Nine days after the People vs Fossil Fuels event in Washington DC, many water protectors have returned to their alternate lives but not to any delusions of safety.
“Many water protectors” meaning, specifically, the privileged water protectors whose livelihoods, homes, and communities lie in an outer ring of Line 3’s timeline of vast destruction rather than an inner ring.
Water protectors existing on the inner rings of the timeline are those who depend on manoomin, or wild rice, and whose beds are dying off because the water bodies were drained down by Enbridge for their disastrous Line 3 project. The steady die-off of elk, deer, walleye, and the rest of the ecosystem chain due to Enbridge’s water extraction is another direct effect of the treaty rights violation that the corporation and Minnesota government manifested together. The treaties between the US government and indigenous tribes exist to protect indigenous peoples’ rights to hunt and fish, but Canadian oil money changed hands with Minnesota politicians and now there is no protection, no upholding of the treaties. And these particular water protectors have no option of an alternate life.
Those who do have this option - or rather, feel forced into this “other” life - are readjusting to the shock. Instead of collaborating with ten or thirty or a hundred other water protectors all day (and night?) long creating art pieces; solving logistics problems (lost phones are common for a variety of reasons); preparing and eating group meals; and engaging in ceremony; these “normal” lives involve handling fiat all day for a so-called boss who stands on the rungs of the oil money ladder; returning to a household of two or three people (or an empty house); solving a dinner equation; and otherwise filling the void of time that stretches ambiguously ahead.
(We never said this newsletter’s tone would be impartial.)
Nearly all of these water protectors cannot turn off the revolution even though we are forced to reside in this other, colonized, life. There is no downtime for colonization and other forced power dynamics, therefore there is no downtime for revolution.
One water protector in Milwaukee continues the work making and posting revolutionary memes to social media. Another water protector returns to making prints and buttons for the movement. Another is visiting children in Arkansas before re-engaging with the revolution at a protest for Ahmaud Arbery. Yet another water protector returns to waiting tables and caring for a teenager and cats and planning for the next event. Another water protector is scattering to Austin to plan and execute a banner drop with a fellow anarchist before scouting for artist-activists at a van-life event.
All of the water protectors polled via text express feelings of anxiety around being apart from other water protectors. Back in colonized spaces, we exist with our “radical” ideas that water is life and should be preserved in their naturally-occurring bodies so that all life may thrive on it. “Radical” ideas such as indigenous lives matter, and “radical” ideas like, systemic-racism-created-by-oil-money-is-morally-reprehensible.
What connects us all across Turtle Island/The US and abroad (besides the countless daily texts) is these radical ideas. We understand that societies exist as intersections of power structures based on race, class, gender, religion, and ability, and these hierarchies exist to funnel fiat upward, making the rich richer at all costs. The manoomin beds are not being destroyed accidentally, just like the buffalo were not killed off accidentally. The systems are working as intended, but feel utterly broken for anyone who experiences empathy or values authenticity, love, or human connection.
This togetherness of thought feels bittersweet, not celebratory - each of us is in pain, but at least we are in pain together.
Love this
Raw & on point 💯