Black Lives Matter: ICA Statement of Solidarity and Support
With deep respect and love, Indigenous Climate Action stands in solidarity with the global Black Lives Matter and Black Liberation movements, along with all of our Black and Indigenous relatives advocating to uplift Black voices, people, and rights. The liberation of our Black and brown relatives revolutionizes our collective efforts for sovereignty and self-determination. Our efforts to end centuries of white supremacy and colonization require us to work together, and in this moment we must support the lead and direction of our Black relatives.
Over the past week, hundreds of thousands of people across Turtle Island and beyond have risen up in response to the murder of George Floyd and the continued criminalization and murder of Black people.
We condemn police violence in all its forms and honour the lives and memories of Black victims of police violence everywhere, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Tony McDade, David McAtee, and innumerable others. The current police and state response characterized by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor as a “national police riot” represents an intensification of police terror and surveillance. Violence against Black people, which is inherent in policing, must end now.
We must recognize that anti-Blackness is at the root of police and state violence against Black lives, including Black-Indigenous lives. While we have our own experiences of police and state violence we must not overlook Indigenous complicity in the perpetuation of anti-Blackness. We hope that our non-Black Indigenous relatives understand that by supporting, uplifting, and standing in solidarity with Black people who lead this moment, is both morally necessary and strengthens our ability to challenge oppressive systems together. Our Indigenous cultures are rooted in forms of reciprocity and for decades we have witnessed our Black relatives stand with us on the frontlines; now we must reciprocate and stand with them.
We understand that the struggles of Black, Indigenous, migrant, poor, and all other oppressed people – each exacerbated by the present pandemic and economic and ecological crises – are fundamentally connected. These are life-affirming struggles against colonial and capitalist systems of hierarchy and domination.
We stand with all those who wish to build a world without police, prisons, and borders, and who are working to abolish institutions and systems whose origins lie in the ongoing theft of land, life, and freedom. The extractivist status quo that inflicts violence against lands and people must end. We call to expand Indigenous solidarity for Black liberation and self-determination.
In kinship and solidarity, we support the demands of Black Lives Matter to defund the police, transfer state resources to communities, and end state violence against Black people in all its forms.
Follow the lead of Movement for Black Lives and donate to the growing bail funds and/or your local Black Lives Matter group.
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