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Anti-Colonial March in Kinłání Marks Indigenous People’s Day of Rage

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By Anon

[More report backs to come, share them or pics at IAInfo@protonmail.com]

Originally posted at www.itsgoingdown.org/kinlani-march-indigenous-day-of-rage/

Report back from Kinłání/so-called Flagstaff on militant march that took to the streets in solidarity with Indigenous People’s Day of Rage Against Colonialism.

Around 75-100 people gathered in Heritage Square in downtown Kinłání (Flagstaff), Arizona on Sunday evening to participate in the national call for an “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage Against Colonialism.

The demonstration was called by Indigenous peoples throughout Turtle Island (North America), with accomplices stepping up to support. Demonstrations were called from Nova Scotia to Hawaiʻi, from Tampa, Florida to British Columbia and in locations dotting the lands in between. The diverse locations participating in the call to action had in common the violent displacement and attempted extermination of Indigenous peoples over the course of five centuries and continuing today.

A crowd gathered in Heritage Square in downtown Kinłání amidst singing and drumming.
Participants gathered in downtown Kinłání around 5:30 p.m., singing, drumming and burning sage while holding a militant presence throughout the square. Most participants wore all black and were masked to protect their identity and to prevent the spread of COVID-19, while a few wore military-style fatigues. The crowd was both multi-generational and multi-racial, with a strong presence of young and Indigenous people leading the events. Banners were unfurled reading “Land Back,” “Colonialism is a Plague,” “Whoever they Vote for, We are Ungovernable,” and more.

A banner calls attention to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Trans and 2Spirit crisis.
After about fifteen minutes, the crowd stepped off, winding through the streets of downtown Kinłání disrupting traffic and chanting as they went.
“Who’s land? Native land!”
The police maintained a small presence throughout the evening, with a few officers following the march on foot and more trying to anticipate the movements of the crowd to block traffic. In the latter effort they were largely unsuccessful as the crowd did not stick to a predictable route, instead weaving throughout the streets like water–flowing in and out of traffic and disrupting the smooth functioning of the congested tourist area.

At times, interactions with cars and passersby were enthusiastic and supportive, at times combative. Throughout the evening, the march grew in numbers as people stepped off the sidewalks and joined the march. Midway through the evening, as the sun was setting and the crowd was holding a presence at the intersection of N. San Francisco Street and E. Aspen Ave, two middle aged white women joined in, chanting “hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go.”

The crowd holds the intersection of N. San Francisco Street and E. Aspen Ave in downtown Kinłání.
Minutes later, at the same intersection, a man stuck at the light got out of his silver Kia, opened the hatch of his car and clipped a magazine into a military-style rifle stored there. Moments later the crowd moved on and the car turned left to head up San Francisco without incident.
As the evening went on the crowd’s presence became rowdier, with traffic cones, saw horses and other road equipment pulled into the streets, fireworks set off and brief confrontations with the police. At one point, passing by the crowded patio of Pizzicletta, an upscale wood-fired pizza restaurant, someone in the crowd threw a water balloon filled with a red liquid at the building while the crowd chanted “white silence is violence.”

An overturned traffic barricade pours water out into the street.
As the crowd marched around the Flagstaff City Hall, getting in front of the officers on foot following the march, protestors pounded on the windows of the building and hurled paint-filled balloons at its walls. When cops rushed in to protect the building and possibly arrest those doing the damage, the crowd quickly intervened to protect each other.
The events happening across the so-called US brought attention to a variety of issues facing Indigenous communities, from the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Native people, to the construction of the “apartheid wall” on Tohono O’odham land along the US/Mexico border, to the continued environmental devastation perpetrated by the US government and private corporations on Native land.

The crowd holds a position in front of Flagstaff City Hall.
“We do not believe that we can vote our way out of this crisis,” their statement read. “We will not beg politicians to reform the very system that is predicated on our genocide and destruction of our Earth Mother. We urge for something more effective towards the undoing of colonialism in our lands.”
Throughout the evening, organizers also expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement against racism and police violence. “We have celebrated and supported the rage of spontaneous and powerful Black Lives Matters uprisings that have brought down monuments to colonizers and brought racist institutions like the racist Washington NFL team to their knees,” the national statement reads. During the march, the crowd chanted “Black Lives Matter! Native Justice!” and a large banner read “Stolen People, Stolen Land–Native/Black Solidarity.”

Banners and chants throughout the event expressed solidarity with Black struggles for liberation.
The march took place on the evening before the city’s official Indigenous People’s Day celebration, which will take place on Zoom throughout the day Monday, and in many ways seemed to be intended as a counterpoint to the official events. “We have grown frustrated with the uninspired assimilationist politics of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Indigenous non-profit corporations and organizations attempt to pacify and assimilate our Peoples further into settler colonial politics,” the national statement read.
Today, as the state of Arizona celebrates its first ever official “Indigenous People’s Day,” with bumbling politicians making ham-handed attempts to pacify urgent calls to come to terms with America’s bloody history, the streets of Kinłání still echo with last nights chants: “What do you do when your relatives are hungry and starving in the streets? Stand up, fight back!”

