#indigenous awareness

[sorrowsofsilence]

I don’t usually post anything outside of bomens, but it’s important I use my voice to honour my missing sisters, ancestors, cousins, and ndn people alike

It’s red dress day in Canada, a day to bring forward and acknowledge our missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and 2sp+.

Today is important to me, and it’s important to bring awareness <3

[moonliightings]

indigenous rep in modern media sucks and we really need to talk about it.

trigger warnings include: rape, violence, abuse, slurs, and general bigotry against native people

let’s start with the most (in)famous example of indigenous rep in modern film: pocahontas.

pocahontas is the most prominent modern native character and she is terrible, terrible representation. if you’re a part of the native community, i’m sure you’ve already heard of this. but in case you’re not aware, pocahontas is based on a real girl named montauke who was only 11-12 when she was taken from her home, raped. abused, and later forced into marriage with john rofle who she even had a child with. pocahontas was not even her real name, it was a nickname. disney took this story and turned it into a love story between a native girl and her colonizer. even if it wasn’t based on a true story, it’s still incredibly disrespectful and set many terrible stereotypes for native peoples and characters that are still present in modern media.

here is an article on the historical inaccuracies of pocahontas - https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/the-true-story-behind-disneys-pocahontas

now let’s move onto the general problems pocahontas created for not only native characters, but native people in real life.

pocahontas sends a bad message to not only young native girls, but all people of color by romanticizing a relationship between a woman of color and her oppressor. i’m aware this trope was around before pocahontas, but it was popularized by this movie, and the effects of it are still around to this day. popular examples of this trope are —

the second big problem with this movie is it’s portrayal of natives. the character of pocahontas is basically a walking “magical native” stereotype who talks to animals and communicates with spirits. it’s also important to note how the designs were clearly designed by a bunch of white men who probably did little to no research on natives. sadly i’m not surprised because this isn’t the first time disney has done natives wrong. i’ll save that for another post though.

now let’s get to the sexualization of pocahontas. as i said in my last point, pocahontas was clearly drawn by white men. pocahontas is hardly 18 in this movie yet she’s drawn as a typical white mans fantasy. she has big lips, curves, and long flowing hair. she has next to no native features of the time. of course natives features can vary, but her design makes absolutely no sense considering the conditions and living state of natives in the 1600’s. this is already bad enough on it’s own, but it’s especially bad considering the true story of montauke. a girl who was raped was romanticized and turned into a sex symbol centuries later…

one of the other effects of pocahontas i don’t see many people talk about is how it popularized halloween costumes of native culture (where the sexualization continues). do i even have to explain why this is terrible? OUR CULTURE IS NOT HALLOWEEN COSTUMES AND WE ARE NOT ITEMS FOR YOU TO JERK OFF TO.

last but not least, let’s talk about how it affects natives in general. as a native person, i have been compared to pocahontas my whole life. it’s easy to write it off as harmless jokes or remarks, but i believe we should call this behavior out. these “jokes” are not only in horrible taste, but they’re deeply harmful to the indigenous community. the name “pocahontas” is one of the most common insults for native people.

all this stems from one film, a glamorized & romanticized adaptation of a real girl’s story. to even call it an “adaptation” is a stretch. this film is an insult to the indigenous community and everything our ancestors went through.

[dnpanimationstudioclone]

Got a nice shirt for Orange Shirt Day/National Truth and Reconciliation Day!!!!!🧡🖤♥️💛🤍

Every Child Matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🧡🖤♥️💛🤍

[decolonize-the-everything]

End blood quantum now

Blood quantum is how much native blood you have in you and it needs to be a certain threshold to qualify you as a tribal member. Blood quantum varies from tribe to tribe.

It means my mom is a tribal member but because my dad is outside of my tribe... I don't have enough tribal blood to enroll. Neither does my daughter. Our "official" indigeneity ended with me.

