OUR UNLEARNING
white settler people unlearning our whiteness imperfectly & collectively
What are we doing?
We are galvanizing! We are organizing! We are culture building!!
We are collective and our aim is to:
build a learning (unlearning) community that supports critical feminist anti-racism skill building and collective accountability;
create a container for the transformative embodied experience of processing, integrating and practicing Indigenous specific anti-racism and Indigenous cultural safety learnings
grow our collective stamina for dismantling systems and structures of oppression in ourselves, our communities and our organizations.
Why are we doing this work?
This is a fundamental question that we are asked and ask ourselves regularly.
Here are the top three reasons:
1) The truth of the attempted genocide of Indigenous peoples in {what is colonially known as} ‘canada’ is clear. There is no denying the violence of the white european settler colonial project that continues to impact and harm Indigenous peoples, lands and waters.
2) This is our work to do. White settler people have been asked to do their own work. We have been mentored and invited into the unlearning required to become actively anti-racist by Indigenous friends and colleagues; and this site is our next step in our own response.
3) We have experienced more hope, love and healing here than anywhere else we have ever been. This is life-long, life-giving work that has inspired and cared for us in ways we did not even know we needed. To become actively anti-racist and work to interrupt settler colonialism challenges us to reconnect with ourselves, our stories and our ancestors stories; to engage in our own lives and see our own place and role in the fabric of all things.
Please see the FAQ section for more information.
Much of the work you will find here has been developed by, and continues to be informed by and accountable to Indigenous and racialized/peoples of Colour that we are in relationship with. This site /community container is just one part of a larger journey for white people that must necessarily include continuous cycles of:
Seeking the truth of harm and violence of Indigenous specific racism on Turtle Island (currently and colonially known as ‘north america’) including settler colonialism and whiteness;
Learning the local and global history and impacts of colonization and racism;
Listening and learning from Indigenous peoples, Black and brown peoples and peoples of Colour (especially the peoples who’s homelands you have lived and do live on) who are the global majority;
Digging in to who you are and where you come from, and how you came to be on the lands you are on as a settler on Indigenous lands;
Exploring and coming into relationship your own intersections of power, priviledge and oppression including gender, sexuality, ability, age, size, neurobiology, class, education, language, citizenship, access and more;
Engaging in the emotionally vulnerable and uncomfortable work of personal and collective healing.
We need to deepen our unlearning practice because the systems we work in are built to maintain the status quo and resist change by making us feel like we are alone, individual. We need collective action. We need to stay uncomfortable; we need to do the work and hold each other accountable.
This unlearning community is for all white people and specifically those who :
are taking steps towards becoming anti-racist but do not exactly know where to start; and/or
are engaged in or identify with the principles and practices of anti-oppression, trauma informed practice, decolonization, harm reduction, anti-racism, and/or equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); and/or
have realized that whiteness has social, political and cultural meaning and do not know what to do next; and/or
trying to be good white people but keep unintentionally doing harm to Indigenous peoples or communities in their personal or professional capacity; and/or
identify as ‘allys’ to Indigenous peoples but are stuck in a paternalistic helping approach that centers their own need to feel better; and/or
seeking ongoing and repetitive approval and validation from Indigenous people for their efforts towards reconciliation; and/or
continuing to ask Indigenous people to teach them or show them the way to be ‘better’; and/or
seeking comfort, and reassurance from Indigenous people to ease their own guilt, shame, sadness, grief; and/or
are stuck in a multicultural or colorblind perspective that seeks to look past differences in a way that invisibilizes Indigenous peoples and the reality of settler colonialism in ‘canada'; and/or
appreciative of Indigenous peoples and nations without an analysis/acknowledgment of settler colonialism; and/or
active in social, environmental, political actions that tokenises Indigenous peoples through ‘consultation’