LANDBACK Movement Introduction
The following is an explanation of the LANDBACK Movement LANDBACK.ORG LANDBACK is a movement that has existed for generations with a long legacy of organizing and sacrifice to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands. Currently, there are LANDBACK battles being fought all across Turtle Island, to the north and the South. As NDN Collective,…
Additional blog posts
LAND Back
The eyes of the future are looking back at us
There is a native concept of considering what the effects of decisions made today will be on seven generations into the future. The following quotation makes a two-way connection between us and future generations. Looking at each other over the generations. The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying…
Wet’suwet’en 1/11/2022
The last time I wrote about the Wet’suwet’en was January 2nd, RCMP Invasion expected on Wet’suwet’en territory. It’s not that the RCMP have left, but there has been a change in tactics. The threat continues. There’s no question that I am guilty of painting on the street because the reason is so important.Shawn Selway We…
Mutual Aid stories
For the past week I’ve been thinking and praying a lot about Mutual Aid in preparation for a discussion we plan to have at my Quaker meeting tomorrow. As I have nearly every Saturday for the last year, I was with my Mutual Aid friends this morning for our weekly food distribution. Here are a…
More notes on Mutual Aid
I’ve been preparing for a discussion my Quaker meeting will have this weekend about Mutual Aid. At the end of this is a table of posts I’ve been writing to help me organize my thoughts. I am not satisfied with how this post has turned out, but these are notes, not a finished document. Stepping…
Notes to myself continued
Yesterday I wrote about preparing for a discussion about Mutual Aid at my Quaker meeting this Sunday. Describing the use of queries, and then coming up with an initial series of questions. Now I’m outlining the major topics to discuss. An hour isn’t much time, and the point of queries is to allow people time…
RCMP Invasion expected on Wet’suwet’en territory
Readers of my blogs know what an influence the struggles of the Wet’suwet’en peoples have had on my life. It was at a vigil for the Wet’suwet’en in February, 2020, that I met Ronnie James and became involved in Des Moines Mutual Aid. Links to articles about the Wet’suwet’en can be found below. I am…
What I don’t know about Mutual Aid
Disclaimer: Before getting to that, I think I should make a disclaimer, especially since I shared the 2021 Peace and Social Concerns report of my yearly meeting, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). I included that because Mutual Aid is mentioned in the report. “These injustices are some of the effects of systems of white supremacy. The…
Resolve to be always beginning
Resolve to be always beginning — to be a beginner. –Rainer Maria Rilke I’m hoping some Friends might consider Mutual Aid to be part of their new story this new year. Yesterday’s post was an introduction. This is a link to a lot more information about my experiences with Mutual Aid. Mutual Aid in the…
A Call for Quakers to Embrace Mutual Aid
I am writing to make the case for the adoption of Mutual Aid as a framework for Quaker justice work. This comes from my perspective of a White, Quaker, male (he/him), settler on Ioway land, in the country called the United States. When I refer to Quakers here, I mean White Quakers. Black, Indigenous, and…
Prairie Not Pipelines
Tonight, my friends at the Great Plains Action Society will present Episode 1 of an Indigenous web series related to climate, water, and resource extraction on the Plains. “Currently, the majority of the media and public pushback is coming from white landowners. However, these pipelines are being proposed to be forced through stolen land and…
LANDBACK Friends 