#becoming kin by Patty Krawec

[catsnuggler]

I want to love my ancestors, but how can I? Parents and grandparents, sure, despite their faults, just because I personally knew/know them, and know they love me - though not without the crushing guilt of knowing most of them don't give a damn about people they or our family have trodden upon, or think something like "well, it wasn't right, but at least we are where we are today because of that, so it all worked out (for us) in the end, didn't it?". Am I supposed to love my family, or hate my family? Are my ancestors worthy? If the solution in my case is to break off from them and try to start over, how do I go about that?

[songsofbloodandwater]

Settlers and newcomers, Black and Indigenous: the history we learn in elementary school is rooted in explorers and settlers. We learn about brave colonists fighting for freedom. [...] We all learn about how these countries were the ones that ended slavery. Somehow in this history, the very people who created the problem are transformed into the ones who saved us. Together we learn about immigrants and refugees who came here in search of something better and built a great country. The United States and Canada are positioned as communities of safety and refuge for newcomers leaving behind or sublimating their old identities and becoming American or Canadian. These histories become central truths, and when other histories are told or when somebody makes a racist remark, Americans say with surprise, “That’s not who we are!” Your collective memory is filled with stories about cooperation and communities, brave people banding together to defend their home and working together to create something for everyone. Our collective memory is filled with other stories. Other centers. [Our collective memories contain stories of displacement and disruption, occupation and domination. Even when we try to fit in, when we try to assimilate, we aren’t truly accepted.] Sometimes the center is created simply through the act of revolving around it. What if the things you have been told are not who you are?

— Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future (2022) by Patty Krawec

[resiliencebeast]

Equity Education and Mutual Justice Resources: The Book List

Anti-Racism and Intersectionality How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W.E.B. Du Bois On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters & Why You Should Care by Victor Ray

You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience by Tarana Burke (Editor) Brené Brown (Editor) Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

So You Want to Talk About Race By Ijeoma Oluo

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Mutual Aid, Direct Action, Organizing, and Community Building

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes

Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law by Richard Rothstein and Leah Rothstein

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Pyotr Kropotkin

Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid by Andrej Grubačić

Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want by Ruha Benjamin

We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba

Practicing Cooperation: Mutual Aid beyond Capitalism by Andrew Zitcer

Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies by Andrea Ritchie

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Colonialism Education

The Poverty of Growth by Olivier De Schutter

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell, Karen Chilton, et al.

The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism by Aaron Vansintjan, Matthias Schmelzer, and Andrea Vetter

Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill, Mitchell Plitnick, et al.

Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism by Elmar Altvater (Author), Eileen C. Crist (Author), Donna J. Haraway (Author), Daniel Hartley (Author), Christian Parenti (Author), Justin McBrien (Author), Jason W. Moore (Editor) (Also available as a PDF online)

Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It by Charles Derber, Suren Moodliar

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder History and Political Science

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Palestine: A Socialist Introduction by Sumaya Awad (Editor) and Brian Bean (Editor)

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (this technical book also has an organizing guide and study guide)

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

Time's Monster: How History Makes History by Priya Satia

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley

Indigenous Knowledge

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (there is also a version of Braiding Sweetgrass for young adults)

Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec

Indian Givers: How Native Americans Transformed the World by Jack Weatherford

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources by Kat Anderson

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez Disability Education and Rights Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk

Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid by Shayda Kafai

Pandemic Solidarity: Mutual Aid during the Coronavirus Crisis by Marina Sitrin (Editor), Rebecca Solnit (Editor)

Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire by Alice Wong

The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Refusing to Be Made Whole: Disability in Black Women's Writing by Anna Laquawn Hinton

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price (this author also has a guide on the same topic)

Queer Issues

We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation Hardcover by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution by Susan Stryker

Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman by Leslie Feinberg

Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising That Changed America by Martin Duberman

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (graphic novel) Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J Brown

A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski

The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History & Handbook by Ashley Molesso and Chessie Needham

They/Them/Their: A Guide to Nonbinary and Genderqueer Identities by Eris Young

Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson (Author) and David Levithan (Contributor)

Nonbinary For Beginners: Everything you’ve been afraid to ask about gender, pronouns, being an ally, and black & white thinking by Ocean Atlas

