Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization

We wanted to share an excellent resource we came across for anyone interested in the intersection of land struggles and decolonization politics. The document is called Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization and was released in 2018 by the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE) in British Colombia.

The Manual includes essays from Arthur Manuel, Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne.

Below is an excerpt from the Preface of the Manual by Bev Sellars.

I often imagine what might have happened if the newcomers were
respectful of the Indigenous peoples. I wonder what our lives would be if we learned from each other and took the best of our cultures for everyone? We freely and generously shared our knowledge of the land to help the newcomers adapt to their new life. They would have died without our help, as many of them did.

The population of the Americas was solid, secure and strong at contact. Turtle Island was a world thousands of years old where hundreds of cultures had thrived with their own governments and laws. But the arrogant thought of the newcomers was that this was a “New World” whose history began only when they arrived on the shores.

Then, as now, the Indigenous worldview is that the land is sacred.
The newcomers could have learned the importance of taking care of
Mother Earth and allowing her to continue to provide the tremendous bounty she has to offer. Indigenous teachings tell us that the land and waters provide us with everything we need to survive. The newcomers had a different view. The land to them was to be conquered and exploited. So over time Mother Earth’s bounty is being destroyed by a foreign economy based on monetary profit. It is only recently that these teachings about Mother Earth have gotten through to a few newcomers.

Global warming, polluted waters and atrocious environmental standards are finally being recognized for what they are. The Indigenous people of this country knew and practised the intelligent way of living sustainably thousands of years before the newcomers arrived. Imagine how much healthier our environment would be if this way of living was respected instead of being viewed as a “pagan” practice…

You can download a free pdf copy of the publication here.