DARC: UPDATE: Coming to the Circle

Sunday, July 31, 2011

UPDATE: Coming to the Circle

DARC is back! ...Well we never really left. But we have circled in a good way, and we've got a new look!

Here's a a few of the events we've organized or participated in over the last couple years:

-POC GenderTalk at Bodies of Dissent: Transform (March 2010)
-Decolonizing Anarchism discussion circle & screening of AfroPunk at A-Fest (August 2010)
-Decolonization and Anti-Violence discussion circle at METRAC's Thrive Women's Voices Rising! Forum on Violence (December 2010)
-Screening of the Watermelon Woman for Black History Month (February 2010)
-"Responding to Institutionalized Racism: Self-determination in Education" Arthur Student and Community Newspaper
http://trentarthur.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2369%3Aequity-is-not-about-equal-treatment-its-about-equal-opportunity&catid=17&Itemid=47
-Member of Peterborough Pride's working group looking at Barriers to Participation, and current member of Peterborough Pride's Equity, Diversity & Accessibility Committee

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We've been doing lots of internal work too!

Including our name changing from Decolonization & Anti-Racism Coalition to Decolonization & Anti-Racism Circle to better reflect Indigenous knowledges and organizing principles.
Look out for changes to our Logo, About DARC, Guiding Principles, Basis of Unity and Resource Centre coming soon!

Look out for us at Peterborough Pride and DisOrientation in September!

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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!