Please join us for an Unsettling Minnesota discussion group this spring! Groups will meet in Minneapolis and St. Paul on a weekly basis beginning in the first week of April.

To register, click here for the exco website.

This course is designed to create community, education, and organized networks for non-Dakota allies to act in solidarity with upcoming Dakota decolonization struggles. We will listen to the desires, demands, knowledge and goals of Dakota community members struggling for liberation and decolonization. We will educate ourselves about Dakota perspectives on “minnesotan” history, de/colonization & liberation, white & settler/colonizer privilege, solidarity politics, and racism, through carefully chosen texts and group discussion. Together, we will build a collective knowledge base that centers decolonization within our ideas of anti-oppression. Dakota traditional knowledge and spirituality will not be shared and this is not a space for non- Dakota people to seek appropriation of Dakota culture or an “in” to spiritual practices. Cultural appropriation will be discussed & confronted as an act of colonization. For white people in the class, acknowledgment, commitment, and vulnerability to confronting white and colonizer privilege, as well as working to transform feelings of guilt into action towards decolonization will be crucial and necessary personal work required. The end goal is to create active ally solidarity networks that can be mobilized when need be — in answer to Dakota calls for solidarity from non-Dakota folks, based on direct communication with and knowledge of Dakota desires. Class members will be asked to act not as individuals, but as members of their own communities—to act within their networks to further spread knowledge and mobilize solidarity.

If you have scheduling conflicts that don’t enable your participation, you can email unsettlingmn@gmail.com to be added to a listserve that will update allies in and out of the course about educational events, actions, or other relevant info. We also hope to pull the syllabus, readings, discussion questions, and lesson plans into a packet/zine that will be available to those in and out of the class, so those who can’t be present can still be involved. thanks!

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Upcoming Dates

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Deadline for summer class applications
May 14 2010 (All day)
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Summer class list posted online
May 26 2010 (All day)
*
Summer Classes Begin
Jun 21 2010 (All day)

EXCO calendar
Unsettling Ourselves: A Discussion Group (in St. Paul!) Facilitated by Unsettling Minnesota

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Unsettling Ourselves: A Discussion Group (in St. Paul!) Facilitated by Unsettling Minnesota
eric’s picture

* April
* Scheduled
* Spring 10
* St. Paul
* Politics & Organizing

Join Unsettling Minnesota for Unsettling Ourselves: A Discussion Group

Unsettling Minnesota is a collective of non-Dakota people working
in solidarity towards decolonization in Dakota homelands, find out more about
Unsettilng Minnesota at UnsettlingMinnesota.org.

This course is designed to create community, education, and organized
networks for non-Dakota allies to act in solidarity with upcoming Dakota
decolonization struggles. We will listen to the desires, demands, knowledge
and goals of Dakota community members struggling for liberation and
decolonization. We will educate ourselves about Dakota perspectives on
“minnesotan” history, de/colonization & liberation, white &
settler/colonizer privilege, solidarity politics, and racism, through
carefully chosen texts and group discussion.

Together, we will build a collective knowledge base that centers
decolonization within our ideas of anti-oppression.

Dakota traditional knowledge and spirituality will not be
shared and this is not a space for non- Dakota people to seek appropriation
of Dakota culture or an “in” to spiritual practices. Cultural appropriation
will be discussed & confronted as an act of colonization. For white people
in the class, acknowledgment, commitment, and vulnerability to confronting
white & colonizer privilege, as well as working to transform feelings of
guilt into action towards decolonization will be crucial and necessary
personal work required. The end goal is to create active ally solidarity
networks that can be mobilized when need be — in answer to Dakota calls for
solidarity from non-Dakota folks, based on direct communication with and
knowledge of Dakota desires. Class members will be asked to act not as
individuals, but as members of their own communities—to act within their
networks to further spread knowledge and mobilize solidarity.

If you have scheduling conflicts that don’t enable your participation, you
can email the addresses below and request to be added to a listserve that will update
you about educational events, actions, or other relevant info. For interested people
who can’t be present but want to stay current with readings, etc. feel free to e-mail
us and let us know of your interest.

Hope to see you in St. Paul in April!

Objectives of this discussion group:

* Read, reflect, talk, listen and learn more about this land we occupy,
and its original peoples

* Re-examine our relationships to ourselves, each other and this land

* Explore together the political possibility of decolonization, and the
personal possibility of unlearning our colonizer mentalities

* Educate other settlers about the ongoing effects of colonization,
hetero-patriarchy, and the intersections between multiple oppressions

* Build a base of settlers doing tangible local solidarity work with
decolonization-oriented Dakota-led struggles

* Grow the capacity of Unsettling Minnesota to do this work

* Reproduce a structure that will not only motivate and educate the
participants, but build deeper lasting relationships