Please post & circulate.
Women’s Nomination Belt authorizes the women to nominate and
guide the male members of their clans and the Rotinoshonni Confederacy
MNN. Mar. 22, 2024. Time for “rematriation.” First of all, wampum belts are not agreements. They are broken promises. These are not “collections”. They are stolen objects. The images displayed at the McCord Museum of McGill University are meant to remind us of what the invaders had agreed to do in order to stay on our land, which they did not do. 0ur agreements are still on our minds. We are honest, practical and just have to think about them to remember their essence. Together our honesty will bring back our words and thoughts. Wampums encapsulate our principles. https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/exhibitions/wampum-beads-diplomacy/
Cadwallader Colden, a writer in the American colonies in the mid 1700s, said about wampum: “Wampum is a system of memory and recall far more advanced than anything we have ever seen in Europe”. The fraudsters stole the wampum thinking it was money and now have it on display at McGill, telling utter lies about wampum. We wonder how much money McGill paid for the stolen wampum. They can never take away our memory. Our message will never be diminished.
An elder from eastern turtle island said the wampum between his people and the Vatican were the “Keys to heaven! Canada is a Christian country”. This is not possible as only we indigenous people belong to the land and no one else. The foreigners said that, “Someone higher than us has to settle our differences”. We are always ready to settle up with the colonialists. ‘They throw the French language in our Faces so we don’t understand what they are saying. The elder’s people agreed to let the church build missions in five of their communities. He said, “Miraculously, we agreed!”.
The women made the belts because they have the duty of peace. They appoint the male leaders. McGill interprets that the straight line in the middle of the wampum was the rule to govern! This is contrary to our sovereignty. If colonial settlers think they have any power, they better watch out for the massive truths that will soon be rolling out and the kaianerekowa, the great peace, will apply. Ready or not, here we come!
The meanings of the wampum were not part of the display. When we get them back we will read them properly and debunk the false narrative of our opponents. We have no judges as we are mainly concerned about whether we are violating our earth mother and the sun that helps her give us life.
Canada says they want a new relationship with us so they can figure out how to break them just like before. These belts at McGill are mostly agreements between church and state while keeping us as bystanders. They broke every promise they ever made to us. All belts have to be traced to the source people who made them, otherwise they are clearly stolen. They bought them off a thief. Now McGill is taking care of stolen goods, including our lands and resources, plus the meanings. They should immediately hand over the booty to us right now. The beading displayed can be interpreted to mean anything they want. To many settler colonialists all over the world our wampum were valuable objects of fashion by people they killed off and use as symbols of status. They were taken right off the dead bodies of those they murdered throughout turtle island and then sold them. They wanted to have a souvenir to hang on their wall to remind them of murdering us. They did not lift a finger to stop the slaughter so they can have this.
The Mohawk Mothers have offered to meet with the McCord Museum, which is on kanienkehaka Mohawk land, to discuss the return of indigenous property at 11.00 am. on April 1, 2024.
The problem is that McGill curators make up meanings such as “the white shells are eating the purple shells! White beads win over war or death!” Most of the thousands of wampums on display have no descriptions. The criminals say they cannot be returned to us because they don’t know who they stole them from. The thieves do not get to keep theml Give us all our property right now. They admit they stole them. McGill, return all the wampum to the MohawkMohers of Kahnawake and they will find the original owners. McGill needs to explain why there is no depth analysis for each belt. Why is information being deliberately left out. The belts look lonely and misunderstood like they want to come home.
Notably, in an alcove at the museum are displayed with great honor paintings of the Sisters of Providence who were in charge of the “Pig Sty Cemetary” where thousands of non-native and native children who were kidnapped by them, many at birth, taken to St. Jeanne de Dieu Hospital to be mistreated, sold, sent to McGill ‘s Allan Memorial Institute to be experimented upon. They either died or were sent back to the nuns, who disposed of them by chopping them up and making the other children feed their remains to the pigs. A nun told the story to an inquiry.
The only depiction in the exhibit of indigenous is showing three men sprawled around their tent dead drunk. But they did not have any of the drunken white men brawling on the streets of Montreal. This is McGill cheap shot to portray a deplorable image they have always tried to reinforce as their stereotype of us.
McGill ignores the Longhouse people and natural kanienkehaka who are the majority of the indigenous people. Government of Canada want band councils to interpret for them, who have no authority to speak for us. Only original people have that knowledge. Band members are a creation of Canada. These traitors have forfeited their birthrights when they went into the Canadian system, who have a huge bias against us. We will never ever say anything good about Canada, the church, the band councils and all the institutions responsible for benefitting from the genocide.
Everyone has their own way of talking. Like Robbie Robertson said, we all got a song: God gave us each a song.Thats how we know who we are. Everyone has a song. We have come. Beat the drum. The land trembles with dancing. We have come. Bang the drum. Making a noise in this world. Making a noise in this world. You can bet your ass. It won’t go quietly. Making a noise in this world. I don’t want your promise. i don’t want your whisky. I don’t want your blood on my hands. I want only what belongs to me. I think you thought I was gone. i think you thought I was dead. You won’t admit it that you was wrong. Ain’t there some shit that should have been said. Making a noise in this world. Making a noise in this world.
“Making A Noise In This World”_500 Nations United_Robbie Robertson
Symposium – Around the wampums: stories and perspectives – Day 1
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