What is landback? Told from an Indigenous perspective of the holistic and cultural approach to the heavily debated topic of ‘Landback’.
Anonda Canadien (Dehcho Dene, she/her) // Arts and Culture Editor
Violet Osborne (they/them) // Illustrator
There’s been a lot of speculation on what ‘Landback’ could mean that has been told through the colonial perspective rather than a spiritual perspective rooted in culture. I won’t speak on the opinions of others. I’ll speak on my own behalf, a Dehcho Dene woman who grew up in her homelands, immersed in her culture.
I come from a long line of leaders, healers and medicine people of the Northern Dene of the Subarctic colonial state known as ‘Canada.’ My mom grew up in Tathlina Lake, in the bush just outside of Kakisa, N.T. and my father and I grew up in the small hamlet of 900 people known as Fort Providence, N.T. As with most other Indigenous peoples, assimilation and colonialism impacted us in the far north.
My hometown’s Dene Zhahti name is Zhahti Kue, translating to ‘Mission House’ for the Indian Residential School that stood on the high ground alongside the Mackenzie River. The Mackenzie River is named after Alexander Mackenzie, an explorer that took for granted the welcoming arms of the Dene, the same as all the Indigenous peoples he ‘discovered.’ I guess when the colour of skin is darker than a hair, we’re discoverable.
Too often, land ownership overtakes land stewardship. Non-Indigenous peoples think physically—perhaps like their ancestors—on the meaning of what it is to ‘own’ land. To walk among the same dirt as the generations before me, I feel a sense of responsibility to do my part in taking care of the land. They took the Indigenous peoples from the land, and now they’re taking the land away from the Indigenous peoples. This has been an ongoing epidemic for centuries, dating back to the doctrine declaration of discovery.
They not only took the children. They took our land and so was taken culture, tongues, scalps and identity.
How can someone own land?
Landback, but we don’t want your gas stations. Landback, but we don’t want your government sanctions. Landback, but we don’t want your suburban sprawl.
We want Landback for land stewardships guided by our Indigenous peoples. We’ve been here since time immemorial, we’ve taken care of the land and lived with the land for millenia. This colonial state of mind on ownership is the root cause of everything that is currently happening around the world, with cases like the Trans Mountain Pipeline of B.C. overtaking Indigenous territories, the Standing Rock pipeline, the ongoing femicide in multiple nations, the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians, the actions of overtaking Indigenous rights in New Zealand and Australia and the deportations and illegal actions on immigrants and marginalized peoples in the U.S. The colonial mindset and worldview has been the downfall of society’s moral compass, but—more notably—the world leaders who overtake the ‘democratic’ system.
When we say Landback, we want to be free in roaming our lands without the need for a fishing or hunting license. Historically, these systemic barriers were put in place so that poor Natives on reserves would starve because they didn’t have the right papers or stamps to leave and gather food for their families. We cannot talk about Landback without talking about the histories of Indigenous peoples, the genocide and assimilation, culture and language and Nations struggling for their own freedoms. As they say at the protests and blockades, no person is free until we’re all free. Landback so we can live another century, another seven generations.