Change will be measured in decades not days. During this semester, many days have felt like weeks and months, but despite this, and in talking to various folks about it there have been many elucidating conversations. As well this semester, I was lucky enough to be accepted into a Gender Studies MA program, that requires me to move across the country. I have had weeks to think about it, and I made my final decision to go through with it. I weighed the pros and cons, the difficulty in moving and adjusting to another province, city, community. This course has helped me understand how the systems that keep knowledge in academia need to be dismantled. Through this deep thought and contemplation one thing was never in doubt, citizenship. I have come to know that one of the greatest privileges of my life has been the fact that I was born in Victoria (Unceded Lekwungen-speaking people’s Territory), to parents who also held citizenship papers. This must be seen as an unearned privilege and not a taken-for-granted fact of life. There are millions of folks who did not have this privilege, and it continues to shape the trajectory of my life, as well as the lives of others. I want to continue the work of decolonizing citizenship, and this starts with acknowledging where you are from, who’s land it is, and how it was taken. As well, the recognition of ongoing efforts to remove collective ownership and legitimacy of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.
Rationale:
In this blog post I wanted to interrogate the privilege of not having to prove where you are from, as well the unearned belonging that is given to folks of the ruling class (white settlers in Canada). This is important to include in the blog post because of the ways that unchecked privilege can wreak havoc in activist and allyship spaces. There must be a consistent pointing out of these structures of citizenship that are built on violence to and erasure of Indigenous folks, and this must be a part of our positionality. This places us is particular places from with our situated and experiential knowledge can be put to greater effect and within it’s context.
Keywords: citizenship, decolonization, allyship
Author: Steven
Thank you for writing this Steven. This is a topic that I have been contending with as someone who considers themselves a queer and trans advocate. How are my experience different as a white settler living on stolen and unceded Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territories? Furthermore, how is the state involved in legitimizing my own position on these lands as a Canadian citizen, which is often constructed in direct opposition to Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, and also given legitimacy and precedence over immigrants and refugees? Indeed, I have been learning to step back and listen more than I speak, because my voice as a white settler and a Canadian citizen is so often prioritized at the expense of others, even i…