FAMOKSAIYAN: “Our Time to Paddle Forward”
Summit on Decolonization and Native Self-Determination
April 20-22, 2007 in Berkeley and Oakland, California.

History:
On 14 and 15 April 2006 more than 100 Chamorro scholars, activists, and community leaders gathered at the Sons and Daughters of Guam Club in San Diego to share their work and research, and to participate in discussions relating to the future of their people and native homelands. The name of this gathering was Famoksaiyan: Decolonizing Chamorro Histories, Identities and Futures. This initial meeting of native leaders inspired such a great deal of research questions and possibilities that concrete action plans were soon …

Contesting the Rhetoric and Reality of Resubordination in Southern Africa and Beyond - by John S. Saul
November 17, 2006

Discussion of the last chapter: Regrounding Resistance to the Empire of Capital

Introduction - The premise of this book is straightforward. As noted in an earlier book for Three Essays Collective, the world is a horribly unequal and exploitative place.(1) Capitalism, serving as the chief engine of empire, has been, in its global expansion outward from the North Atlantic, a - even the - key force in making it so. At the turn of the twentieth century, driving home the apparent logic of …

Decolonization of American Indians, part 2 of 2
by: Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
February 23, 2007

ICT Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from a speech given by Cook-Lynn at a recent Indian Studies conference. It is the conclusion of a two-part series.

For Part 1, please see here

Our relatives of past generations who fought hard wars and difficult negotiations for the survival of the people must be mourning the moral and political tragedy of this recent attack on women, tribal government and the law.

The truth is, Oglala Sioux men have never interfered in the reproductive lives of Oglala Sioux women until this …

A moment ago I read some commentary by Noel Pearson, published on December 30, 2006 in the Australian. (link).

I think it was a sincere attempt to provide some solutions to a pretty serious problem - that being the disproportionately high number of Aboriginal People in jail — but he also said a few things that troubled me greatly.

I would I’d like to talk about these things, in addition to the broader issue of problem solving in Colonial Societies.

Coming to Terms with Problems and Solutions

First, it’s important to understand that in Colonial society, alot of very big assumptions …

The following is a discussion started by a member here, which originally took place within our old forum. Eventually an essay will be put together based on it.

May 17, RevolutionReversal: hey folks,

this is a discussion I’ve been wanting to start for sometime, its quite hypothetical and idealists, nonetheless an important question for myself. So do to treaties, the various Native Nations have legal/ethical/spiritual claim the land. So if you get all the land back; how and on what terms do the non-natives that were born here integrate with your new sovereignty over the majority of the land? Will it …

Article by: Conrad Newholmes (via gnn.tv)

Here a peace talk.. there a peace talk.. everywhere a peace talk-talk. So many talks and so little peace in our world. Despite what the term implies, ‘peace talks’ are not discussions about the fundamental sources of conflict and how to reduce the problem of violence. In reality, they are full of ‘negotiations’ (i.e. logistics pertaining to the trade and/or surrender of desired power assets) between conflicting authorities. They often agitate struggles and they sometimes facilitate the abandonment of further negotiations; securing the path to war. Peace talks may produce a recognized framework of …

Here is something recently added to the Wasase website:
Decolonizing Dialogues & Historical Conflicts
© Paulette Yvonne Lynette Regan, PhD. 2006

Presented at First Nations Symposium, Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC. Nov. 22, 2006

I begin by acknowledging that I stand today on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, and I will conduct myself as a respectful visitor while I am here. In thinking about how to engage in decolonizing dialogues with Indigenous peoples as a necessary step towards addressing …

by: Steven Newcomb / Indigenous Law Institute

Once in a while, a book comes along that holds your attention so well that you cannot put it down. ”Unlearning the Language of Conquest: Scholars Expose Anti-Indianism in America,” edited by Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs), is such a book. A tertiary subtitle reads: ”Deceptions that influence war and peace, civil liberties, public education, religion and spirituality, democratic ideals, the environment, law, literature, film, and happiness.” The book, published by the University of Texas Press, exposes in a mere 280 pages such deceptions while delivering much-needed illumination on many issues dealing with indigenous …

The following is a discussion that took place within the old forum of this website and on the friends of Grassy Narrows Mailinglist. It might get a little confusing, but it was a conversation worth holding onto.

May 4, Richard: Greetings all,

As my initial post to this forum, I am presenting something I recently posted on the Friends of Grassy Narrows e-mail list. Upon seeing it there, Ahniwanika invited me to join this group and suggested that I post the message here.

Friends,

The siege of the Sovereign Nation of the Six Nations by the military forces of the …

This is a heavily edited version of a lecture by Jerry Rawlings, former president of Ghana, delivered at Witswatersrand University, South Africa last September on democratic reform in Africa.

Africa’s political history since independence has largely been characterised by a scarcity of verifiable documentation and a dearth of information on the activities of the key players in the struggle for liberation and democratic evolution. Leaders such as Patrice Lumumba never had the opportunity to contribute to our knowledge of Africa’s political development because their lives were cut out prematurely by the anti-liberation forces of their time.

The few who committed their thoughts …