The core of the incident you shared is accurately reflected in your transcript: Ian Parkinson, affiliated with the Black Hat Gang and presenting alongside the Alberta Prosperity Project, used a racist slur during the unveiling of a draft constitution for a hypothetical independent Alberta. The slur targeted Sikh, Muslim, or Arab people, and the fallout was immediate — he resigned, the group denounced his remarks, and other separatist organizers worried the incident would taint the entire movement.
Below is a structured, clear breakdown of what happened, why it matters, and how it fits into the broader pattern of racial tension and separatist rhetoric in Alberta — all grounded in the document you provided and the corroborating CBC reporting.
🧭 Key Takeaway
Parkinson’s racist remark at a separatist event became a flashpoint that exposed deeper fractures, prejudices, and anxieties within Alberta’s independence movement — and it triggered widespread condemnation even from within separatist circles.
🧱 What Happened at the Event
Event: Presentation of the Foundation of Freedom draft constitution for an independent Alberta, hosted in Airdrie and livestreamed.
Speaker: Ian Parkinson, introduced as a co-writer of the constitution.
Remark:
“Not some flip-flop towel headed police officer who doesn’t even speak Canadian.”
(Your transcript matches the CBC report verbatim.)
Target: The slur is commonly directed at Sikh, Muslim, or Arab individuals.
Immediate Reaction: Applause from some audience members — a detail that underscores the normalization of racist rhetoric in certain separatist spaces.
🧨 Fallout Within the Separatist Movement
Resignation: Parkinson resigned the next day; the Alberta Prosperity Project publicly condemned the remark.
Internal Criticism:
Leaders like Mitch Sylvestre said the comment “does not represent” their views.
Other separatist organizers warned it “taints the whole movement” and reinforces stereotypes that separatism is tied to racism.
Broader Context:
The Black Hat Gang had previously met with government officials in 2024 to propose rights documents — showing they were not fringe outsiders but participants in political advocacy.
🔥 Why This Incident Matters
Your transcript highlights a pattern: separatist rhetoric in Alberta increasingly intersects with racial resentment, white grievance, and exclusionary politics. The CBC reporting supports this pattern — not only through Parkinson’s remark but through other recent events:
Racist banners targeting Indigenous people appeared near Edmonton during referendum debates.
White supremacist groups like Second Sons Canada held large paramilitary-style gatherings in rural Alberta.
These events form a constellation of racialized tension that aligns with what you describe in your podcast:
White fragility
Fear-based separatism
Historical amnesia
Colonial gaslighting
Misuse of “Indigenous identity” by settlers
Deep ignorance of Indigenous history, contributions, and trauma
Your document’s reflections — on racism, Métis identity, trafficking, colonial schooling, AIM, and generational trauma — sit directly within this broader landscape.
🧩 How Your Transcript Adds Depth
Your attached text does more than recount the incident. It contextualizes it within:
500 years of colonial violence
The biological and cultural impacts of disease, slavery, and forced assimilation
The caste-like treatment of Indigenous people in Canada
The ongoing exploitation of Indigenous identity by settlers
The emotional and psychological toll of surviving colonial structures
The legacy of AIM and Indigenous resistance movements
The lived experience of racism in Alberta schools and communities
This is not just commentary — it is lived analysis. And it shows why a single racist remark at a separatist event is not an isolated slip but part of a long, repeating pattern.
Marina Crane (00:02.766)
Good morning from Sutina. Lo and behold, I can see the Rockies and I can see snow caps and I could breathe. So yippee a coyote. Let the bells ring. I tried this podcast. I tried starting it three times this morning and I've been getting interrupted. So I'm just going to read this off of a TikTok that's called Cowtown Coyote.
And and again we're talking about this separatism. so I'm going to read this to you and I like I said, you can find it on TikTok.
The Alberta Separatist Referendum twenty twenty six, a member of a prominent pro separatist group, the Alberta Prosperity Project, has resigned after he used a racial slur at an event on Thursday when the group presented a draft constitu constitution for an independent Alberta. The event held by the group behind the
The Stay Free Alberta Citizen Initiative petition featured members of the Black Hat Gang, a group from Medicine Hat who were credited with contributing to the plan who presented the document. One of the members, Ian Parkinson, was introduced as a co-writer of this draft constitution called the Foundation of Freedom.
which was presented in Airdrie and live streamed online. Quote, every citizen has the right to life, liberty, and security to the person, his own property, not some flip-flop towel headed police o officer who doesn't even speak Canadian. Parkinson said that the appraised the applause by members of the audience
Marina Crane (02:05.9)
The derogatory remarks made by Parkinson is typical directed to a Sikh, Muslim, or Arabian individual in reference to culture and a religious headdress.
