ElderCrits as a Building Framework for Black‑Indigenous Peoples’ Decolonizing Solidarities

• Published in: Canadian social work review pp. 39 - 66
• Main Authors: Dei, George J. Sefa, Adjei, Paul Banahene
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ottawa Canadian Assn for Social Work Education 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Black people; Black white relations; Colonialism; Culture; Decolonization; Diversity equity & inclusion; Indigenous peoples; Local knowledge; Native North Americans; Racism; Resistance; Slavery; Social behavior; Social cohesion; Social relations; White supremacy; France; Canada; Turtle Island
• ISSN: 0820-909X; 2369-5757
• DOI: 10.7202/1114540ar

This paper explores possible sites for critical anti- and decolonial solidarity-building between the Black communities and the Indigenous Peoples in Canada. We leverage African Elders Critical Teachings ( ElderCrits) as a discursive framework to conceptualize the interdependence required for a decolonizing solidarity work between Black and Indigenous People, and to expose how white supremacy and colonialism are maintained overtly and covertly in everyday social relations to implicate Black and Indigenous Peoples’ lives in Canada. We conceptualize ElderCritsas bodies of knowledge emerging from the shared voices, experiences, history, cultures, and viewpoints of Indigenous Elders of Africa and Turtle Island over generations because of sustained attachments to the land, culture, and nature. ElderCrits are knowledge grounded in an Indigenous person as a subject knower. ElderCrits are bodies of knowledge that are treasured and held in highest esteem by community members, and they often inform, shape, guide, organize, and regulate how community members uphold the promise of a better future. Such knowledges speak of society, nature, and culture interface, and serve as teachings that guide social behavior and action in Indigenous communities. They are appropriately termed the local cultural resource knowledge of Indigenous Elders. We draw on ElderCrits to nurture a decolonizing solidarity between Black Peoples and Indigenous Peoples in Canada to incite a resistance politics that flees and abandons the carceral projects (Harney & Moten, 2013) of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism without leaving out the possibilities of creating new futurities based on inclusive, fair, and equitable relations.