My dad is still native tho. Just southern native. Others have two parents enrolled in separate tribes and can't enroll in either one despite being Full native because their parents were mixed with other tribes so they don't have enough blood of Any tribe to qualify.

And to what end are they doing this?

Under the treaties the US govt can lay no claim to native land. So how do they fix that? Get rid of the natives, of course.

And since they can't slaughter us in broad daylight anymore they did the next best thing. What the colonial government has ALWAYS done to us and other poc.

Made up a bunch of arbitrary laws to restrain and limit our power and numbers.

And this can't continue. We are the only race who needs to apply to be part of the community we were born into. The only race who needs to prove our blood.

And that's the thing: it's not even based on blood. Racist scientists defined who was a full-blooded native based on things like shoe size, head circumference, and skin pigment.

Not blood. And besides that it wasn't uncommon for outsiders to become part of a tribe!! You didn't need to be native by blood to be native! Blood quantum has made it IMPOSSIBLE for them to qualify and made it impossible for tribes to practice that long time aspect of our culture.

So please share this post. So many people legitimately think natives are extinct and even less are aware that we do more than just sit around drinking all day. Few people have good feelings about us and within that there are a few who actively help. Please be one of those few.

We need support and allies and for our voices to be heard. Please don't let this post just be me screaming into a void. We need people to know what blood quantum is, how archaic and harmful it is, and to help us spread awareness to people who otherwise would ignore us. Use your privilege.

[shadow-bender]

Please pray and raise awareness for Cole Brings Plenty, a Lakota actor and student. He was found on april 5th. This is such an awful and cruel act of violence, im having a hard time finding the words.

April 8th Rising Hearts has organized Braids for Cole, so please wear your hair in braids and bring awareness so that Cole and his family can get justice.

*edited to correct information*

[vivaciousoceans]

Even if you’re just cooking or visiting family and friends it’s still celebrating thanksgiving, so do your part to give back to the indigenous people. Educate yourself on their upcoming battles like the ICWA and MMIW. Donate to mutual aid funds, and learn about the land back movement.

[wittyworm]

Going to be making stickers and posters and spreading this around my town hopefully soon. the green square is going to have a QR code that will have a bunch of resources and ways to help. Iv gathered some of my own but if anyone has resources they think would be helpful or have suggestions on ways to best do this (its just me and my sister) id really appreciate the help.

[heydragonfly]

Hey since it’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day, if you want to know the indigenous people native to the land you currently live on, you can go to Native Land Digital (link embedded) and they have information on all of the Americas and Australia, as well as smaller pockets of information (where applicable) elsewhere. It’s pretty accessible and can show you territories, languages, and related treaties. I’d recommend anyone to check it out, particularly Americans and Canadians, cause this level of local history isn’t often taught. (If you get lost on the map/confused of its orientation, click “settler labels” in the bottom right hand corner, which should give you the current map Settler-made lines)

[anonymusbosch]

the Americas really popped off with potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, maize, and winter squashes, and most beans, and cocoa. if I had to choose only crops native to the old world vs crops native to the new world I would pick new world in a heartbeat. there are native onions and grains and rices that are not endemic. the loss of wheat would be a tragedy but the world without tomatoes would be so so so dark

[alwaysbewoke]

being anti-genocide is not allowed on meta

like i said before, i don't mess with shaun king like that, but that being said, many things about one thing can be true at the same time. it is very clear that there is a wave of censorship happening across social media against pro-palestinian content in favor of israeli propaganda. so whether or not you like shaun or not, it is very clear what is happening and why. there is clearly a genocide happening in gaza that is being perpetuated by colonizing power. a genocide against an indigenous population for land, resources, and power. basically the same thing america did to the natives here. had it not been for people like shaun king (flawed as he may be), many people would not be aware of the heinous acts of israel against the palestinian people right now. so even as someone who is not a shaun king fan, i am not so myopic in my view of things to not realize that he served a positive purpose when it comes to the israeli genocide of palestinians.