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

Gender: A Graphic Guide by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele (Illustrator)

Resources for Kids and Parents

The Every Body Book: The LGBTQ+ Inclusive Guide for Kids about Sex, Gender, Bodies, and Families by Rachel E. Simon (Author) and Noah Grigni (Illustrator)

This Is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids: A Question & Answer Guide to Everyday Life by Dan Owens-Reid and Kristin Russo This Book Is Feminist: An Intersectional Primer for Next-Gen Changemakers by Jamia Wilson and Aurelia Durand (Illustrator)

Unlearning White Supremacy and Colonialist Culture

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin Diangelo

Black Rage by William H. Grier and Price M. Cobbs

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are by Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker

This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell (Author) and Aurelia Durand (Illustrator)

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock

Gender Trauma: Healing Cultural, Social, and Historical Gendered Trauma by Alex Iantaffi

The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice by Staci Haines

Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad

Articles and Online Resources (Including Research Articles)

White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun, at dRworks (This is a list of characteristics of white supremacy culture that show up in our organizations and workplaces.)

Reflections on Agroecology and Social Justice in Malwa-Nimar by Caroline E. Fazli

Mutual Aid Toolbox by Big Door Brigade Mutual Aid Resources by Mutual Aid Disaster Relief No body is expendable: Medical rationing and disability justice during the COVID-19 pandemic by Andrews, Ayers, Brown, Dunn, & Pilarski (2021)

A Marxist Theory of Extinction by Troy Vettese

Intersectionality Research for Transgender Health Justice: A Theory-Driven Conceptual Framework for Structural Analysis of Transgender Health Inequities by Linda M. Wesp, Lorraine Halinka Malcoe, Ayana Elliott, and Tonia Poteat Know Your Rights Guide to Surviving COVID-19 Triage Protocols by NoBody is Disposable

Finally Feeling Comfortable: The Necessity of Trans-Affirming, Trauma-Informed Care by Alex Petkanas (on TransLash Media)

'Are you ready to heal?': Nonbinary activist Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs gender by Jo Yurcaba

Gender-affirming Care Saves Lives by Kareen M. Matouk and Melina Wald

What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill

Note from the curator: Please use your local libraries when possible! Be #ResiliencePunk.

[osmiumpenguin]

It's the solstice tonight, and a good time to reflect on my favourite books from the past year.

I'm making very little attempt to rank these titles. They're simply the books that I enjoyed most, and they're presented in the order I read them. • "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet," by Becky Chambers (2014) • "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within," by Becky Chambers (2021) • "Locklands," by Robert Jackson Bennett (2022) • "Beloved," by Toni Morrison (1987) • "Exhalation," by Ted Chiang (2019) • "Fugitive Telemetry," by Martha Wells (2021) • "Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future," by Patty Krawec (2022) • "The Vanished Birds," by Simon Jimenez (2020) • "The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family," by Joshua Cohen (2021) • "Utopia Avenue," by by David Mitchell (2020) • "The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery," by Amitav Ghosh (1995) • "Moon of the Crusted Snow," by Waubgeshig Rice (2018) • "Bea Wolf," by Zach Weinersmith; illustrated by Boulet (2023) • "Fighting the Moon," by Julie McGalliard (2021) • "The Empress of Salt and Fortune," by Nghi Vo (2020) • "The Glass Hotel," by Emily St. John Mandel (2020) • "New York 2140," by Kim Stanley Robinson (2017) • "When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain," by Nghi Vo (2020) • "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Omnibus," by Ryan North et al; illustrated by Erica Henderson & Derek Charm & Jacob Chabot & Naomi Franquiz & Tom Fowler & Rico Renzi et al (2022) • "Buffalo Is the New Buffalo: Stories," by Chelsea Vowel (2022) • "Greenwood: A Novel," by Michael Christie (2019) • "The House of Rust," by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber (2021) • "Children of Memory," by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022) • "Jade Legacy," by Fonda Lee (2021) • "A Deadly Education: A Novel: Lesson One of the Scholomance," by Naomi Novik (2020) • "The Last Graduate: A Novel: Lesson Two of the Scholomance," by Naomi Novik (2021) • "The Golden Enclaves: Lesson Three of the Scholomance," by Naomi Novik (2022) • "To Be Taught if Fortunate," by Becky Chambers (2019) • "Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution," by Carlo Rovelli (2020), translated by Erica Segre & Simon Carnell (2021) • "A Psalm for the Wild-Built," by Becky Chambers (2021) Ah, but I said I'd make "very little attempt" to rank them, not "no attempt." So here is that attempt: my favourite five books from the last solar orbit — the five I enjoyed even more than those other thirty — also presented in the order I read them.