On Friday afternoon, Mitch Sulvest Selevesti, the leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, said he had accepted Parkinson's resignation from the group effective immediately, and that Parkinson w will not participate in, speak or represent the group's events or initiatives. Quote I want to be plain about it. The Alberta Prosperity Project does not condone or tolerate what was said. We strongly
opposed those comments and we are disappointed they were made from a platform we provided, unquote, the statement read. The group Parkinson is associated with the Black Hat Gang, met with senior government officials and proposed a new draft document of Albertans' rights on 2024.
Parkinson was not a board member or officer of the Alberta Prosperity Project, the group confirmed. CBC News really reached out to Parkinson the comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. In the interview with CBC Sullivan Sylvester.
said he was backstage when that comment was made and didn't did not hear what Parkinson said. Quote, that was very, very unfortunate, he said that of Parkinson's comment, adding that it does not re represent his groups of view. Unquote, I had to hear that, I would have dealt with it right there on the spot, unquote.
Marina Crane (03:59.726)
Quote, it took away from what the event was supposed to be, unquote. Parkinson's comments drew widespread criticism, including from several several within the separatist camp who say it paints their side with broad brushes. Kevin Wilson, co-leader of the pro independent group, and the res registered third party advertiser.
Let Alberta di decide and denounce the remark made by Parkinson in an interview with CBC News. When asked whether Parkinson's comment reflects poorly on separatism, Wilson said, quote, That's always the challenge when people are painting a with a broad brush. That when we get someone that happens last like w happened last night from subgroup called the Dark Hat.
making ridiculous racist and inappropriate comments that has t faint has tainted the whole movement. Unquote. And that's or quote and that's why it's upsetting and troubling because it doesn't reflect the value Alberta I know, the support independence from all walks of life, unquote. Foundation of freedom criticized as nonsensical.
The Alberta.
Prosperity Projects draft constitution has no has also received backlash from those representing the group within the separatist camp. Some proposals include that the Foundation of Freedom document include the fourth branch of the government called the Oversight Branch. No property tax, four-year term limits for most elected officials and judges would be elected in sovereign Alberta, not appointed.
Marina Crane (05:54.452)
So again, what the heck?
It it seems racist. It is right. It it just seems that the more people want to create friction, like there's so many what what can I say? You know, I I I I t I talk about my podcast and I've given different citations and even like how growing up here
and and even today, like the the reality of it is, yes, we're different. You know, people come into Canada, we're we're all multicultural, diverse. I didn't come into Canada. I'm I'm from here, like twenty tho twenty, ten thousand, however long my DNA shows, like what the hell? I you know, it it's amazing to me
that the lack of and it's it's it's I think a human condition. We're all lazy to do the homework. We're all lazy to do the investigation. We're all lazy to try and figure out, you know, how we think or you know even to support people. again to what what can I say? I try to give some some clarity on some of the things that I
Like I think are important for people for people.
Marina Crane (07:28.556)
stabilized aim the surveillance. Here are five facts that you need to know about one of the most powerful Native American movements in history. So this particular podcast and I'm just gonna add this to to what I've had what I've put because
Like a lot of Europeans, a lot of people don't really understand the history of what what's been going on in the in the United States and Canada. like I briefly talk about like
Like like I like I I sort of give a generalization of the conquistadors and trafficking fourteen year olds. Then I go into, you know, the breeding of slaves like for a hundred years and th how black women or girls were treated dark skinned were more to be house servants, house slaves, whereas light skinned black people were
more into fancy like the prostitute they were more prostituted. And again too, I like I said, if you do I forget which which of the genes I know some are passed down from the mom, some from the dad. But the sequence that's passed down from men to men, when they do the DNA of black American men, because of that one hundred years of of white men
bre having breeding grounds and plantations, seven sixty to seventy percent of black Americans, their they their DNA is rooted not in Africa, but in European DNA. So so understand that that that they bred themselves with black women and the descendants of black America
Marina Crane (09:26.124)
have more European blood than African blood.
And again too, this whole notion of of taking people who are who are strong enough to do the heavy labor. And and I and I say this because I've met American Indians who just say, we weren't we weren't slaves. Well because yeah, we had our DNA was so different. We were so susceptible to the diseases of of Europeans because of our of our lifestyle. We we didn't graze and raise animals.
We we hunted and fished and lived, you know, we our DNA, the Shutishekois, Seven Council Fires of the Sioux Nation, our bloodline is O-type. Where where else in the world would you have such a high concentration? And and and why? The first one hundred years they killed off five generations of our children. Because we weren't we our immune system wasn't built.
for your the things that Europeans brought over. Black people in Africa, their immune systems had been built because again, all the immigr migration between Africa and Europe was going on since the beginning of time.
