ONLINE CURRENTS VOL3 - Flipbook - Page 27
the term ‘primitive’. Although they purport to house knowledge for the common good, their
actual purpose is to underscore that parallel knowledge structures exist as nothing more
than offshoots to the victorious paradigm of western knowledge. That it has all led to this.
Little accident then that COPs and the like happen in Paris, Madrid, Glasgow, and when they
happen in non-western cities like Lima or Marrakech, they still occur in spaces which are
largely in thrall to the promise of urbanity and the modern narrative of economic
development. They happen in the ‘important’ places, the centers of things, citing aspects
such as infrastructure and access for justification of location choice, whereas what is really
meant is access for those with mobility. An Amazonian elder has to struggle to get anywhere.
For him or her, getting to London or Paris is no next level of difficulty than getting to Rio.
Anything outside of the Amazon is a long, long way away.
Fundamentally centralized access is only easier for those who already exist in a world with
global access, and this comes hand in glove with a (deeply flawed) belief that the same
modern world which gives them this access and allows them to exist as they do is also the
one best placed to provide essential global solutions.
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.9
Because colonial violence is not simply historical and faced at the hand of an axe. It is
current and it is insidious, and exists around seemingly innocent things like choices of
location, as well as transport, employment, language, access, policy. As Pamela Palmater,
Mi’kmaq lawyer, professor, activist, and politician, has said, the importance of studying the
history of genocide is “because it’s not history. Today’s racist government laws, policies and
actions have proven to be just as deadly for indigenous peoples as the genocidal acts of the
past.” 10
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