DARC: Club Native & Deb-we-win Ge-kend-am-aan Our Place In the Circle

Monday, January 19, 2009

Club Native & Deb-we-win Ge-kend-am-aan Our Place In the Circle

DARC, Community and Race Relations Committee & Trent University Indigenous Studies Program Present:

Club Native

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When: Saturday, January 24
3:00
Where: Showplace
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Tracey Deer grew up on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake with two very firm but unspoken rules drummed into her by the collective force of the community. These rules were very simple and they carried severe repercussions: 1) Do not marry a white person, 2) Do not have a child with a white person. The consequences of ignoring these rules were equally simple: 1) Lose all status as a Native person and, 2) Deny your unborn child their status as a Native person. The larger tragedy, of course, was that by breaking either of these rules, she would be depleting the growth of “the Nation” and, by extension, betraying everyone she loved.

In Club Native, Deer looks deeply into the history and present-day reality of Aboriginal identity. With moving stories from a range of characters from her Kahnawake Reserve - characters on both sides of the critical blood-quantum line - she reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy and reveals the lingering “blood quantum” ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community.

DARC & Transmission Present:
*Deb-we-win Ge-kend-am-aan*
*Our Place In the Circle*

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When: Friday, January 23
4:20
Where: Showplace
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Traditionally, the two-spirited person was one who has been given the gift of having both a female and male soul that would allow the individual the ability to see the world from two perspectives at the same time. This unflinchingly honest documentary profiles two-spirited people united in their experiences of self-discovery and affirmation.

*Part of Reframe Peterborough International Film Festival*

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About DARC

Decolonization and Anti-Racism Circle (DARC) is an organization made up of Peterborough community members that work with the goal of building solidarity across differences for social change. We use a broad range of tactics including public education, social support, advocacy, and direct action to address historical and ongoing injustices that affect racialized and Indigenous peoples. We recognize that structures of oppression including patriarchy, ecocide, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism and racism are interconnected, mutually reinforcing and embodied in institutions. We believe decolonization 'at home' is an integral part of the struggle for global justice and self-determination. Decolonization is only effective by taking action through consensual efforts and building solidarity across intersecting identities and communities that are affected by structures of oppression.

DARC can be reached by email at darcpeterborough@riseup.net

Basis of Unity

As people who identify as Indigenous, as people of colour and/or as mixed-race persons, we come together with the recognition that there is a need for a network of support and advocacy in order to address covert, everyday racism and the climate of exclusion that does exists within Peterborough. By aligning ourselves with other social justice organizations we are better able to address intersecting concerns such as gender, culture, poverty, immigration, sexual identity, status, difability ('differently' abled), age, and life experiences (e.g., class, HIV serostatus, physical and mental health status etc.). By maintaining an organizing unit comprised of people who identify as Indigenous, as people of colour and/or as mixed-race persons we hope to encourage leadership among racialized and Indigenous people and to help nurture the mental space necessary to be able to recognize, criticize and address experiences of racism. In these ways we can work towards community wellness, anti-racism and decolonization!

Guiding Principles

By using a non-hierarchical structure and consensus decision making practices, DARC strives to serve racialized and Indigenous communities by first addressing their lived experiences rather than focusing on White guilt and White privilege. DARC will do this by:

- Recognizing the need to unite and actively fight for mutual self-determination through a movement led by racialized and Indigenous peoples.
- Understanding that services and effort to organize are most successful when they involve the communities served, DARC seeks to support and promote the active participation, leadership and experiential knowledge of racialized and Indigenous peoples throughout its structure and work.
- Understanding and addressing everyday covert racism, and how it creates a climate of exclusion.
-Fostering a deeper analysis of the ways in which colonialism, imperialism, ecocide, patriarchy and other structures of oppression continue to impact the lives of racialized and Indigenous people in different ways.
- Appreciating the collective histories of struggle against racial and ethnic discrimination as well as other forms of oppression that we work to resist through organizing, supporting and advocating for our diverse communities.
- Acknowledge the importance of uniting Indigenous and racialized people in common struggles while recognizing our different communities, histories, and experiences of oppression and resistance.
- Work in solidarity across differences by collaborating with other community based organizations to address intersecting identities and oppressions.
- Recognizing that Canada is on stolen Indigenous land, and working in solidarity to challenge and confront a colonial system based on dispossession, genocide, racist laws and illegal borders!