Goodreads | Decolonizing Solidarity: Dilemmas and Directions for Supporters of Indigenous Struggles by Clare Land — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists
Malcolm rated it it was amazing
Shelves: first-nations, sociology, activism
For many of us who try to pay attention to developments in social and political theory, one of the most interesting strands to emerge in recent years is the notion of intersectionality, in part, the idea that we may have many different ways of being (relationship specific identities, for want of a better description) all of which are always present in any action we take. Intersectionality is a way past ‘choosing’ or emphasising one way of being in favour of the more complex messy lives that we live and ways that we exist in the world. As interesting as this emerging discussion is (and it is really intriguing, as well as very valuable), I have been much more interested in the parallel recent discussion of the meaning of solidarity. That of course might well be because I am a fairly well off, White, middle aged bloke with a fair amount of cultural capital (academic, a couple of post graduate degrees, fairly well paid and so forth), where my principal political work centres on support for workers and indigenous, anti-colonial struggles, shaped by an outlook that sees the most oppressed as the best suited to lead those struggles. So, as far from the most oppressed, the politics of solidarity are important to my political and my academic work.
Clare Land’s Decolonizing Solidarity is a very important contribution to that understanding, and is essential reading for solidarity movement activists working alongside and with other people’s struggles. Land has many years’ experience working in and with indigenous peoples in south-east Australia, and brought that experience to her scholarly work that provides part of the base for this book. Other aspects of the base include her ongoing activist work, advice and input from those she seeks to support, and interviews and discussions with other solidarity activists: there is a multitude of voices invoked in the investigation, voices that are essential to understand the multiplicity of forms and types of solidarity.
Alongside the significance of ‘solidarity’ in the title, ‘decolonizing’ in some ways presents a bigger challenge. For many, an especially those of us with a degree of privilege, there is a recognition of the importance of ‘diversity’ – we seek diverse social networks and communities; in schools we set out to diversify the curriculum; in healthcare we seek culturally sensitive forms of service provision. The list goes on. For many post- and anti-colonial/imperial activists and analysts however the goal is not liberal diversification but a more profound decolonization – where we recognize, act on and overturn the historical colonial relations and attitudes and outlooks that flow from them, disrupting and reforming ways of being and understanding. It is a more abstract concept, but for me it often comes back to book title by an Indian historian – a collection of essays by Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe . Now, if Europe is one of many global provinces, and not the ‘centre of the world’ its cultural significance becomes different, as do the views of the world and the people in that world spawned and sustained by/sustaining European cultural power.
In solidarity movements and activism, this question of decolonization presents a specific challenge, centred on the politics of who gets to choose and who gets to determine what are the goals, forms and shapes of the struggles question. In indigenous solidarity this often takes a more challenging aspect, where those indigenous struggles relate directly to the life-world and circumstances of non-indigenous, newcomers many of whom are engaging in solidarity activism: to step back, to allow indigenous peoples to lead and shape those struggles when they directly affect the everyday life of non-indigenous supporters is a big ask, and brings this issue of decolonization right home into the banality of the everyday.
It is this challenge that is at the core of this book and that sees Land explore demanding issues, such as complicity in colonial oppression and relations, the challenges of labelling and identity categories – both indigenous and non-indigenous, the meanings and significance of collaboration, dialogue and friendship. A vital element of her exploration is the self-understanding of solidarity activists and what it means to act in a self-aware manner, to know how, where and with what effect that self-awareness influences, shapes and determines (or at least powerfully influences) political action. All this means that the moral and political framework she develops for solidarity activism includes difficult questions about motivation (and a clear critique of the desire to ‘help’ – this is a question of decolonization, after all). Much of the discussion is not as stark as this may sound – ‘dilemma’ is a recurring notion in her analysis and exploration, especially the dilemmas involved in de- and re-constructing issues, interests and consequently power dynamics. While this might sound big and demanding, Land has a light touch: she deals with specificities and lets her activists’ drive the discussions making excellent use of their own words.
Not surprisingly, she sees the most promising outlook and approach as being rooted in a motivation that is “trying to undo the system that does oppressive work on all/most of us, but most particularly and obviously along the axis of Indigeneity” (p215). This driver requires that activists have a clearly articulated theory of colonisation and its effects – it being colonisation that created Indigeneity. This is a marker of the openness of the case being made, a case that solidarity activists stand alongside or behind indigenous peoples, but also that these principles apply also to other forms of solidarity politics. The book concludes not with a discussion of Indigeneity but of solidarity with international development struggles, refugee groups, anti-colonial activism (focussing on pro-Palestinian activism) and LGBTQI support activism. That is to say, decolonizing solidarity with indigenous struggles should also reshape other forms of solidarity.
The importance of this book is two-fold. First, it demands that we reconceptualise how we do solidarity activism and our understanding of indigenous struggles (it sits for alongside and complements Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonising Methodologies and Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish’s The Radical Imagination: Social movement research in the age of austerity in doing so). Second, takes us deep into solidarity activism in a specific context, using insider activist voices from both the solidarity and indigenous activists – and uses that context and those voices in such a way that the integrity of that specificity is retained but also that we are able to transfer the case to other settings, both indigenous and non-indigenous struggles. This is essential reading for solidarity activists and vital if we are to develop ways to develop effective and meaningful affinity politics in the context of these developing intersectional analyses and an increasingly hostile global élite desperate to defend their power, and its sources.
