October 8 – 10th is four International Days of Prayer and Action with Standing Rock on stepping up as Protectors of Water. Background and ways to take part are outlined here. This post is in support of that.
In following what is happening at Standing Rock, one of the things that has been standing out for me is that in the absence of MSM coverage, I don’t have a good sense of the layout of the camps, exactly how many people are there, who the main players are. All the things that MSM decide to focus on, and the ways they are usually delivered to an audience well socialised into what is important to think about. The lack of fancy graphics is noticeable. I have to follow trails of information and cope with sometimes contradictory views and reports.
Because instead I am reading independent and alt media (MSM coverage is very poor to non-existent). Consequently I know more fully what happened when the dogs were set on the Water Protectors. And I know that there is a huge communal movement happening around the protest, both at the camps and in the massive amount of donations being made. I know that the indigenous people at Standing Rock face the same racism as they always did. I feel I am being led into a world both new and familiar. The issues around oppression are depressingly familiar, but then the cultural strengths are familiar also. The dynamics of an emerging movement are likewise familiar to those who have followed Occupy or Black Lives Matter. I’m still trying to get my head around the different Sioux names, tribes, places and find myself yearning for a good Guardian overview that tells me everything I think I need to know. Probably most important of all is that most of what I am reading is the voices of Native peoples. Here I learn and am changed.
The rewards of not having it all laid out on a slick multi media platter are real. Depth, opening awareness, gratitude, and a kind of political nourishment that many of us enduring the 8th year of NACT bleakness are craving. I have to work to understand, and that work brings a better sense of the real than what we will get once the MSM get on board.
Let’s not forget, that we here at The Standard (authors and commenters and readers alike) are part of the independent and alternative media. Please share links about Standing Rock and water protection but also anything else that is currently inspiring you to change and act (thanks to the Standardistas who posted links the other day).
Here’s a small snapshot of recent resources,
Poet, activist, anthropologist and musician Lyla June‘s call to action for Standing Rock,
We’re not standing up to a pipeline, we’re standing up to a paradigm that values money over life.
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The intersections between Native culture and Muslim culture and solidarity with Standing Rock,
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From Māori Television
The Standing Rock Sioux are trying to stop work on a proposed multibillion-dollar oil pipeline in North Dakota. The stand against the build has been ongoing for months in court and in the Standing Rock prayer camps where Native American tribes and others have gathered in unity. Amongst them is Kingi Snelgar, A young Māori lawyer, who recently graduated from Harvard and worked with the Lakota in Pine Ridge.
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It feels like 1875 because Natives are still fighting for our land
What’s Happening At Standing Rock – two of the United States’ biggest issues, racism and climate change, colliding in North Dakota.
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A shortish article as list of how to be a white ally, but contains some interesting insight into Standing Rock in general.
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