The truth, while spoken, never dies.
It is a flame that may rest, smouldering in our bones.
Perhaps for generations
Yet in these very lines it will rekindle
We are the flame that never died on battlegrounds of old
And for as long as I breathe my story
I am not vanquished
I am my fallen ancestors, risen again, each time our tale is told
Still here today, a laughing, dancing, love-making testament
against any notion of conquest,
Speaking our truth, singing of those who slipped between the privileged pages of history
Loving new generations into being
New bearers of the flame
That never dies.
The Doctrine of Discovery and Colonial Terrorism: A Dialogue Between Sovereign Women, Weaving Indigenous Truths Across Time and Space.
- Tuesday 30 April, 2019.
- 6:30PM
- ORA Gallery
- 51, 7th Avenue, New York, New York.
- ↗︎ Facebook Event
Like the rings of a tree, the record of our people, our indigenous truth, is carried in the bones of indigenous women, which we bear forth with every birth onto our lands. Our bodies bear the testament of colonial invasion by empires both state and corporate and the stories continue through the bloodlines of indigenous survivors. While settler colonial governments present terrorist atrocities as aberrations, carried out by others – we carry the truth that terrorists atrocities began with the arrival of colonialism and continue everyday in the violent systems upheld by settler colonial governments. In this dialogue between Sovereign Women held amongst Māori and Pacific artworks on the Doctrine of Discovery, Indigenous truths will be woven from the past to the present with a vision to the future and across continents between Māori and Haudenosaunee Nations.
Panelists:
- Betty Lyons (Onondaga, Snipe Clan)
- Beverly Jacobs (Kanienkehaka, Bear Clan)
- Dawn Martin-Hill (Mohawk, Wolf Clan)
- Tina Ngata (Māori, Ngati Porou)
