Angry Bitches Unite!

Settler people must stop judging Indigenous women in petty and dismissive ways such as nasty name calling.
 
Recently, I had a few experiences that were really telling of questionable settler thinking and a sure indication that they remain unaware and ignorant of the legitimate manifestations of structural oppression and how best to address it.
 
One individual called me “needy”, another called an Anishinaabe women “a wimp” and further “too angry”. There is so much I could say that is wrong about settler people name calling, regardless I will remain with offering a bulleted point list as I am sure I can make my position succinctly.

1. Settler people need to remember that they have lived the privilege of colonization and that their privilege has come off the backs of Indigenous people.
2.  Settler people need to remember that your homes and all your material possessions stuffed within it are on land, and off the land, that we were and continue to be denied.
3.  Settler people need to remember that in the summer, it is you who go off and vacation in your summer homes that also reside on Indigenous lands.
4.  Settler people need to remember it is Indigenous women and their families who are dealing with pedophiles and sexual offenders at a higher rate in our collective communities.
5.  Settler people need to remember that Indigenous women are missing and murdered in much larger numbers.
6.  Settler people need to remember that it is the sons of Indigenous families who are filling up Canada’s jail industry in much larger numbers.
7.  Setter people need to remember that Indigenous families have a higher rate of disability, both physical and mental.
8.  Settler people need to remember that it is the poverty that has been imposed on Indigenous people, and again that settlers gained from and continue to gain from, that result in us making decisions that in many ways harm us in the long run.
9.  Settler people need to remember that it is our families that continue to be destroyed and divided so Canada can thrive.
10.  Settler people need to remember that it is our communities that lack clean water and who live boil water advisories.
11.  Settler people need to remember that it was our culture that was criminalized, and further it is our culture that continues to be appropriated by settler people.
12.  Settler people need to remember that it is members in our communities that are pooping in buckets.
13.  Settler people need to remember that is our family members who are dying homeless on the streets.
14.  Settler people need to remember that it is Indigenous knowledge that continues to be reduced to “elderism” and that Indigenous knowledge holders and intellectuals continue to be ignored and dismissed through “elderism”.

 Morals move through the heart, they take the same path the human spirit does, and the same path emotions take. The people we should all fear are the people who lack the moral, spiritual, and emotional intelligence to speak up about the injustice Indigenous women face on a daily basis. It certainly is not Indigenous people who are righteously sad or angry. In short, look out for the “nice” accommodating, subservient and obliging people.
 
If you lack the intellectual ability to understand Indigenous women and ALL the knowledge we have, have the intelligence to listen versus silence them through name calling.

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​​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

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