Indigenous activists' flyer for abolishing Columbus Day
* Content warning: settler colonialism *
- Label
- Indigenous activists' flyer for abolishing Columbus Day
- Creator
- Unknown; Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group
- Object Type
- Flyers and Handouts
- Description
- *Content warning: This caption includes description of settler colonialism* As the Occupy Wall Street movement grew, it was critiqued by Indigenous people for the ways its framing and language ignored legacies, and ongoing enactments, of colonialism. On September 24th, John Paul Montano, an Anishnaabe writer and teacher of Nishnaabe language, wrote an open letter to Occupy Wall Street addressing these issues, in particular: a lack of recognition that the protest was taking place on Indigenous lands, and that the phrase "99%" was not inclusive of Indigenous experiences. Indigenous activist, and founder of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, Jessica Yee wrote a piece on the now inoperative website Racialicious, arguing that use of the terms "occupy" and "occupier" reinforced settler colonial thinking and were an erasure of Indigenous presence. Shortly after these criticisms were publicized, Indigenous activists, inclusive of community members from the Owe Aku International Justice Project, First Voice Indigenous Radio, and the United Confederation of the Taino People, circulated this flyer calling for solidarity with Indigenous people and abolishing Columbus Day. The groups who created the flyer state that they will "bring their voices to Occupy Wall Street" and call for a meeting at the Southeast corner of Zuccotti Park. The meeting was a part of a broader conversation regarding the tactic of encampment and Indigenous movements’ critiques of Occupy's failure to address settler colonialism within the movement.
- Image Description
- This black and white, typed flyer is for a meeting with Indigenous activists who call for the end of Columbus Day. The flyer features an illustration of Columbus with the no symbol superimposed. Above the illustration are the words "No More Genocide! Abolish Columbus Day." The meeting, titled "Celebrating Genocide in America: Columbus Day and Indigenous People," was held by members of the Indigenous community from Owe Aku International Justice Project, First Voice Indigenous Radio, and the United Confederation of the Taino People. The flyer states to meet in the Southeast corner of Zuccotti on October 10th.
- Citation
- Anti-Columbus Day flyer, 2011; TAM.630 Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group Records; box 36, folder 17; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University
- Collection
- Occupy Working Group TAM.630
- Themes
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- Declarations
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