First, I want to acknowledge the land of
the Tongva and Chumash people that I visited. I also wish to thank the
organizers who put this tour together and a special thanks to Joaquin Cienfuegos
for his hard work, time and dedication to making the tour happen. Another
special thanks to a close brother and sister, Hawk and Centzi, who helped
organize the tour, housed us, coordinated activities, drove us around, showed
us the area and cooked awesome meals for us. They are also a great example of Indigenous
parents who are setting the example by teaching cultural based dance, committing
to ensure the safety and healthy upbringing of their children, maintaining
active lifestyles and avoiding the pressures of joining a gang life, which
starts at such a young age. Their dedication, generosity and hospitality would
make their ancestors proud.
The concept for the Anti-Columbus
Speaking Tour followed the release of the video of the Mi'kmaq warrior tour. Suzanne
Patles and Coady Stevens did a great job of speaking at Cheam Fist Nation, B.C.
(as well as other places along their tour) where I had also presented on the
purpose of the Indigenous warrior. Defining the warrior intrigued several
people and groups who wanted to hear more about it so the tour was created.
The objective of the tour was to raise
the awareness around the definition, purpose, role and responsibilities of a
warrior in the southern California area.
The method used to raise awareness
around warriors and warrior societies was a two pronged approach. The first was
to conduct talks (teachings) about warriors. Each teaching was modified to fit
that particular audience. The teaching would lead to questions, answers and
more discussion.
The second approach was for activists
group seeking skill building activities. These engagements were designed around
warrior skill development after the warrior teachings. It was decided that the
two key skill sets would be survival techniques and knife fighting.
Survival skills need to be interpreted as
Indigenous cultural skills as they are skills that are needed to be out on the
land and to live with the land. These are skills that have been appropriated by
the colonizer and renamed "modern survival skills". It is important
to take these skills back if we truly want to revive our land-based culture.
Knife fighting was the second warrior
skill set taught. In close combat the knife rules. It is more devastating than
a pistol at hand to hand ranges. It is a form of fighting that is all but lost,
so few practice this skill set anymore. That is unfortunate, as the knife is
the most important tool in the bush. It provides us with the ability to
construct shelter, make fire, water filters, fire walls, animal traps, hunting
weapons, etc. as well as provide us with
a powerful means of self defense. Knife fighting skills are taught as
"teachings of the knife". Warrior leaders understand an important
aspect of knife training is it not only empowers us with skills of self defense
but it reveals the character of the practitioner. We follow the saying "I
can see your character in a single stroke." Knife fighting is a character
building tool as it reveals to us that there is a path to self improvement to
be followed. It reveals to us that there is an art form (the Warrior Arts) that
allows us to see our character deficiencies and a way to put your mind in the
right "place" to address this. It reveals that this particular warrior
path to excellence of character is the pursuit of warrior hood.
Key events
The first event was to connect with a
grass roots activists group called the Harmony Keepers. Warrior teachings were
presented with the emphasis on defining the warrior through our histories and
language, as opposed to the misrepresentation of new-age concepts of the
Indigenous warrior.
The exercise of exploring the word for
warrior in our languages from the east coast to the west coast and from the
north to the south of all the Americas reminds us that we have forgotten who we
are. We come from a warrior people with a proud warrior legacy. It points to a
time when we have been disconnected from the role of warrior due to residential
and boarding schools of the colonizer.
I also spoke of how problematic it is
when another group or society defines what it means to be a warrior to us. An
example of this is how the media portrays Indigenous warriors and the labelling
technique that is used to de-legitimize warriors.
Then I spoke of where the role of
warrior comes from and how it relates to our sacred responsibilities.
Following
the warrior teachings we began our warrior skill training. At this event I
taught knife fighting and how it relates to character building for warriors. We
enjoyed the training time so much we extended our engagement for over an hour,
despite our tight timeline.
Introduction
to knife fighting
The next event was gathering with local
activists and pass on warrior skills and teachings. We spoke on the idea of
warrior and what it means then we developed some warrior skills. We focused on
survival skills. An interesting note to this is that Los Angeles, along with
the rest of the south western US, is going through a severe water drought to
the point it is almost a water crisis. Because of this, survival skills are on
the forefront of the minds of many people there. We spent the time working on
fire lighting skills as a method to purify contaminated water then went over
methods of water collection and filtering.
Our next event was to present Warrior
Teachings to a men's circle at the Corazon del Pueblo. The host were very
respectful and accommodating, a testament to their teachings. The turnout was
high. The teaching was well received and the discussion was engaging and
insightful.
