Winter Reading Group

As I am now back in Lekwungen, Esquimalt and WSANEC homelands, I wanted to find a way to share what I was privileged enough to learn about in the Anne Braden Program and the resources that I had access to. I had been sharing readings from the program from afar, as I was living in Ohlone/Chochenyo territories, and so it seemed like a good fit to do something like a reading group when I came back here.

I was talking to my dear friend and comrade and we were discussing the phenomenon of trying to do everything or feeling like anything we do try to do is “not enough”. This often means that I end up not doing anything or feeling very scattered trying to do everything. This conversation really encouraged me to start a reading group, so I sent around a general email to friends and posted on Facebook that I was interested in doing this and invited people to refer interested people to me as well. While the training program was aimed at white people, I left the invitation to join the reading group open, as I have often been reminded that many people have not had access to these histories, resources and information and I also wanted to keep it open to anyone who is interested in learning more about the curriculum and resources we used during the Anne Braden Program and taking part in a discussion about them.

I had a really positive response and many people said that would like to take part. Some of the initial things that people expressed a desire for were a variety of resources in different formats (not just long essays and academic reading) as well as space to bring our own expressions of resistance and liberatory values. Additionally, some people could not physically attend meetings or could not commit to attending each month. The way the group is currently set up attempts to be flexible enough while still maintaining some degree of organization. It’s a work in progress for me but I’m enjoying the opportunity to accept “low-risk” feedback (it doesn’t feel as urgent or complex as when organizing actions or larger projects) and incorporate it. I feel like I’m learning a lot in doing this.

For the first meet up, I invited people to share something that inspired them personally.

“for our first meeting – whenever it happens – my hope is that we could each bring a short something that inspires us to share – a song (could be played via youtube or speakers or live), a poem, a few words, prose, a video, a picture, etc. – and then we could look over some options for something to watch/read/take in, over the next few weeks, and then plan another time to meet in person.”

I shared a poem by Martin Estrada (“Imagine the Angels of Bread”), which I first heard via the Catalyst Project. In addition, two participants shared inspiring pieces for us to look at/listen to/watch: “Maxwell Street” by Adam Gottlieb (video) and “The Problem with Privilege” by Andrea Smith (article).

At our first meet up (hosted by one of the participants and complete with tea, food, an awesome three-year-old, and a cat and accompanied by some crafting that related to a local project around honoring Indigenous land defenders for “remembrance day”), participants shared ways that they felt the group could function to include more people and to address some of the requests put forward by interested participants.

We discussed:

– meeting once a month in person for those who can and keeping a regular date/time

– having three resources each time, in different formats (video, audio, written, art, etc), from 8 different sessions of the Anne Braden Program Reader (which participants identified as the ones they are interested in specifically)

– having a buddy system for folks who can’t come in person, where people can “buddy up” to share readings with someone or they can follow along themselves and I can be available to chat via Skype if people are interested

– we also talked about going to community events together, doing collaborative projects, being outside and going on “field trips” – each month we’ll have a facilitator, which anyone can volunteer to be (means that you come up with some questions and provide physical copies of the resources so that people can come early to check out resources in person if they want to in case they couldn’t look them over before; there will also be time for a summary of the resources during the meeting)

Tomorrow is our next meet up and this is from the email I sent out about the resources that we will be looking at:

“for the next meeting, i picked three resources from the session “Indigenous Resurgence and the Colonization of North America”, a session which a number of people named as one they’d like to read and one that i personally think makes sense to start with, in recognition of the importance of addressing colonization and recognizing the long-standing and ongoing presence, resistance and resurgence of the original peoples of Turtle Island, on whose land this reading group is happening and where i/we live!”

These are the resources (from the Anne Braden Program Reader):

Winona LaDuke, “The Militarization of Indian Country” (interview) on Democracy Now!

Elizabeth Castle, “‘The Original Gangster’: The Life and Times of Red Power Activist Madonna Thunder Hawk” in Dan Berger, ed., The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism.

Chief Seattle, “Speech” at Synaptic.

In addition, there is a webinar happening tomorrow, put on by the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, entitled “Violence on the Land is Violence on our Bodies: Criminalization, Incarceration and Resisting State Violence”. I sent out an email suggesting we watch this together and listen to the speakers together at our meeting.

More to come after tomorrow’s meeting and discussion!