on indigenous peoples day 2024...

 I wanted to take some time today to highlight some incredibly powerful Black and Native voices.

The first is Amber Starks, aka Melanin Mvskoke. This essay is an incredibly powerful piece on the unique intersectionality of Black Indigenous people, and one I sincerely hope you will take the time to read in full. The following is just an excerpt from the linked essay. 

"Many Black Natives are also deliberately and willfully seeking new ways to show up as our whole selves, as equally Black and equally Native, in our daily lives. We are challenging, interrogating, and dismantling the political borders placed upon us. By choosing to exist as Black and Native and owning our dual identities, we are an affront to these very systems that seek to erase our Indigeneity and marginalize our Blackness. We are reclaiming our right to self-determination and exercising bodily and cultural autonomy by inhabiting and celebrating both of our peoples.

Many of us have learned to root our full selves in the knowledge that, since first contact between Africans and Native people, our Black and Indigenous ancestors have continuously built community, forged relationships (platonic, romantic, familial, kinship, and political), and fought against systems of oppression that are both unique to our respective communities as well as overlapping. But we are not disillusioned and do recognize that there have been times, even today, when our peoples have been at odds or even in opposition to one another, forfeiting alliances and even participating in one another’s oppression as a means of survival and, in some cases, out of self-interest. However, these instances of harm or betrayal should not be understood in isolation but must be contextualized in direct relation to that of our respective and mutual oppression, which traces back to the founding of the nation on the backs of enslaved Africans and their descendants and the attempted genocide and assimilation of Indigenous people."

The second is a panel of Black Indigenous youth discussing their perspectives. It's only around an hour long and very listenable! The panelists include: Joy SpearChief-Morris (African American and Kainai Nation [Blood Tribe]), Kyle T. Mays (Black and Saginaw Chippewa), and Autumn Rose Williams (Black and Shinnecock). Moderated by Amber Starks (African American and Muscogee [Creek]). The following is from description from the YouTube video.

How are Black-Indigenous youth working to advance social justice? This Indigenous Peoples’ Day program highlights youth of blended Black and Native heritage who use art, activism, and policy to advance Black and Indigenous solidarity and affect positive change in their communities. 

Finally, I wanted to share a post that, while older, has gathered the profiles of 18 Indigenous influencers to follow on Instagram— a couple of the links are broken, but I will try to find out if there are new profiles for those influencers and update here if I find anything. Delphi Bouchier Hayes writes:

The Yawanawá are just one of the 5000 groups of Indigenous peoples living in the world. While their ancestors may not have had space to speak openly about their lifestyle, social media means that young Indigenous peoples are telling their stories just the way they want to. Here are some of our favourites... 

Samela Awiá and Txai Suruí
 Image: Carlo Paloni