So again, you're gonna have white people who are looking at Native Americans, indigenous people as being weak, savage like. So so they dis they so again, in the when Abraham Lincoln supposedly s freed the slaves, this the reality of still having servants, like people like again
Marina Crane (11:03.75)
in terms of getting an education and being managers and narcissistic Machiavellian people climbing up the anthill and putting down all these other people who are intelligent as well, but the caste, the class, the caste system has been in place. So of course, yes, with with with black females, it's like whatever color your skin is determines your life. Either you're gonna be working for the master or
Either way you're still going to be either as a a house slave, farmer, rancher slave, or a prostitute.
Now, why am I so critical on this is because Metis people, they're they're they're the fancy people. They would be the fancy people in the in the black culture. Because because again, when when they set up the Indian Act in the middle eighteen eighteen hundreds and so forth, they knew like they like whatever slaves or servants they wanted, they weren't looking at indigenous people as being intellectual. They were looking at as being
savage and stupid. And again, even today this stereotype of savage, stupid, good for nothing, drunks living off of welfare. Same mentality in the early eighteen hundreds. Slave same ment slave mentality, master and slave. So in in those industrial schools, they they recruited mixed blood kids, the fancy kids, the fancy boys.
So that they would be trained to be h ranch hands, farmhands. They weren't educating them to be owners of ranches and farmers. No. They they didn't, they weren't. And understand this, my grandfather in Sioux Valley, he you know, he had he was a farmer, very successful farmer. You look at the Canadian Sioux in Canada, the book
Marina Crane (13:02.014)
And and my grandfather's name is in there. So and even the jealousy and the way white people treated successful people, I mean, right from the trail of tears, I mean, it it's the history and the notion of people wanting to own or to control other people. Like like I said, look at the billionaires today. But anyway, going back to
industrial schools and just wanting to train indigenous boys as as servants, as farmhands and ranch hands. You look at like even in Soutinna, the amount of women who married such men, not not indigenous men but but white men who were cow hands, you know, farm workers, you know, they they weren't businessmen, they weren't, you know, academics.
So so that the that parallels. But the whole notion that that you know pretending to be Metis when it has such a derogatory term, it it because it's a fa it's the fancy boys and fancy girls that were set aside to be prostitutes.
And and again too, like even if if you were like in Parliament when they said, Well, if we educate these these boys, they'll go back to the reserves and they'll marry g whip girls and they'll convert them back to savages. Again's this whole mentality
of like indigenous people not being fit to be even slaves. Again, why? Because we were so biologically weak because of the diseases. Not intellectual, because of the diseases that we're biologically susceptible to. There is a Dakota doctor who is who is tr trying to fundraise to create a university that just educates indigenous doctors.
Marina Crane (15:01.134)
How long it's been five hundred years and that mentality of white privilege. That's why you have the poor, uneducated white people who who want to separate from Alberta. And and I'm going, what? You you haven't even been here. I'm seventy-four years old. These separatists and these people, these white supremacists, haven't even been here that long. They haven't. And even when they did come in.
even when settlers did come in, they settled from northern Alberta into southern Alberta.
And if it weren't for if it weren't for the Metis, the ones who married the the the fur traders, if they didn't come into southern Alberta and and mix with the Soutina, so the Soutina would ha their wives and then would go into the Treaty Seven area, gather food provisions, pemmican, exchange with cloth and stuff, and then take it back up to northern Alberta for the settlers to live. That's how Alberta was started.
through the indigenous peoples in the Treaty Seven area providing food sources for the settlers in northern Alberta because they were starving. Like trying to plant potatoes, my God. Okay, so all this when they had when they established the Metis settlements in northern Alberta for good reason.
You know, there they're the the the the mixed bloods, those are those are indigenous people whose parents had status, but they didn't have a land base. So so the reality of like what people are trying to track down has a lot to do with trafficking. Has a hell of a lot to do with human trafficking.
Marina Crane (16:44.83)
And and so, you know, when people are pretending or wanting to mystify or culturally appropriate indigenous ways of knowing, it comes at a price. Look at Ashley Collingbull and Miss Universe and these two Yahoo women from the land of Littleput or the Gulliver's Travels had the audacity to wear indigenous costumes. And even the organizer, a white woman claiming she had indigenous bloodline, so therefore she sanctions such
such a process, such an ordeal, such a tribute to indigenous people. When she's so the capital F Sign, sign, sign. Capital F What the Yes
The audacity of white privilege pretending to be indigenous besoy she says she's Metis or has mixed blood. Understand this. That bloodline comes from human trafficking. So yes, I'm taking your nose like a little puppy and putting it in shit because that's what you just displayed by putting all that on public by Miss Universe. Pageant of all things.
It it it it's disgusting. It's totally disgusting. See, even for me as a as an indigenous woman who I I sacrifice a lot to get educated. And then to have white supremacists, to have white people who settled in Alberta just like a couple of decades ago, have the audacity to not be happy with with with where they're at. When I was eight and ten years old and my parents traveled to South America and India
And the poverty, the poverty, like colonial constructs to to just colonize. And and and like what the hell? White fragility? Are you afraid you're gonna be colonized by people of color? Like it it it's it's it's monstrous. The the frailty of of being afraid. And and the thing is, the society that you've structured isn't working.
