential schools. The day is also known as Orange Shirt Day, in honor of Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation. In 1973, on her first day at St. Joseph’s Residential School in Williams Lake, BC, Phyllis’s shiny new orange shirt was stripped from her, never to be seen again. Learn more at https://irshdc.ubc.ca/orangeshirtday.
Think Aboriginal art from the bush is not political? Think again. article by Clair Coleman
“Protest is common across the entire world of Indigenous art, from the city to the place city folk imagine is the “bush”. It was always there from the beginning. All you need to do is learn how to look at Aboriginal art, how to read the language. Once you know what you are looking for you learn something important, Indigenous protest art is everywhere.”
Australian land returned to Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.
Learn More: Global Indigenous Communities
There are 370 million Indigenous people around the world and spread across more than 90 countries.https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/indigenous-peoples/
Social Justice Center