‘An injustice for anyone is an injustice for all’

Indigenous activists want focus to stay on Black demonstrators

Terre Chartrand says she recognizes it’s not her place right now to be front and centre during demonstrations in support of Black people decrying police violence.

Chartrand, the Algonquin artistic director of Pins and Needles fabric company, an Indigenous-led arts collective in the Waterloo region, says her people play an important — but not central — role.

“The same violence has created a condition for both of our communities,” Chartrand says. There have been intense demonstrations in cities across the United States since the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, on May 25. Indigenous activists say they will be attending rallies and working behind the scenes at demonstrations in Canada. But many say Black lives must remain the focus of attention.

“Black activists have supported the resiliency of Indigenous people time and time again,” said a statement Thursday from Idle No More organizers Nickita Longman, Shawn Johnston and Alex Wilson.

“It is our turn to show up, take instruction and trust in the Black Lives Matter movement at this time, and always.”

Idle No More began in 2012 in Saskatchewan and became one of the largest Indigenous mass movements with protests around the world.

Ciann Wilson, an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, said Indigenous people she has spoken with recognize that supporting Black people right now will move both groups closer to justice. “The fact that it’s impacting Black communities today or Indigenous communities tomorrow, that is a (symptom) of white supremacy,” she said. “What we need to tackle is white supremacy in its full form.”

Wilson, who is Black, was a principal investigator of the Proclaiming Our Roots project. It presents the history between Black and Indigenous communities and showcases the under-represented stories of Afro-Indigenous people. “When Indigenous and Black people have gotten together throughout history in the North Americas, they have staged some of the biggest threats to colonial rule,” Wilson said.

Grand Chief Arlen Dumas with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said First Nations are more than empathic because they “strongly identify with some of the lived experiences of Black people in this country and in the U.S.”

“The Black and Indigenous anger over police brutality, as well as with the court system, has been boiling for decades in this country and indeed around the world,” Dumas said in a statement.

Black and Indigenous voices must be united, Wilson said. “An injustice for anyone is an injustice for all.”