Native People from Europe
Native people from Europe need to be seen and noticed. And we need to meet alone together to discharge on our hurts.
There have long been imperialist movements in Europe seeking to colonize and subjugate Indigenous people, their organizations, and their lands, and take their wealth. Some Indigenous countries, groups, and tribes are still under this domination. One of them is my country, the Basque Country.
I was recently at an International women and men leaders’ workshop in the United States. Every morning people from the global majority met before breakfast to discharge. This was a good space for me, in the middle of a workshop with a lot of white people.
However, at some point I needed a different space than the one for people targeted by racism, to be able to discharge on my specific oppression: Native people’s oppression (genocide). I claimed that space at the Western European Pre-World Conference. Every morning we met as European Native people. This made a huge difference for us.
Xabi Odriozola Ezeiza-Arreta
Clan: the Bear Tribe—father’s, Autrigoiak;
mother’s, Karistiarrak and Baskoiak
Lineage: father’s, the fern and strawberry tree;
mother’s, the fir from the rocky ground
Totem: the eagle
Donostia-Gipuzkoa, Basque Country
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion
list for RC Community members