Decolonize To Liberate/definitions

What does "decolonize" mean?  No it doesn't mean turning back the clock or sending the Europeans back to Europe. 

There are many definitions and ways to explain it.  I decided to start this page to gather definitions and explanations in an effort to elucidate the meaning of "decolonize"...

Eric Zimmerman, Occupy Wall Street or Decolonize Wall Street

Decolonizing is about the culture we’ve allowed to calcify around us. A culture that holds private property as sacrosanct above public welfare. Where an individual’s greatness is put above the community, no matter how much wealth that individual amasses, no matter how much the community suffers. It’s the culture that Christopher Columbus brought with him, and every great man who came after him supported, built up, and used to increase their personal gain at the expense of the meek, thepoor, the brown, black, and every female regardless of color or creed.  

From Decolonizing Together

Syed Hussan, a Toronto-based activist, states: “Decolonization is a dramatic reimagining of relationships with land, people and the state. Much of this requires study. It requires conversation. It is a practice;it is an unlearning.”

"Decolonization is the process whereby we create the conditions in which we want to live and the social relations we wish to have. We have to commit ourselves to supplanting the colonial logic of the state itself. Almost a hundred years ago, German anarchist Gustav Landauer wrote: “TheState is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships.” Decolonization requires us to exercise our sovereignties differently and to reconfigure our communities based on shared experiences, ideals and visions. Almost all Indigenous formulations of sovereignty – such as the Two Row Wampum agreement of peace, friendship and respect between the Haudenosaunee nations and settlers – are premised on revolutionary notions of respectful coexistence and stewardship of the land, which goes far beyond any Western liberal democratic ideal."

Black-Cherokee writer Zainab Amadahy uses the term “relationship framework” to describe how our activism should be grounded. “Understanding the world through a Relationship Framework … we don’t see ourselves, our communities, or our species as inherently superior to any other, but rather see our roles and responsibilities to each other as inherent to enjoying our life experiences,” says Amadahy. From Turtle Island to Palestine, striving toward decolonization and walking together toward transformation requires us to challenge a dehumanizing social organization that perpetuates our isolation from each other and normalizes a lack of responsibility to one another and the Earth.

From Decolonize Oakland

Decolonization means connecting to the land and each other by growing and sharing food.  It means connecting to the traditions of our ancestors and creating new forms of authentic human connection.  Decolonization is a practice of healing from violence in forms such as slavery, occupation, and poverty.  It is about raising our children to find beauty and meaning in their cultural identities.  Decolonization means telling stories that emancipate our minds and dreams.  It is education as a practice of freedom, not a lucrative career path.