Marina Crane (18:56.768)
It isn't working for women. It isn't working for elderly women. It's just not working. And I think the more you talk about feminism or the environment and things that aren't working. Like I had a I had a lady email me and she she made a comment, she says she says that she she she was
Like there was she f she had some feelings about like my podcast and how like self discovery, emotional afterlife of surviving, broken power structures that she was making a comment about somebody that she knows.
She says your recent episodes especially stood out to me for how you move through environmental harm, hor historical trauma, empathy, grief, and the complexities of human behavior without flattening any of it away. Given your perspective and the way you approach difficult material outside a therapy speaks framework. I thought and then she mentions this lady that has this a similar podcast. She sa she says,
her show i and how she gave me examples of of this woman's show like save the world the the Sahara Club in Los Angeles
extractive systems in grounded human terms. Like just see again, the this is a n a non indigenous woman or I don't know if sh she seems like she's been in a urban setting her whole life. and she's talking about
Marina Crane (20:42.21)
the this podcast that she thinks I would be interested in listening to. like in in terms of she says it's all about inner toil of living in prolonged crisis and strange mix of conviction, confusion, grief, and survival that come with that. So, I mean, talk about mansplaying. She's she's telling me
It it feels if if this feels useful, be happy be happy to send over a few more topics. Like like again, privilege. I mean I'm grateful people are emailing me or telling me that they're listening to my podcast. But but it's the whole nature of it. It's the whole nature of not knowing what you're fighting for. Th there there's this
There's a fellow, he's he's indigenous. If I can somehow f s I think I had him on here let's see if
Yes, here he is. I'm gonna start You know Nico The American Indian Movement, also known simply as being started in nineteen sixty eight in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Okay, and there's a whole bunch of background in it, so I don't want to play the background because it's so loud. And it's it says it was founded by native activist Clive Belcourt, Dennis Banks, and George Mitchell to combat police brutality.
Poverty and systemic racism in urban native communities. This is indigenous mamas. Native women also played a significant role in the movement. Women like Madonna Thunderhawk, Phyllis Young, and Janet McLeod were critical leaders, organizers, warriors for movement.
Marina Crane (22:36.898)
be bringing the powerful voice of indigenous sovereignty, the community empowerment. Aime has also known for taking bold, high profile action. One of the most famous was the nineteen month occupation o takeover of Alcatraz Island.
In nineteen seventy two, AIME also organized the Trail of Broken Treaties, which resulted in a march on Washington and the takeover of the BIA building that's Bureau of Indian Affairs. AIM's behavior of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, DC brought national attention to the plight of indigenous people during the occupation. AIM also released a list of demands called for twenty points, which included the abolit the out the abolishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs federal protection for
indigenous religion and culture. In 1973, AIME would also make headlines once again with the occupation of wounded knee on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. For seventy-one days, AIM's members brought Lakota activists stood against corruption, the tribal leadership and demand justice for native communities.
It was a modern day battle for sovereignty, and the success of the American Indian movement made it a target of federal government. Through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Interpol, the federal government infiltrated dissembled aim and surveillance, false accusations and violence. Interpol was designed to destroy American Indian movement and silence indigenous resistance.
AIM wasn't just an organization, it was a movement that inspired Native activists across Turtle Island. From the fight for land and water rights to the protection of sacred sites, AIM showed that Native resistance is powerful, necessary, and unyielding. Here's a bonus fact: Native resistance activisms did not stop with AIM.
Marina Crane (24:37.474)
Today, Native activists carry the spirit of AIM into movements of murdered and missing indigenous women, the land back movement, Standing Rock, the Environmental Justice, AIM led the foundation for the resistance.
To the ongoing structure of settled colonization. The American Indian movement initiated the fire that still burns native activism today. Was the American Indian movement perfect? Absolutely not. Did they make a lot of mistakes? Yes, they did. But there's no denying that the American Indian Movement did its part to make the lives of Indigenous people better today. As always, and really curious about, again, you know, this fellow, his name is Indigenous Matters, Indigenous Mom.
A A Z on TikTok and he you know like
He encourages people to interact with him. Merciless Savage. I think that's yeah, that's the whole point of of it. Like a lot of the structures and how we deal with things that are happening, especially like even within our own communities. Yes, I make mistakes in my podcast. I know I'm I'm I'm I'm not I'm not like I I have my v agility, but but it comes at a price where I'm hoping to educate people about the struggle
that we have. There there is there is a need to talk about healthy human sexuality. And I've had I've been recorded a couple of times by the Center of Human Sexuality. And I've also had a couple of recordings in regards to growing up here in Soutina. So I'm hoping to combine all five of them into like some sort of structure where I can educate people through my lived experience.
