Thread by @gindaanis

Land Back isn't that hard. Only 11% of land in Canada is privately owned. 41% is federal, 48% is provincial. So 89% of the land claimed by Canada could be restored with no impact to you.

People worry about that. What about my house?

What about it?

Say the Haldimand Tract reverted to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Now you pay your taxes to the Confederacy.

Say Northwestern Ontario was restored to the Nishnawbi Aski Nation. Now they are in charge.

Governments change. You stay in your house.

Land back also means abolishing systems of ownership that convert land to private ownership.

Not that hard. Remember that most of Canada is not privately owned. Has not been converted to wealth.

Wealth is extracted from those lands in the form of lumber, oil, etc

So we're talking about changing who makes those decisions and how the wealth extracted from that land is distributed. Because I'll tell you this. The way things are set up right now it isn't you anyway.

Abolishing slavery was the abolition of a system of ownership. Before abolition individual slaves could purchase their freedom, flee north, or be emancipated but the system remained in place and that system needed to be abolished.

With abolition millions of dollars evaporated from the economy just like that. Haiti was crippled by reparations. The US govt also paid some to former owners but not a lot. The wealth that was held in human bodies just evaporated.

We can do that again. Emancipate land.

It's only 11% anyway.

You keep your house. And there's still rules around development and new building and you know something?

We didn't have homeless people. We didn't have a housing crisis. Might be nice to restore other systems of land relationships.

PS. Land Back includes the water in it and around it.

https://twitter.com/gindaanis/status/1367837448881995780?s=19

We talked with a Maori friend about lots of things a while back, including this restoration of land to a Maori tribe.

https://twitter.com/gindaanis/status/1367837448881995780?s=19

Decolonization is not a metaphor:

https://twitter.com/gindaanis/status/1367199120532725770?s=20

Oh shit. Here's the link about the conversation. Pasting is hard.

Listen to Maori Teachings with Vicky Young by Medicine for the Resistance on #SoundCloud
soundcloud.app.goo.gl/kofcf

Settlers always want to know what they can do to move this forward.

Here's what you do.

Find a #LandBack action near you.

Support it. Intern, not ally. You are there to learn and follow their lead. Bring coffee. Donate to the auction. Buy stuff from the auction.

Build relationships. It always comes down to relationships.

Join the Friendship Center or whatever organization exists in your area. Volunteer. Remember, intern not ally. You are there to learn and build relationships.

Podcasts are great. Learning is awesome. I read so much and that is great. But without relationships these things are passive and accomplish nothing.

Without relationships this learning is a move to innocence.

Build relationships.

And organizers, labour organizers, social justice organizers. You need to think about what kind of justice you are seeking on Indigenous land. Because it's all Indigenous land. Urban. Not Urban.

Build. Relationships.