We've Been Doin'it to Ourselves.

There is much talk of what we have done to other cultures and to other people of the world. Through imperialism and colonialism we have attempted to destroy peoples and make them like us. I keep asking myself "why that could be?"

Listening to an Anishnaabe Elder talk of her residential school experience, the pain the torture and the eradication of indigenousness, I was struck by how normal this seemed. Our culture, our society, our lives are struck by a normalization of this violence.

Our colonial ethic is a cry for help, it is a self-destructive tendency; like a spoiled child asking for help, but accepting no response. This spoiled child is a master of self-annihilation, something we have taught to others.

We settlers brought the drink to Turtle Island, one simple tool for self-annihilation.
The residential school experience is one major example of the way that white/settler culture has learned to annihilate. We learned this eradicative habit back in our own traditional lands, when some of our ancestors decided that they should commit genocide against some of our other ancestors. Its not a coincidence that many natives have turned to drink once the residential schools were closed, the habit of self annihilation once instilled is hard to break.... some people actually have the courage to attack the self rather than export their own insecurity.

Our collective history is about conflict and homogenization, a sharing of our tendency to self-annihilate. Maybe our practice of annihilating the Other is really about annihilating ourselves. As most of those people who work on identity might say, you need an other to have a sense of self. I'm beginning to wonder whether our pursuit of genocide is nothing but a collective psychosis based on our cowardly inability to destroy the collective self that we known needs to change: us.

There has been through history quite a few recognitions that we as an overall society, the west, or the occident were taking a dangerous path. There has also been a parallel recognition of the spiritual bankruptcy of our own culture, but instead of listening to others, we try to live in our own delusions and destroy anything that allows us to have a sense of self, anything that would reinforce our latent inferiority complex.

We learned the techniques of annihilation so far back in our history, I cannot document it properly, but I can think of a few instances that highlight the point. The crusades were started against one of our former selves, the Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade was about annihilation of a part of the western person's history, of something different. The destruction of the Knights Templar was much the same, our techniques of identity destruction were honed on our own ancestors.

The Spanish Inquisition and the gendered annihilation that took place needs further explanation. As many indigenous peoples around the world will tell you, women are the base of their nation, they give life and culture to the young. Is it quite possible that the attack on women and "witches" in the inquisition was one of the ultimate acts of self-annihilation and destruction of our own indigenousness. Was our self given up for some other power? Why would we perform this self hate? Our culture was so insecure in itself that it had to kill those among us who might point us in a different way.


Similarly, the Celts and the Gauls and many animist traditions were eradicated or Christianized, what happen to our own "savages" our Barbarians? What happened to the identities we killed off from our own heads?

Our cultures once had Warriors, Heroes much more like indigenous cultures all over the world than that of what we call society and ourselves today. Our culture might even have known what honour was, maybe it even understood what connection to the land was beyond commodification.

Have you wondered why the "NEW AGE" section is so large at the bookstore, and why there are so many self-indulgent mystical wannabe woo-woos out there? There is a certain organic reality to why the white kid with dreads experiments with paganism. There is a spirituality and organic culture that has been lost. This is something that cannot be commodified and poached from indigenous cultures without respect. Its time to stop being so self-indulgent and focus on our overall collectivity.

Where are the parts of my own cultural tradition that give me meaning in the most basic parts of life? What tradition in my culture, from my fire, teaches me about my most simple connection with the land? What spiritual teachings in my culture teach me to be proud of myself and walk with truth?

One way we can really right the ship of our culture is stop the indirect self-annihilation, stop eliminating our Others, and actually learn from what they teach us. Perform a true critical history, encounter our Others and by doing so gaze into our collective self and make a change.

All of this connects with capitalism, colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and every other intersecting oppression, it comes from a constant annihilation of others and refusing to turn the gaze on the self. A pure refusal to interrogate the self and allow diversity. Maybe if we actually stopped and saw other options we wouldn't be so comfortable in ourselves..... maybe this discomfort really does stem from and honest problem it has taken us 1000 years to really admit we have......


at the same time, maybe this is a good parable for the confrontation we must make with ourself now. Irrespective of the small technicalities we need to confront our cultre, before another one bites the dust at the end of our sword.