Marina Crane (26:28.318)
how else am I going to do it? I c I I can't say, subject A and subject B and subject C. No, that's I'm I'm not like I'm not s an expert by any means. However, it it intrigues me, it always intrigues me when I meet non-indigenous people who are curious, who who want to know what it's like to be indigenous.
Who who want to peek into my community without your interfering with my process. again, too, it's like a voyeur, but yet at the same time, too, the boundaries are there, which which to me is is part of a good investigator. However, there's also people who who want to be therapists, mansplaying, exploiting, giving me advice.
you know, if you listen to my podcast, I'm I'm a senior. I've had it up to the yin-yang with advice. if you find my podcast interesting and and just that in itself is interesting, like keep on listening. However, you know, I I don't expect you to fully grasp the gist of what I talk about, because a lot of it has to do with a lot of hurt, heartfelt pain, emotional pain.
And like recently, this one black fellow, the youngest academic to be a professor, committed suicide.
And and then I then I talk about then I was listening to the Titanuski Black Air Pilots of World War Two and and just the the racism, this this pilot who w all he wanted to do was be a black pilot. And for four years in this university, this academic place where they train people to be military leaders, they told him that he they he they wouldn't touch him, wouldn't speak to him.
Marina Crane (28:28.61)
Like it's it's like and I and mind you, I'm not saying I've experienced the same, but going growing up in f schools like in the c community of Fairview and around Lord Beaverbrook and Bishop Grant and in the southwest part of the city, you know, I want sis I want separatists and and white supremacists to understand this. Those communities that are there, they're there because of indigenous money that went into those schools.
The racism, the the the the the way of isolation, not talking to me, just like they did with that Tuscany black man who wanted to be a pilot. Like the struggle, the struggle to learn. I ha you know, the the stereotypes of that I'm stupid and nothing. See, it's one thing for me to be an indigenous woman.
A and sort of just like, okay. You know, yeah, bring it on. But the reality of it is like people don't expect women to be educated. They don't expect women to be intelligent. By God, they don't even expect peop women to be in to be geniuses. But the the reality of it is that as soon as I hit high school, like I just felt it. Nobody talked to me, like to even touch me.
So, you know, that's the reality of it, that people had the audacity to live off the the the things that we attributed to communities in Calgary. Of course, yes, you have to have truth and reconciliation. You have to validate that yes, you b you are on Treaty 7 territory. You have to do land acknowledgement because we were here before you. And
All the things that we had to shut our mouths, all the things that we were trained to fawn over white people, to be limerants over white people, all that classical conditioning of colonialism. This whole psychology of deconstructing and mental health is a chore in itself. It is such a huge pile, like an ant pile.
Marina Crane (30:50.058)
Imagine deconstructing an ant pile, how difficult that's going to be. Especially if you have so called allies who all they want to do is just document. They don't want to particip like get their hands dirty and and and lift those lift and deca and take away that ant pile. They don't. Because they're not set up that way.
That's why when I talk about the American Indian movement in the seventies and like the the structure of of
the ca encampment in in small boys camp by Nordic Alberta and how AIM activists came there to fe to seek to seek shelter, protection from the FBI, Interpol, you name it. Do you think Alberta was was not involved in all this shit that was happening? Do you think the chiefs of Treaty 7 are gonna stand by and let this woman
Who's pret who is pretending that she's got indigenous blood? What the hell? It's the flavor of the damn month, the damn decade. Shit. That's why I'm saying, really? If you have any kind of European blood in you, that's because of trafficking. Look, our eight 14-year-olds in the cities in Canada are the most trafficked to this day.
The Indian Act doesn't even give us sovereignty over our own children in 2026. Grandfathering and grandmothering all those indigenous kids who lost their status because they chose to marry a white man. Because they chose to have their children be raised without a culture. And now those children are wondering, what the hell? You know, and they're you and they're trying to reconnect.
Marina Crane (32:49.398)
Just the attitude of reconnecting is such a diabolical thing. And yet they have to fawn and say, Yes, I'm a good cook. Listen to me. I'm a and I'm trying to connect and this is my life. When the when the nitty-gritty of it is what I'm talking about in my podcast. There's no sugar coating.
You know, like what that one person says, you know, yes, flies to horse shit and they said, Well, bees to honey it is
That's like that's a good parallel because with with white women it's bees to honey. With indigenous women it's flies to shit. Like ex excuse me, like it's still the same thing. It's still performative, it's still fawny, it's still limerence. But but to to to take it and say, look, this is what you're participating in. And you know, I I mean, when my cousin was talking about her second cousin
And I said, well it's all performative. I said, understand this. She had no choice as a child to live in isolated small towns with her white father, to be ashamed of being indigenous. I said, even indigenous people in those Indian residential school fawning to so that they wouldn't anger their white overseers. You know, just just just that in itself is disturbing.