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Indigenous Action Podcast Episode 17: Decolonization isn’t a Holiday

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Rejecting Indigenous Peoples’ Day of Tokenism

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Indigenous Action Podcast Episode 17: Decolonization isn’t a Holiday
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Hosts Klee and Bonn talk with some awesome guests & revisit our 2017 ‘zine “Uprooting Colonialism: The Limitations of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” We dig into the questions, “How do whitewashed celebrations of Indigenous Peoples Day undermine decolonization?” and “What does it mean to be an anti-colonial abolitionist?”

Guests:

Amrah Salomón J. is a writer, artist, activist, and educator of Mexican, O’odham and Tohono O’odham, and European ancestry.
@oodhamantiborder, @defendoodhamjewed, Cashapp: $DefendOodhamJewed, Paypal.me/DefendOodhamJewed, Venmo: @DefendOodhamJewed

Kittie Kuntagion, @kittiekuntagion

Andrew Pedro, @desert.dweller.58 Got tired of seeing disapointing activist bullshit, now focused on music. Organizes metal/punk shows on and of the Rez.

Hosts:
Bonn: @bonnabella.xvx, Venmo: bonnabellaxvx 
Klee: @kleebenally

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About the podcast: Indigenous Action is an autonomous anti-colonial broadcast with unapologetic and claws-out analysis towards total liberation. We feature radical frontline Indigenous voices and dig deep into critical issues impacting our communities. So take your seat by this fire and may the bridges we burn together, light our way. www.indigenousaction.org/podcast

Email us at IAInfo@protonmail.com. 

Subscribe, like, share on iTunes | Spotify, and Youtube.

Read the ‘zine herehttps://www.indigenousaction.org/uprooting-colonialism-the-limitations-of-indigenous-peoples-day/

From the 2017 ‘zine: “…if the state dismantles these statues and proclaims Indigenous Peoples’ Days, what do we actually achieve if the structures and systems rooted in colonial violence remain intact? Is it merely political posturing or window dressing to diminish liberatory agitations? Our senses are heightened as most re-brandings of Columbus Day into IPD appear to whitewash ongoing colonial legacies… If the goal is for Indigenous autonomy, liberation of the land, people, and other beings, then why plead with our oppressors to merely acknowledge or recognize our existence?…To claim Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an act of decolonization is a failure of liberal assimilationists… Symbolically ending Columbus’ legacy while continuing to perpetuate and benefit from the violence of the ‘doctrine of discovery’ is just one more dead-end direction of Indigenous liberalism. If we understand that colonization has always been war, then why are we fighting a battle for recognition and affirmation through colonial power structures?… Indigenous Peoples’ Day, as a process of collusion with occupying state forces, risks becoming a colonial patriotic ritual more than anything that amounts to liberation.”

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Indigenous Resistance Teach-in Oct 13, 2023 

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Direct action training, workshop, & panel discussion with Haul No! Protect the Peaks, Indigenous Action, & Louise Benally.

Friday, Oct 13th, 4p-8p 

Free (bring a warm clothing/sleeping bag/tent donation for unsheltered relatives). 

At Mayan Winds Coffee Emporium

2144 N 4th St. Flagstaff AZ

*Masks required!*

How do whitewashed celebrations of Indigenous Peoples’ Day undermine decolonization?

What ways can you directly support regional anti-colonial struggles?

Schedule: 

4:00p-5:30p – Direct Action training

5:30p – Haul No! Resisting Nuclear Colonialism workshop

6:15p – Break for food (Provided, w gluten free & vegan options avail.)

6:45p – Panel Discussion: Supporting Regional Indigenous Resistance Struggles

8:30p – end

www.Indigenousaction.org

Celebrate and support ongoing frontline Indigenous resistance struggles!

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Indigenous Peoples’ Day of Rage 2022

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This is a call for an Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage Against Colonialism on Sunday, October 9, 2022, everywhere.

We heard that mass actions are a bit out of fashion this season & lone wolfs or affinity groups are all the rage.

Counter the spectacle of the “good, respectable Indian” and their mundane celebrations of assimilation. Your ancestors invite you to embrace the veracious criminality of anti-colonial struggle and be smart (don’t get caught).
A banner drop? An attack on colonial symbols, monuments, etc. Spray paint? A broken window here, a burning xxxxxxx there? Be fierce and fabulously unpredictable and strike in the darkest part of the night (points if you use glitter). Even the smallest Indigenous dreams of liberation are greater than the settler nightmares we live everyday.

We won’t be making any lists or asking for emails this year due to a heightened sense for the need of greater security culture. Though we will post any securely and anonymously sent reports and pics in the aftermath.

In the spirit of Jane’s Revenge, abort colonialism. Colonizer (c)laws off our bodies!
– The insurrectionary anti-colonial invisible council of IPDR.
https://indigenouspeoplesdayofrage.org/

 

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