• "Nona the Ninth," by Tamsyn Muir (2022) • "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands," by Kate Beaton (2022) • "Record of a Spaceborn Few," by Becky Chambers (2018) • "Briar Rose," by Jane Yolen (1992) • "Babel, or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution," by R.F. Kuang (2022)

[umbralwaves]

Blood Quantum (2019)

I recently watched Blood Quantum (2019) and… wow. I’m blown away. Like after reading Becoming Kin by Patty Krawec.

Alan/”Lysol” is son to an absentee father (probably a survivor of the reeducation camps, not sure if it was explicit), a MMIW, and Canada’s child theft system – “foster care.”

His younger brother is an antithetical “Cain” archetype, and the father and grandfather characters serve as symbols of the patriarchal systems that infect Indigenous peoples, just as the ZED (zombie disease). The horror, cinematography, and storytelling make it well-worth a watch, if you can handle a deeply gory (the actors are having fun) movie.

When things go tits up, Canada is reeling. Suddenly, the settler colonial state is at the mercy of the people it has legally discriminated against, has murdered, tortured, torn communities, families, everything apart… for conquest… turned ‘round. Lysol (whose brand promises to “wipe out 99.9% of germs”) is Canada’s experiment, its own Indigenous son returned with the same bloodlust and emptiness that the settlers inflicted on us.

He is vicious, sexist, a toxic masculinity with only violence as a tool made of the rot of white society. When he comes for blood, it never mattered who or what; he needed an excuse to weaponize his hatred, and white society handed him the tools… the ones that undid his own humanity. He kills his own people when they attempt to rebuild through peace and diplomacy.

I disagree with him, but who else was this person ever allowed to become?

This movie's patriarch's are in active disagreement, and it is matriarchal and restorative ways that create the way forward. A truly incredible work of art.

[anniekoh]

Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

by Patty Krawec

We find our way forward by going back.

The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home."

Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps readers see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. Settler colonialism tried to force us into one particular way of living, but the old ways of kinship can help us imagine a different future. Krawec asks, What would it look like to remember that we are all related? How might we become better relatives to the land, to one another, and to Indigenous movements for solidarity? Braiding together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, Krawec crafts a stunning, forceful call to "unforget" our history.

This remarkable sojourn through Native and settler history, myth, identity, and spirituality helps us retrace our steps and pick up what was lost along the way: chances to honor rather than violate treaties, to see the land as a relative rather than a resource, and to unravel the history we have been taught.

[nexility-sims]

What (book(s)) are you reading right now?

i don't read !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

actually, i listened to the audiobook version of patty krawec's becoming kin: an indigenous call to unforgetting the past and reimagining our future recently. i think i finished it last week? i'm proud of myself because i "read" it for fun, lmao. i've been wanting to read jessica hernandez's fresh banana leaves: healing indigenous landscapes through indigenous science for a hot minute, so i might listen to it next ?? my goal, now that i've discovered audiobooks, is to get around to all of the brilliant ndn women thinkers i've missed out on. oh, and spare some weeks ago. loved that.

this week, for work stuff, i'm going to try to read adam rothman's slave country: american expansion and the origins of the deep south, thavolia glymph's out of the house of bondage: the transformation of the plantation household, and tamara walker's exquisite slaves: race, clothing, and status in colonial lima. light reading, obviously. i'm trying to finish my reading lists for colonial latin america and atlantic slavery and emancipation by next week, so i can move onto native america & the early republic for the rest of february through march. so :^) lots of reading, hopefully lots of writing.

[paullovescomics]

Book & Audiobook wrap-up for the second half of 2024Non-fiction books, part 2 of 2

Another Appalachia, by Neema Avashia Becoming Kin, by Patty Krawec Roots, Branches, & Spirits, by H. Byron Ballard An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, by Elizabeth Catte

[nahreflectionproject]

Introduction

Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Remembering Our Future authored by Patty Krawec, forward by Nick Estes.