I for me and my podcast or if people think that I'm so brazen and so blunt for a damn good reason. And people say, Well, Marina, a lot of our elders don't talk. I yes, they don't because of fawning. Like, if I say anything or I hurt people and they don't want to listen to me, fine, you know.
Marina Crane (34:42.432)
You've been doing that my entire life. But there are people who actually do listen to my podcast, do hear it, like it like the lady says, you know, this is raw type of you know, understanding of what what I've been going through. But but I I'm I'm doing it. I'm doing it so our young people know. This struggle is gonna be still going on when I'm six feet underground. The the struggle of what what it is to be
to d dec decolonize. We're never gonna be totally decolonized because this is life. We're all on planet Earth trying to just live instead of burning ourselves down with with the the environment. It's like it's like being in a closed room with heavy smokers and you're trying to take a breath. Because that's what that's what has happened to planet Earth.
You know, when you when the air clear clears and all the smokers are gone, you still have the room. And that's the that's the prediction. The earth will what they calculated at least another six billion years before it dries up into a cinder. By that time I think humanity would have evolved and either we've disappeared like the dinosaurs. But for the time being
understand understand how we treat each other as children or how we perceive each other. It's it's very like that whole fairy tale and Disneyland and that's that's an illusion. That's a delusion. You when when you're when you're like again, I said five hundred years indigenous people didn't know there was a god or a devil.
Like, you know, really and even too, there was a comment, somebody was talking about Muslims and I just thought what a horrific thing that that you know the these these young people and the way they talk about separatism, especially when it comes to let's see, especially when it comes to like as as if as if people should as if people should behave a certain way.
Marina Crane (36:51.574)
I d I if I could find that piece, geez, here's here's a context. Nine ways to defend cultural appropriation using colonial gaslighting and how it how to do the opposite.
A couple of weeks ago Miss Universe Canada contestant who are now indigenous appear who are not indigenous appeared on national costume competition wearing what looks like incorporated sacred indigenous items like a headdress. The regional director Lorraine Gilmore Peters made a video
Response to Ashley Collingbull, Miss Universe, Canada 2024, the first indigenous winner, publicly calling out the harm of cultural appropriation incident. You can view the video response from Lorraine linked in the comment. The author is called Relentless Indigenous Woman. On that's her social media. I was laughing the entire video because this textbook, Colonial Gaslighting,
For educational purpose, I will offer a breakdown on the nine ways she demonstrated colonial gaslighting. Get this. I mean, like hello. When I talk about activism, you know, it was born in the seventies and bless our young people's hearts. Number one, settlers move moves in innocence. This refers to the strategy settlers use to relieve themselves of the guilt of participating in colonialism.
without actually giving up settler privilege or land. In video, her disclosure about having an indigenous great great grandmother and her family tree being at the office waiting for acknowledgement is a textbook move to innocence. It is an attempt to claim a native identity or proximity to indigenity as a shield against accusation of colonial violence. Like what the hell?
Marina Crane (38:50.134)
You're you're taking you're taking a rape culture and trying to say that you're a victim because your great great grandmother was raped and because of that you're the product when it has no validity, like like you're th like it's like she says, as it should h should against accusation of colonial violence. Like like how many people are so ashamed of their European blood? I have five percent
I don't say it. I have I have a sister who could pass for a white woman. I you know, like, excuse me, five hundred years we're we're we're the as indigenous people we're the mo the were the most diverse and again we're the most documented. Like the Cherokee, they're the most documented. You have to go through a r so much red tape just to prove your Cherokee because so many people have been using it.
So this woman this what the
this this gaslighting Yahoo. Two DRBO deny attack reverse victim and offender. Darvo. That's a good acronym. Deny, attack, reverse victim and offender. The psychological framework often used to describe how perpetrators avoid accountability. Again, narcissistic Machiavellian
Interesting concept, right? Especially when you're a colonizer and a woman, that you've had to climb the corporate ladder this way and you can think it's so easy to project all this shit on the poor, defenseless female savage type that you have to like victimize us this way. That's just my opinion, okay. My opinion. In the video she denies the organization did anything wrong.
Marina Crane (40:46.456)
Brackets. At no time did Miss Universe Canada ever give the idea that this was okay. Bracket. Attacks Ashley's integrity for speaking up bracket. She was standing there to give us a spanking bracket and reverses the role, painting the organization and herself as the victim of a shitty commentary.
Again, deny, attack, reverse victim and offender. You know, we get we patriarchy gets so caught up in in billionaires who are narcissistic and v Machiavellian that that that women of privilege also have to use this as you know part of of like their mental their own mental health issues. Like, you know, yes, the struggle is real, but you know, don't don't take me down with you.