Malcolm rated it it was amazing
Shelves: first-nations, sociology, activism
For many of us who try to pay attention to developments in social and political theory, one of the most interesting strands to emerge in recent years is the notion of intersectionality, in part, the idea that we may have many different ways of being (relationship specific identities, for want of a better description) all of which are always present in any action we take. Intersectionality is a way past ‘choosing’ or emphasising one way of being in favour of the more complex messy lives that we live and ways that we exist in the world. As interesting as this emerging discussion is (and it is really intriguing, as well as very valuable), I have been much more interested in the parallel recent discussion of the meaning of solidarity. That of course might well be because I am a fairly well off, White, middle aged bloke with a fair amount of cultural capital (academic, a couple of post graduate degrees, fairly well paid and so forth), where my principal political work centres on support for workers and indigenous, anti-colonial struggles, shaped by an outlook that sees the most oppressed as the best suited to lead those struggles. So, as far from the most oppressed, the politics of solidarity are important to my political and my academic work.
Clare Land’s Decolonizing Solidarity is a very important contribution to that understanding, and is essential reading for solidarity movement activists working alongside and with other people’s struggles. Land has many years’ experience working in and with indigenous peoples in south-east Australia, and brought that experience to her scholarly work that provides part of the base for this book. Other aspects of the base include her ongoing activist work, advice and input from those she seeks to support, and interviews and discussions with other solidarity activists: there is a multitude of voices invoked in the investigation, voices that are essential to understand the multiplicity of forms and types of solidarity.
Alongside the significance of ‘solidarity’ in the title, ‘decolonizing’ in some ways presents a bigger challenge. For many, an especially those of us with a degree of privilege, there is a recognition of the importance of ‘diversity’ – we seek diverse social networks and communities; in schools we set out to diversify the curriculum; in healthcare we seek culturally sensitive forms of service provision. The list goes on. For many post- and anti-colonial/imperial activists and analysts however the goal is not liberal diversification but a more profound decolonization – where we recognize, act on and overturn the historical colonial relations and attitudes and outlooks that flow from them, disrupting and reforming ways of being and understanding. It is a more abstract concept, but for me it often comes back to book title by an Indian historian – a collection of essays by Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe . Now, if Europe is one of many global provinces, and not the ‘centre of the world’ its cultural significance becomes different, as do the views of the world and the people in that world spawned and sustained by/sustaining European cultural power.
In solidarity movements and activism, this question of decolonization presents a specific challenge, centred on the politics of who gets to choose and who gets to determine what are the goals, forms and shapes of the struggles question. In indigenous solidarity this often takes a more challenging aspect, where those indigenous struggles relate directly to the life-world and circumstances of non-indigenous, newcomers many of whom are engaging in solidarity activism: to step back, to allow indigenous peoples to lead and shape those struggles when they directly affect the everyday life of non-indigenous supporters is a big ask, and brings this issue of decolonization right home into the banality of the everyday.
It is this challenge that is at the core of this book and that sees Land explore demanding issues, such as complicity in colonial oppression and relations, the challenges of labelling and identity categories – both indigenous and non-indigenous, the meanings and significance of collaboration, dialogue and friendship. A vital element of her exploration is the self-understanding of solidarity activists and what it means to act in a self-aware manner, to know how, where and with what effect that self-awareness influences, shapes and determines (or at least powerfully influences) political action. All this means that the moral and political framework she develops for solidarity activism includes difficult questions about motivation (and a clear critique of the desire to ‘help’ – this is a question of decolonization, after all). Much of the discussion is not as stark as this may sound – ‘dilemma’ is a recurring notion in her analysis and exploration, especially the dilemmas involved in de- and re-constructing issues, interests and consequently power dynamics. While this might sound big and demanding, Land has a light touch: she deals with specificities and lets her activists’ drive the discussions making excellent use of their own words.
Not surprisingly, she sees the most promising outlook and approach as being rooted in a motivation that is “trying to undo the system that does oppressive work on all/most of us, but most particularly and obviously along the axis of Indigeneity” (p215). This driver requires that activists have a clearly articulated theory of colonisation and its effects – it being colonisation that created Indigeneity. This is a marker of the openness of the case being made, a case that solidarity activists stand alongside or behind indigenous peoples, but also that these principles apply also to other forms of solidarity politics. The book concludes not with a discussion of Indigeneity but of solidarity with international development struggles, refugee groups, anti-colonial activism (focussing on pro-Palestinian activism) and LGBTQI support activism. That is to say, decolonizing solidarity with indigenous struggles should also reshape other forms of solidarity.
The importance of this book is two-fold. First, it demands that we reconceptualise how we do solidarity activism and our understanding of indigenous struggles (it sits for alongside and complements Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonising Methodologies and Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish’s The Radical Imagination: Social movement research in the age of austerity in doing so). Second, takes us deep into solidarity activism in a specific context, using insider activist voices from both the solidarity and indigenous activists – and uses that context and those voices in such a way that the integrity of that specificity is retained but also that we are able to transfer the case to other settings, both indigenous and non-indigenous struggles. This is essential reading for solidarity activists and vital if we are to develop ways to develop effective and meaningful affinity politics in the context of these developing intersectional analyses and an increasingly hostile global élite desperate to defend their power, and its sources.
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