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What we are seeing around the world is a collective awakening to the myth of separation and the wound of colonization. 

Colonization isn’t just an event that happened in the past, it is a mindset that takes over the bodies, minds and souls of its people. In Decolonizing Wealth, Indigenous activist and author Edgar Villanueva calls it the “colonizer virus”— referring to the infection that permeates every aspect of our culture and society and justifies domination and dehumanization. The virus enters the mind through the belief that one is separate from and supreme to everyone and everything around oneself. That belief allows the infection to thrive and grow until it has spread the disease throughout the whole system. From there, the virus gets passed down through generations and “leads to ongoing acts of control and exploitation.” Villanueva likened it to a “zombie invasion.” 

Colonization is a full bodied experience that separates us from ourselves, from each other and from the world around us. Unlearning the colonial mind is the first step towards healing the individual body and liberating our collective imagination. The practice of decolonization is a radical act of self love that does not discriminate or debate right or wrong. It is simply to embrace all of life as sacred and courageously confront everything that is in the way of that.

Kerri (she/her)

Art by @samiraidroos

NTK (need to know)

1. Should America Keep Celebrating Thanksgiving? Sean Sherman argues that we need to decolonize Thanksgiving, while Chase Iron Eyes calls for replacing Thanksgiving with a “Truthsgiving.”

2. As we work for a #CeasefireNOW, many of us have loved ones who don't see the situation as we do. That's why we created this guide for having hard conversations and discussing Israel/Palestine at your dinner table.

3. In our violently turbulent world, where the noise of chaos often drowns the sounds of hope, we stand, sometimes feeling like mere silhouettes against an immense, uncaring universe. Words for the weary by Frederick Joseph.

4. How do you use the justice system to hold accountable a justice system that understands only punishment? Kung Li Sun on getting both disoriented in diligent in practice—to be creative, and brave, and try wildly different things, and learn from the many inevitable failures, and try something else, and yet again something else.

5. American historian, writer, professor and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz uses her studies on indigenous peoples’ history and her work with Palestinian diplomats and the United Nations to show how historic “settler colonialism” like in the United States relates to Gaza today.

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Solidarity

I don't know if it's possible to "decolonize thanksgiving"...how do you decolonize a genocide? But I do think we can practice repair and reparations on the level of self and collective. Here are some resources to support your journey: 

Practice Decolonization: “These are Questions About Home” is an exercise for non-native people to learn and reflect on the history and current struggles of Indigenous people, and to begin thinking about our role in colonization and decolonization. Also check out The Decolonial & Spiritual Journey Teachings with Dr Rosales Meza

Learn about the land and its people: Learn whose land you live on. Then, go deeper: More than just the names of the original peoples of the land, what do you know of their lives and culture? What is the history of this land?  How was the land used?  Kanyon Sayers-Roods, a Mutsun Ohlone activist in Northern California, says ”the acknowledgement process is about asking, What does it mean to live in a post-colonial world? What did it take for us to get here? And how can we be accountable to our part in history?”

Listen to the land stewards: Rematriation is to restore a people to their rightful place in sacred relationship with their ancestral lands. That means finding out what local Indigenous organizers are calling for and following their lead. For example, Sogorea Te Land Trust, an urban Indigenous land trust, invites non-Native locals on Ohlone land in the San Francisco Bay Area to reimagine their relationship to the land and help return Indigenous land to Indigenous Peoples by building many paths of radical reciprocity that are part of repatriation and land return. They also invite non-Native residents to pay a land tax as a way to show support and gratitude for the Native people hosting them on their ancestral lands. What are Indigenous people in your community calling for? How can you answer the call from your particular social location? 

Protect the sacred: If you have access to land, wealth and resources, consider your place in the lineage of theft and colonization and how you might contribute to its healing. Listen to Indigenous people’s stories and knowledge. Amplify their voices. Recognize them as leaders of the climate change discussion (because they’re at the forefront of climate change). And follow their lead as we work together to protect the sacred, repair the past and engage in ecological restoration.

Art by @subversivethreads

Digging Deeper

Decolonisation can be defined as the active resistance against settler colonialism and a shifting of power towards Indigenous sovereignty. Of course, it’s difficult to define decolonisation without putting it into practice, writes Eve Tuck and K Wayne Yang in their essay, Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor. Understanding the legacy of settler colonialism and how it has rooted itself in our bodies and minds, in our systems and structures is essential to how we heal.

What is settler colonialism? Settler colonialism is a structure in which a dominant (settler) culture removes a land’s Indigenous peoples in order to permanently occupy the land and take resources for the settler society’s own political and economic gain.

There is no US without settler colonialism. European colonizers created the U.S. by systematically removing this land’s Indigenous inhabitants through forced displacement and assimilation, broken treaties, violence, and genocide.

Settler colonialism is a structure, not an event - it’s the structure we still live in today in the U.S.

Today settler colonialism shows up in many ways:
• High rates of food insecurity for Native people
• The high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women across the U.S. and Canada
• Lack of access to ancestral spiritual and cultural practices, due to assimilation
• And everything you did not learn about settler colonialism in history class.

As white folks that disproportionately benefit from settler colonialism, it is our responsibility to recognize this history and the rights of Indigenous peoples and move toward repair. Follow @ndncollective @sogoreatelandtrust for more on reparations and land back.

Source: @surjnyc

Nourishment

The practice of unlearning how we've been shaped by dominant colonial systems is not just an intellectual pursuit but a but a whole bodied inquiry. It calls us to confront old and limiting stories and beliefs we carry in our tissues so that explore new ways of being and doing that move us towards healing and liberation.

Join Kerri Kelly for a virtual post truths-giving practice of detox & decolonization on Friday, November 24th (11EST/8PST. This will be a virtual space for shared movement, reflection, grief and action towards the more liberated and peaceful world that we all deserve (will include resources for care, endurance and action).

Through breath work, dynamic movement, restorative practice and collective action, we will cultivate the personal and collective endurance for the journey ahead.

All proceeds will be donated to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. Pay what you can. Practice will be recorded. 

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We-ness

Let us keep our hearts open, our minds decolonized and our actions towards healing and liberation FOR ALL.

Art and wisdom by @drrolsalesmeza

Thanks for subscribing to WELLREAD. For the last six years we’ve been providing folks with the need to know (NTK) news, calls to actions and resources for how to stay engaged and resourced along the way. But now, we’ve added an option to “upgrade to paid” to help sustain our work. While we will never put our content behind a pay wall, we depend on the support of our community to keep us going. 💛

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