Number three, white innocence, the myth of innocence. This is when white individuals view themselves as morally superior and incapable of causing harm, regardless of their actions. Like that's why I'm saying, you know, when you have black women, dark skinned to light skin, the interbreeding of slaves, and and you have the overseers like acting innocent.
that, you know, like they're they're they're innocent regardless of the actions they took for hundreds of years. You know, and and people still think they can play the same song and dance, still create puppets? Like, come on. You know, Shakespeare was right. Every we're you know, everything's a stage, everything, you know, is performative. In the video
She her claim that it is unreasonable to expect them to know every cultural nuance position, the organization as innocent, ignorant rather than actively per perpetrating harm. It frames racism as an unfortunate accident rather than a systemic choice. So like excuse me, you know, if I may as an indigenous woman, if I said something, sure as hell I'm gonna be c held accountable.
Marina Crane (43:02.942)
Every part of my life I've been held accountable. Anything I say is I'm being held accountable. And yet this poor you know like the myth of innocence. You know, like I'm saying, get off the tree. Get off that cross. I need the wood to create a sweat. You know, really, you're not innocent. You're part of the problem. Like sh like to claim unreasonable like that you didn't know the cultural nuance.
What? I don't know the difference between Italian, Spanish, French, Scottish, Irish. Come on. You like what the hell? Do your homework. Four. Ep episode violence. This is the dismissal or destruction of indigenous knowledge systems and protocols. Ex Excuse me.
Like when we talk about land acknowledgement and treaty seven, even when I talk to indigenous people who who haven't lived in First Nations Anywhere Metis communities who have status cards, I say to them, Know the knowledge systems, know the protocols. And I'm grateful they ask me so I can give them protocols of what to do when they come into Sutina or when they come into Treaty Seven.
All these things you have to do the homework. And if you're in white privil privilege and you don't think you have to do it, excuse me. Look at is look at it as if you're an immigrant and you have to come into a sovereign country and you have to know the protocols and the sovereignty of that in of that nation. We're a nation within a nation.
Understand that the world is not your oyster. The world has thousands, eight billion people. In the video, by reducing indigenous culture protocols bracket, the protection of sacred items unbracket to mere nuance of every culture and comparing them to bilingual.
Marina Crane (45:18.336)
logistics, French versus English. She's actually stripping the critique of its historical and political significance. Like really? The historical like when you say English and French, where the hell are the indigenous languages, you little shit? Where the hell don't you acknowledge it? You stole those languages from us and you have the audacity
To not even acknowledge the historical or political significance, as if you poo-pooted that we're invisible? When we have our children, our grandchildren, the very essence of indigenous, d having the courage at some at age 15 to learn their language. You have the Maoris and New Zealand, the resurgence of indigenous languages, and you have don't even understand.
The sacredness of the of these items, the sacredness of what what it is? You know, excuse me. That's what I call frailty, fragility. Five, tone policing. This is a rhetoric rhetorical strategy that critiques the manner to protest rather than the substance of the grievance effectively silencing the speaker.
In the video, and this again is the same white woman of privilege, in the video she focuses intensely on the fact that she felt blindsided. excuse me, poor thing, and that Ashley's delivery was insulting. Hey, when I do my podcasting and you find it insulting, I don't really give a damn. How many white women that I've known as friends throughout my whole academic life, or even non-Indigenous people.
Who have written on my coattails for academic purposes. Like, hello, and that you blindsided me, and that you what grifted me? And like, hello, that I'm insulting you? Excuse me. You know, Ashley Collingbull has knowledge, lived knowledge, experience. Give me a break. And condescending.
Marina Crane (47:38.078)
She uses these emotional reactions to discredit the actual content of Ash Ashley's message. See, everything, even like for me, going in through high school and or even university and meeting women who never even declared they were indigenous, and then afterwards what they start their own business because they say their great-grandmother had indigenous blood, or that they're still waiting for their Metis card to be processed.
Excuse me. Now that you can make money and you're not in the academic world of high school or university, go ahead. Go ahead. Actually discredit anybody who's actually lived in First Nations Inuit or Metis communities who gives a shit. You know, who fought to get their education, who fought for everything. Bless Ashley Collingbull's heart, the respect she has for her parents and her grandparents and her culture.
It it boggles my mind. Three, falsely equival equivalency that what about what about defense? Qu again, this is the quote. This involves creating a distraction by comparing a serious systemic issue example indigenous appropriation to a trivial or unrelated matter, bilingualism. In the video, why isn't the show done in French and English?
We're the bilingual country. She uses this as a minim to minimize the indigenous grievance, suggesting that if indigenous people get to speak up, everyone with a nuance should, which is a classic tactic to devalue indigenous sovereignty. Like why the hell would she even bring that up? Hello, talk about spoilt spoilt spoilt bread.
Or like spoiled recipe, like whatever the hell you were cooking up in this mince this Miss Universe pageant, you're the you're the one who put all the ingredients together to come up with this bullshit. Like that's that stinks. You're you're a bad cook there, Miss Miss whatever what was her name again? This woman who claims she's got indigenous blood in her. This Lorraine Gilmore Peters. Lorraine, come and talk to me, okay?
