Anybody Can Be an Antibody

Last week, we touched on the idea of how money given in solidarity is not charity, but an investment in a better world. But there’s another reason why it’s not charity.

To provide donors with tax-deductible receipts, charities have to be politically neutral, and so often the work done to support Indigenous communities is not (it’s unavoidable when the root cause of Indigenous suffering is the settler colonial government). This means true mutual aid that seeks to address systemic injustice can’t qualify as charity and solidarity that resists the oppression and assimilation of Indigenous people and fights for a just reconciliation (which includes, say it with me, land back) is considered political. 

Politicizing a people’s struggle to survive is deeply sinister. The more you consider what falls outside of a tax-deductible donation, the more it feels like the government incentivizes donations to bodies that don’t criticize it or question its existence. Because why would the government offer tax breaks to those who repudiate it? 

It’s all in service of maintaining the malignant status quo—one that stands as a painful reminder that colonialism (and by extension, capitalism) is alive and making us unwell. The Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon, called it “a disease that distorts human relations and renders everyone within it sick.” And in the words of Diné activist, Klee Benally: “colonialism is a plague” that relies on “the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual invasion of our lands, bodies, and minds to settle and exploit.” 

Benally’s diagnosis is not without prescription though. When it comes to defeating this plague, he asserts that “we are the antibodies.” It’s a powerful metaphor, but who is this “we?” Since colonialism is bad for everyone (cough cough—climate collapse, for one), it’s all of us. Whoever fights against the crush of Indigenous dispossession and assimilation, whoever works to protect, preserve, and reclaim Indigenous land and ancient Indigenous knowledge, and whoever rallies for the dismantling of the very system that depends and thrives on Indigenous extinguishment. Anybody can be an antibody and each of us has the power to speak truth to power. 

That’s why Nii’kinaaganaa chose to be a non-profit, mutual aid foundation—to remove barriers and have the widest possible latitude in the organizers we support and the ways they choose to fight this plague. And while not a panacea, the work your money supports mitigates the oppression of colonialism and empowers its beneficiaries to stand with us against that same system. And with that, here are two more of our organizers who embody what it means to be an antibody. 

Rachel Ann Snow is an educator, speaker, writer, and co-contact person for the Indigenous Activist Networks. She is Iyârhé Nakoda and currently lives on her ancestral lands in Mini Thni, west of Calgary, Alberta. As an Indigenous legal scholar who holds a Juris Doctor from the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan, Rachel is versed in the original laws of her people. She is also the daughter of the late Reverend Dr. Chief John Snow, who helped write the Red Paper response to Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 White Paper. Watching her father fight to retain the original teachings handed down by their ancestors inspired Rachel to continue his legacy. Much of her work focuses on educating people on Indigenous issues impacting reserve communities in Western Canada, breaking down complex legal issues, and analyzing ongoing policies and legislation that affect her people. Reflecting on the need for this kind of work, Rachel has said:

The advent of the Indian Act and the destruction of our traditional governance systems has desecrated our communities. Because of the many traumas that have hampered and continue to derail the original peoples, we have forgotten the original laws that the Creator gave us, including our responsibilities to the land, waters, plants, animals, and in general Mother Earth, or Ina Makotche. 

Thanks to your support, Rachel recently completed a two-month, two-province speaking tour entitled “Beyond Cows and Plows – The Big Picture: Understanding the Treaty Right to Agriculture.” The goal was to explain the agricultural benefits portion of the numbered treaties and warn First Nations about how government settlements seeking to compensate them for benefits that were promised but never delivered on would erase their treaty rights for good. Rachel has also said this kind of advocacy work is new and that makes your support all the more appreciated as she continues to champion, preserve, and practice the original laws, customs, and traditions that allow First Nations people to restore and keep the balance between human beings and all life.

Courtney Skye is a Research Fellow at the Yellowhead Institute, policy analyst, and writer. She is Mohawk, Turtle Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and is also co-director of Protect the Tract: a public education campaign that advocates for a moratorium on development along the Haldimand Tract. Much of her work focuses on Indigenous cultural support, language reclamation, and reimagining traditional approaches to policy development to meet the diverse realities of Indigenous communities by championing their rights and jurisdictions.

Protect the Tract is a great example of a colonialism antibody. It aims to defend the Haudenosaunee people’s right to self-determination and sovereignty in their traditional territories and stop unwanted development to establish meaningful nation-to-nation relationships, achieve reconciliation, and protect their lands for future generations of Haudenosaunee children. Of this kind of work, Courtney has said: “I am a colonized person who must act if my people are to survive—I must resist colonialism. As a Haudenosaunee woman, it is my responsibility to steward our lands and ways of being so that our coming generations will be able to enjoy them.” 

Recently, with the help of your financial support, Courtney was able to put on a moccasin-making workshop for over 20 people ahead of major Longhouse ceremonies the moccasins (an important expression of identity) could then be worn to. 

It’s cultural support projects like this and education initiatives like Beyond Cows and Plows that fortify Indigenous peoples’ connection to their ancestral lands and arm them with their own identities as the twin-plagues of colonialism and capitalism continue to plunder their birthright as the original peoples of the land. To quote Courtney once more: “I am grateful to understand the importance of what we are fighting for. While we have been pushed around on our lands since contact, we have, for the most part, remained in the same lands. Through generations of resistance to displacement, we continue to live on the clay we are made of.” 

Anybody can be an antibody—and fighting for the well-being of those most qualified to restore balance and harmony to the world is worth more than any tax deduction. 

Thanks for reading and supporting,
The Nii’kinaaganaa Team

“Elite solutions to poverty are always about managing poor people and never about redistributing wealth.”
- Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis