The following statement was issued by organizers of an Idle No More solidarity action at Oxford University earlier today.
Oxford, England
On 28 January 2013, several dozen Oxford residents gathered on the city’s busiest street to express solidarity with IdleNoMore, a grassroots anti-colonial movement led by the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America).
Prior to the demonstration, which was organized by Oxford University students as part of the IdleNoMore Global Day of Action, two activists dropped a banner from the highest public building in Oxford, Carfax Tower.
The banner was on display for all of Oxford to see, reading: “Uphold Crown Treaties; Idle No More”. The point, according to the activists, was to clarify that the British Crown is in many instances the original signatory to treaties with indigenous peoples. T
hus, when the latter protest against treaty violations of various kinds, most recently embodied in the IdleNoMore movement, the Crown is legally obligated to address their concerns and redress any wrongdoing on its part.
Parmbir Gill, a postgraduate History student at Oxford and co-organizer of the demonstration, said, “As residents of Britain whose tax dollars go toward feeding, clothing, and sustaining its monarchy, we are unavoidably bound up in the colonial legacy which produced it and which it continues to propound today.
To concretely oppose this legacy, we must stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples in Canada who are on the front lines of the anti-colonial struggle on Turtle Island. This action in Oxford is one small contribution to that broader cause.”
Passers-by were receptive to the demonstration’s message and enthusiastic about supporting IdleNoMore by writing to their MPs and signing on to global petitions.
“Of course,” added Aylon Cohen, a fellow organizer and postgraduate student in Political Theory, “as the expropriation of indigenous lands was and still is central to the making of Britain and Canada as capitalist nations, it is unlikely for either the Crown or the Canadian government to respect their own commitments.
Given this, we fully support indigenous peoples’ struggle for sovereignty and self-preservation by any means they deem necessary.”
To find out more, visit: http://www.idlenomore.ca
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