We are all indigenous
On the path to reclaiming selfhood and power, we must take back our histories and our memories. In doing so, we will dispel many disempowering and caging cultural myths. One such myth is the belief in the invisibility and negative reality of whiteness. We define race currently by its relation to whiteness, the hegemonic myth of absolute sameness that labels all else as other. This is untrue, the repression of the indigenous is not just a struggle of color, it is a struggle over reality and power. Who has the power to write history? Who has been silenced? What do you know of your history and your indigenous ancestors? Why were they silenced? What truths did they hold that threatened the established order? Together we can reject absolutly the colonial mindset which seeks to define our reality and shorten our memories. What if we all remembered the struggles of our ancestors? If we all realized the responsibility we have to the planet and to each other as children of the Earth? What nation are you from, from before there were flags and ideas of ownership? Can you remember? Will you take this journey with me as we struggle to remember, reclaim, and renew our past?
Here is an article about one culture my blood ties me to as a strong Irish woman. I relish the love of the cow and honor the sacredness of all life, even life beyond my own species.
Enjoy:)
Albion Indigenous Viewpoint
Celtic Sacred Cows and the impact of colonisation on Britain’s indigenous people
We in Albion have many references to the sacred cow from the connection of the Celts to India. We know that the Celts were pastoral people who regarded the cow as precious and a feminine symbol.
It came as little surprise when the government here wiped out millions of cattle for a disease no more serious than herpes, about 3-4 years ago. We knew something like it was coming, with numerous assaults on cattle farming, agricultural subsidy systems, and EU policies. I am not an advocate of animal farming, nor do I support subsidies for chemical farming when organic farmers get nothing. I am well aware that not one single organically raised cow has had Foot and Mouth Disease (or Mad Cow Disease), so we know that the government agenda was to achieve something else altogether.
The Celts and other tribes of these islands have been repeatedly forced off land that their families lived on for many generations, and have watched as ancient forests were clear-felled for timber for ships to further imperialist agendas. Ireland was clear-felled twice (the second time after 200 years of replanting), and huge areas of the rest of these lands are still without forest after years of clear-felling. This massacre of forests and driving out of the Spirit of the Land is part of the story.
The solutions are all there, in Permaculture, gathering as equals to do ceremony for the Earth at sacred sites and positive energy centres, in learning and becoming more aware of what is happening, in seeking and working with all natural forces. It takes time and focus.
Read more at Suite101: Albion Indigenous Viewpoint: Celtic Sacred Cows and the impact of colonisation on Britain’s indigenous people http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/albion_indigenous_viewpoint#ixzz0asWAuySQ
I feel the need to Edit this based on some research: This is NOT a white power post in the guise of something else nor is it a statement on my ideas of immigration. Most populations by now have been displaced for one reason or another. I seek not spread or further hate and misunderstanding. Unfortunately, there are those out there who do and sometimes these people will use “Indigenous European” as part of that process. This writing is not associated with such thought and merely reflects my personal experiences and understandings. Thank you.
For those who come from the gaelic speaking peoples as I do, there is a wonderful link to oral histories, language, old spiritual beliefs, etc. Please visit this incredible site: http://www.indigenouspeople.net/gaelic.htm
Also, I fully endorse the following heart felt declaration and plea from a fellow daughter of the ancient Isles:
I AM A WOMAN OF MY PEOPLE
by Keridwen S. McKenzie (Dalriada/Cruithne)
“I stand as one of many voices; along side those who have come before me and with equal strength among those who will follow.”
I am a woman of my People.
My People are of the Dalriada and the Cruithne, whose flesh and bones have made up the soil that now lies within the nation-states of Ireland and Scotland.
As a woman of my People, I am not “Scottish”, “Irish”, “Welsh”, etc. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales grew up and surrounded my people. We participated very little in the formation of these countries as they exist today. Such matters were decided by force, and by a handful of people in positions of power. As clans and families and individuals, we made the best decisions we could make, and we held out as long as we could, but the end result for all of us came down to three possibilities:
Cultural assimilation, Geographic displacement, or Death (Genocide)!
The primary gift of my heritage is not that I hold any occult knowledge about old ceremonies or prayers, or artifacts. Although the taking back of these things is a part of a greater healing process for our People, it must never be seen as end unto itself.
As a child of my People, my identity was formed around this view, which was my strength against many evils and troubles. As a Woman of my People, I came up into my adulthood coming to understand my role as a displaced Gael — as a granddaughter of the People.
As a young adult, I abandoned this view and forgot who I was. I suffered much as a result of this loss. My personal healing journey began with my renewal of this view of myself and my world.
Although I may someday stand on “Irish” or “Scottish” soil, I can never go home again, and so my duty is this:
To preserve and protect all that I can of the Old Ways.
To maintain a life of prayer, cermony and meditation conducive to obtaining continuing guidance and following a proper path of conduct.
To seek any others who have been called by our Ancestors, and to place myself in service to my People wherever I may find them.
To ever be mindful that — no matter what “civil law” may say — I do not own land, nor have the right to use it, save by the permission of its rightful occupants.
It is with courage and strength that I must stand upright and walk the path of my Ancestors.
It is with humility and dignity that I must present myself to the indigenous people of the land where my people were driven and tell the story of my family and my people, so that I may become a part of things being made right again.
For me, progress toward the gathering of the Clans flows from this consciousness. My task is to begin the mending of things on a personal level, not on a political one. All “politics” of regathering comes down from the light of our ancient ways and up from the roots of our personal relationships.
I have seen many people rush to embrace the calling of our Ancestors only long enough to find a faint glimpse of this, and then to use this small glimmer of knowledge to set themselves up as false teachers and leaders who prey upon the spiritual hunger of others. The world is full of those who would sell the sacred.
As the Four Colors of Human Beings from the Four Corners of the Earth work together to the mend the sacred circle, the scared hoop, the sacred wheel, it is my prayer for myself and for all my People that we do not ever let our hunger for a greater sense of “legitimate” identity cause us to do what so many before us have done — find the trappings and abandon the Tribes.
Reading your piece I think back to a passage I read a while back in Tim Wise’s White Like Me: Reflections from a Privileged Son. Speaking of the constructed White Race, of constructed Whiteness, Tim says:
“To define yourself, ultimately, by what you’re not, is a pathetic and heartbreaking thing. It is to stand denuded before a culture (whiteness) that has stolen your birthright, or rather, convinced you to give it up. And the costs are formidable, beginning with the emptiness whites so often feel when confronted by multiculturalism and the connectedness of people of color to their various heritages. That emptiness then gets filled up by privileges and ultimately forces us to become dependent on them. We are not ourselves anymore, but the overpaid, overfed, overstuffed slaves to a self-imposed, self-chosen system of cultural genocide….I can’t help but think that at the end of the day, we, too, got played.”