Talk:Arts/Outreach/Indigenous

Greetings, I am new to this Wiki but not new to Decolonize/Occupy. My initial problem is with the racist and anti-racist history of the term "Outreach". "Outreach" declares that you are a group of non-Indigenous people (that part is true), who have already set the terms and structure, and now wish Indigenous people to come and join you in your thing. This is not empowerment or full acceptance for Indigenous people, or other People of Color (POC). If you truly wish to build coalitions with Indigenous people, the whole thing needs re-envisioning: as a coalition. Indigenous people need to be involved from the ground up on every decision from structure to naming to activities. Otherwise there is the serious risk that Indigenous people and other POC will be merely tokenized, and subtly or not so subtly exploited. Right now the page is full of links to fraud organizations run by non-Indigenous people who are colonizing Indigenous identities, including the racist "Rainbow Prophecy" that was written as deliberate propaganda by a white, Christian minister, with the agenda of saying it doesn't matter if Native people die out, that non-Natives are to be the true inheritors of Indigenous spirituality and lands. Given this, I am going to remove all the links to fraudulent orgs and fake prophecies, as the mere sight of these links will make most of us run away and never have anything to do with this group. KyleReese 14:44, 24 April 2012 (EDT)

I don't know who the guy on Facebook who claims Cherokee heritage is, but his statements do not sound like a person from any Cherokee or traditional Native culture. He linked to many fraudulent sites, and is using language and concepts that are not Cherokee, as well as quoting writings and websites by white people to "explain" (misrepresent) Lakota and Hopi cultures. I have left most of his words, just cut the links, for the most part. But personally, I don't think his statement is a useful thing to have here. KyleReese 15:11, 24 April 2012 (EDT)