on a much larger scale, whenever a platform or a power attacks someone popular, one of the goals is to send a message to everyone else that they are not safe and that they should back off. it's like a football coach picking on and cursing out their hall of fame quarterback. when everyone else who isn't as popular or powerful sees that on the team, they immediately realize that they must fall in line or worse can happen to them. that's the goal of banning shaun king from ig. however as a black man who understands how connected all oppressive systems are, we cannot slow down. may i remind all my brothers and sisters that israel is where police forces like the nypd go and train in abusive violent tactics, which they then come back to america and overwhelmingly exercise on black and brown bodies. so if you think this does not affect you, you are sadly and deeply mistaken. additionally, this kind of censorship is going to spread. if we don't fight back, it won't be long before you will be arrested for speaking out against israel. this is what israel wants, and they have the money and political power to make it happen. you can either sit back and let it happen or you can fight back. however, make no mistake, it's coming, and this is the first major blow that the enemy has struck in their offensive against our free speech.

[ciderjacks]

Also ok I need to sleep but deadloch is such a good satire also. Like I’ve watched some cop shows, and holy shit it flips every aspect over. The obvious one is that it’s women leading and men getting murdered instead of the other way around, but the one I find the most interesting and most important, is that it takes the “few bad apples”, as well as the “ends justify the means” shit, and completely flips it. Like. Ok. B99 is a cop show. It’s a “progressive” cop show, that sort of tries? To have some messaging about bad policing, but it still falls into the issue of the messages being: “most cops are fine it’s just that some cops are racist! But we can just get them fired so it’s ok” and “it’s necessary for cops to break the law and do morally questionable things to solve a case, and they risk getting fired for it so it’s brave”

Meanwhile even with a progressive show like b99, it still fits into the box of what deadloch is parodying. Like the core messages of deadloch are the opposite of what I listed above. Like we have: “the system is rotten, corrupt, and the few good cops are getting pushed out because cops are actively discouraged from being good” and “the bravest thing an officer can do is follow the law and treat people with human decency”

Like idk what else to say it’s just really good. It’s a really good satire. I went in with low expectations (bc I didn’t realize it was going to be a satire) but like. Yeah It’s really really well done.

[thenuclearmallard]

There's been an idea to create a t-shirt design to bring awareness to the Indigenous people of Siberia/Russia. The symbol used will be a pattern that is commonly used and individualized by different tribes as an honor of spiritualism. I'll post a picture below.

The t-shirt will be in blood red color and will have the words "Decolonize and Deescalate" on it. A couple of Indigenous people came up with the idea and the design and it's in the works.

It's time for the Indigenous people to finally be seen and heard.

[arthistoryanimalia]

#InternationalOwlAwarenessDay 🦉:

Kenojuak Ashevak (Inuit [Cape Dorset/Kinngait], 1927-2013) Hidden Owls, 2006 & Flamboyant Owl, 2006 Serigraphs, each 58 x 56 cm Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian 26/7038,40

[rookflower]

grit my teeth and hold myself back from fighting someone every time i see the sentiment of "wow can you believe people actually think nightheart is sexist? and that liking nightheart makes you a misogynist? how crazy is that lol" out in the wild. nooooo that's not what the discourse actually was. you have fallen for the dismissive surface level takeaway people had from a genuine discussion about wider trends of misogyny in the writing, that makes said criticisms out as irrational and hysterical as possible. you will now associate any criticisms of misogyny in the series with this hyperbolic strawman

[sinners-if]

There are very few (read: none) minorities not under attack in the US by both state and federal law who all deserve to be seen and remembered. But today is May 5th, National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

While their connection and relationships to others are important, they are not just parents, siblings, or children, these are human beings. Human beings who deserve the rights and attention of any other.

Please give your voice and privileges today and tomorrow. There are too many who have been silenced, but those above can not keep us all quiet.

Implement Savanna’s Act

Defend ICWA

Indigenous Representation in Hollywood

& more