Becoming Kin explores the intricacies of finding Indigenous roots in a society where it seems impossible to find anything or anyone like you. Krawec explores these ideas throughout the read and drives them home uniquely by giving the reader a task at the end of every chapter. This blog post will explore the book, summarize the readings, and find ways to connect better to Indigenous peoples using the reading.

[reiacorn]

I just finished reading "Becoming Kin" by Patty Krawec. The book was full of so much wisdom, especially in the last few chapters where she weaves together everything else in the book to make a clear case for what we do next - to dismantle colonialism and restore our connection to the land and just as importantly, each other.

I’ve seen references to seven generations in the sustainability movement - mainly of dish soap labels. So I wondered if this was the source. According to Wikipedia, “seven-generation sustainability” may come from the Iroquois, who think seven generations ahead and decide whether the decisions they make today would benefit their descendants. So the origin seems to be indigenous, even if the exact source is lost. Maybe the Iroquois or the Ojibwe, or some other group.

I appreciate the Ojibwa version. Seven generations is a far way to look forward and I wonder if, at that long a length of time, we may put an undue burden on the people here and now. This version centers on the now and looks equally to the past for wisdom and the future for hope.

[lowcountry-gothic]

Our emotions have a physical response. We feel sadness, and our body responds by crying. In the ancient Middle East, drought was often connected with mourning as the land’s physical response to an emotional state. Just as a Hebrew mourner would fast and pour dust over their head and body, so, too, the land expresses her grief by fasting and covering herself in dust....

The land mourns, but it also responds with joy. The same prophets who describe a land fasting and covering herself with dust in response to human wrongdoing and harm also describe beautiful scenes of rejoicing and jubilation upon the return of the people. “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom,” the prophet Isaiah says.

—Patty Krawec, Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

[morpheus-ravenna]

Completely exhausted today, but replenished in spirit after a weekend of volunteer service at Indian Canyon for the Indigenous Storytelling Winter Gathering. (In an epic storm deluge no less.) The more I find ways to do my part in supporting Native communities whose lands I live in, the more i begin to have hope in the possibility of dismantling whiteness and coming into right relationship. I’ve been reading Becoming Kin by Patty Krawec and it’s a realy good learning accompaniment to doing this work. Might have more to say later when I’ve recovered a bit from the chronic illness crash. 💙

[songsofbloodandwater]

These stories—about Western settlement, and Indians who simply vanished, about well-intentioned white folks in the North standing up to slavery—are created and maintained on purpose to protect a particular way of life and a particular social class. Remember: all historians have a point of view, and storytelling is not neutral. These myths are packaged and sold to newcomers and working-class white people so that they will chase promises that were never meant for them. The stories are like isolated snapshots of the American dream, with important context cropped out of the image. Isolated stories are told in part so that the whole picture cannot be seen. The creation story we have been taught is incomplete. It is incomplete, but it is not inaccessible, and nothing stays buried forever. These histories are emerging, and the stories are being told. What would happen if you listened? What would happen if you, the churches and countries who settled upon us, listened to our histories and heard the good news that we have for you? Biskaabiiyang: returning to ourselves.

— Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future (2022) by Patty Krawec

[nahreflectionproject]

Who is Patty Krawec?

To begin, we need to understand who Patty Krawec is.

Author Patty Krawec and the cover of "Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future." Courtesy Images

Patty Krawec is an author of Indigenous and Ukrainian descent and a writer from the Lac Seul First Nation. Krawec grew up in the Christian church, going with her mother. Later, she reconnected with her father, who is of Ojibwe descent and became more involved in her Indigenous side. She is a co-host of the podcast Medicine for the Resistance and also writes for Sojourners and Broadview magazines.

A detail that is important for this story is that she does not identify herself as a Christian. As mentioned in an interview here, "Krawec is a member of Chippawa Presbyterian Church in Niagara Falls, Ontario, but she said she hesitates to call herself a Christian, wary of any assumptions that accompany the label." This is important to the rest of the blog since she often compares and contrasts Christian ideals with her Ojibwe ideals.