The fourth event was an extended class
on knife fighting. We got to go deeper into the concept of Warrior virtues and
the character building technique associated with knife training. We began by talking
about the character brought out and needed in the use of the knife. Then we
started working on individual strikes and angles of attack. I introduced some
of the knife katas to the students. The katas play an important role in
developing knife skills as well as integrating techniques of visualization,
combat breathing, projecting the warrior spirit, focusing the mind,
"placing" the mind in the blade, and finding character weaknesses.
Speaking at San Bernardino Valley
College was the next event. I presented on "De-colonization and Warrior
Societies". This talk was somewhat different than the Warrior Teachings
that I was providing for activists. I spoke of de-colonization and Indigenous
nation-building. Central to the project of Indigenous nation-building is the
re-development of community and national institutions. Normally, when we think
of nation-building we think of the ideas of re-building governance structures
and practices and a lot less of re-building of social institutions that make up
the foundations of that nation. By focusing on institution building that carry
out the functions of that community/nation instead of just merely focusing on
the governance aspect, we are talking about re-building nations from the center
then out to the periphery instead of from the hierarchal approach of building
nations from the top down.
Since
our homelands are occupied by a colonizing force we have to talk about the
importance of re-building legitimate institutions that will address resistance
to colonization and provide political, social, economic, geographic and
spiritual space so our people can re-build our culture and nations. That links
us to the importance of re-building warrior societies as a cultural institution
and a place of resistance to colonization.
Speaking
at San Bernardino Valley College
That night, at the next event, we taught
an "Indigenous Women's Self Defense" class. It was great to pass on
these skill sets. For some time, we in the warrior societies, have been trying
to find a productive way to help our Indigenous sisters who are in constant
threat of sexualized violence. We have spoken at public events on
"Re-defining Masculinities" and "Re-thinking Indigenous
Masculinity" as a way of raising awareness amongst men about the colonial
worldview of patriarchy and misogyny but we wanted to do more practical work.
Putting on an "Indigenous Women's Self Defense" class was the primer
to see how well it would be accepted.
In the class we covered understanding
the nature of the threat to an Indigenous female, situational awareness and
combat mindset. We then got into self defense from the point of view of a
teenage girl who may not have the upper body strength or body weight to do many
conventional martial arts techniques. We taught how to get out of common
"grab" type situations. We then covered the fun portion of the class -
how to get out of restraints and escape an abduction. It was great to see a 13
year old girl learn and demonstrate the skills to be able to get out of being
restrained by zip ties (a common method of restraints for kidnappers) while tied
behind her back.
This is a course still under development but we are working to improve the skills that could help our Indigenous sisters protect themselves better.
This is a course still under development but we are working to improve the skills that could help our Indigenous sisters protect themselves better.
I then presented at U.C.L.A. I presented
the "De-colonization and Warrior Societies" talk but we had more time
so I was able to get further into the idea of warrior development and how we
approach the teachings from the holistic manner.
There are over 300 skill sets we teach in
warrior development but Warrior Teachings are not just about martial arts,
battle skills, weapons training, that is just the physical side to the
teachings. We teach about the four aspects of humans; the physical, mental,
emotional and spiritual. Warrior teachings are used to develop each one of
these aspects in a person. A complete warrior is one who has mastered his/her
battle skills (the physical), has immersed him/herself in studies of Indigenous
nations/culture/language/history and understand colonization as well as how to resist
it (the mental), has attained a high level of self control/maturity/ and
demonstrates good judgement (the emotional) and has exhibits a strong sense of
character and morality associated with spiritual teachings (the spiritual).
The final event in our week long stay
was teaching about leadership to activists. We spent the better portion of the
evening going over the functions of a leader in an activists setting. How this
contrasts with mainstream thinking of leadership which is grounded on
hierarchal approaches to coercive leadership versus the persuasive approach to
leadership that is important to volunteer-based organizations, especially in a
role of resistance. I spoke of the need to set the example, inspire by action,
persuade with word and character, and motivate through noble deeds. I taught about the concepts of "Acts of
honour" and the significance of leaders living their life to a higher
moral standard than others around them.
Overall the tour was a great chance to
speak about Indigenous warriors, warrior societies, Indigenous nation-building,
culture building, cultural security, sacred responsibility, protecting our
homelands, protecting Mother Earth and the next seven generations. The dialogue
and skill development created an experience to facilitate relationships with
key activists groups. It was such a good opportunity to visit old friends and cement
old bonds. During the course of the tour so many new connections and new
friends were made, of which I am grateful.
Many thanks to all who contributed and
organized the tour.
All
my relations,
Sakej
and Family
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