Reconciliation is Dead, Revolution is Alive and Reparations are in Order

After listening to all of the stories from various indigenous groups around the world, the statement that stood out to me the most was from a group of indigenous women who said that "Canada is a corporation not a country". That statement sums up pretty well how our social systems (governments, businesses, industries, etc.) have developed their relationship with nature and how it affects BIPOC communities in alarmingly disproportionate ways. I strongly believe that the caretakers of the land, those who have been here for generations, those who continue to cultivate it, and those who take responsibility for making sure it sustains future generations, should have a say in how and what the land is used for.

I envision a world where those with higher political and socio-economic power actively involve BIPOC communities in the management of the land that they take care of and occupy. These are the communities that know the area best and implementing community-based approaches to policy-making and industrial plans should be mandatory. Rather than further driving the inequity where one group continuously drains the natural resources and the other group is left with the consequences, the system should focus on ways to co-exist and preserve the land. At this point, the injustices have exceeded the point of reconciling with value and not hollow attempts at "fixing" things, so concrete reparations should be in order. Including providing greater funds for communities to have clean water, remove toxins in their lakes, provide clean and sustainable energy sources to power their homes, and reduce the impacts of environmental racism these systems purposefully inforced.