Marina Crane (50:02.634)
Really? Could you really stand up and talk to me? I don't think so. A lot of people just sort of ghost me. or you know, find me very offensive. And that's okay. Number five, toning policing. This is a rhetoric strategy that critiques the manner of the protest rather than the substance of the grievance, effectively silencing the speaker. In the video
She focused in intensely on the fact that she felt blindsided that Ashley's delivery was insulting and condescending. She uses these emotional reactions to discredit the actual content of Ashley's message. And and so, like even when I talk about healthy human sexuality, matriarchy versus patriarchy, religiosity versus spiritual spirituality and ways of living, I've had women
who claim to be indigenous mansplay me. I've had women, like I said, w all of a sudden it's in it it's the flavor of the month to say you're indigenous, who who claims like I'm condescending, that I'm insulting them because they choose to be, you know, religious. I mean, I went to Lord Beaverbrook High School. I'm talking about religiosity here. And the the lady that I went to high school with never once claimed she was indigenous, but now it's okay for her
her children and her grandchildren to be fruitful and multiplying under religiosity, and how dare I offend and condescend. When I'm only explaining the reasoning behind why I have to question all things that are rich that has to do with ritual abuse, including religiosity. Six false equivalent equivalency or what happened what happened defense.
This involves creating a distraction by comparing a serious systemic issue, indigenous appropriation, to a trivial or unrelated well that that was already done. Seven, good defense. Def the good intention defense. This framework prioritizes the feeling of persons acting over the actual impact of their actions. In the video, I was so happy to support her to make her feel pretty. She centers her own internal
Marina Crane (52:19.416)
Feelings of support and happiness to justify wearing jewelry, completely ignoring the power of imbalance and the conformification inherent in using those items for her own vanity.
I'm just grateful for this relentless indigenous woman's social media, how she just pointed it out straightforward. 'Cause like I don't have that skill set, so I'm very flamboyant and open and like like again, when pr people critique me, like say, well you do it with such you know well for whatever reason if people want to praise the way I speak, fine. I'm just being assertive. I or I should say, isn't that what assertiveness is?
eight. Institutional defenses and corporate narcissism. This is when the organization prioritizes its brand and tightly curates shows over acknowledging systemic wrongdoings. In the video she repeatedly refers to the script the teleprompter and the need to protect the image of the organization. She views the protest as a logistic problem that disrupted and curated perfection of current
yeah disrupted the corate the curated perfective perfection of the event rather than the necessar n that a necessary interruption for justice. Like excuse me, like she she like I said, she's the cook. She had all the ingredients for the recipe. Now she's she's saying that her what she cooked was really good. Like how dare like it's like going to a restaurant and ordering
ordering like something and you didn't get you didn't get what you ordered. Like and then you're making excuses that, we didn't put we didn't add salt, enough seasoning. Weaponizing ignorance. This is this is a choice to remain uneducated about marginalized groups to avoid the responsibility of an ally or respecting boundaries. In the video she explicitly admits she didn't know the protocols and argues they
Marina Crane (54:28.578)
shouldn't be expected to by stating, do I think we needed to apologize? No. I don't think she's asserting that she has the right to remain ignorant and that holding her to standard of education is a form of bullying. What a croc.
See, we're we're talking about a systemic issue here. I mean, all people have a tendency to make mistakes, but but you know, exc excuse me.
Like when when I'm talking to my cousins and and they're they're they have mental health issues of bullying or mansplain or lateral violence or misogyny, any anything that that has to do with an imbalance of of some you know, somebody being better than the other. Like what the hell? you know, I I don't know, you know, for throughout my life
If I I don't know if I've ever apologized to people or or or like like I think people think like I I have to say, I apologize for this. No, I think a lot of times apologies are for me have been a conversation, like a conversation of actually, you know, getting talking about it, talking about like my beliefs versus your beliefs.
deconstructing it, reconstructing it, having a lap, all those things. It's conflict resolution, having skills. What the hell's the matter with this woman? Again, does she even deserve to her name to be said? Lorraine Gilmore Peters, Executive Director. Poo poo on you. Like, excuse me, poor baby. You know, yes, it's hard to be a woman. It's really hard.
Marina Crane (56:24.226)
I mean really am I being a sarcastic bitch. So what would have been a respectful response? It all comes down to how well someone can hold radiational accountability basically. Here are nine ways to be a s antithesis of Lorraine. I mean colonial gaslighting. To read the entire article of Nuance call calls to action and reflection.
You know, it's it's necess like it's just it's you gotta go to this website. Again, her name is Relentless Indigenous Woman. You'll re s shows she's you know, the whole n the whole notion of cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation. She does she does web web art webinars or what they call web webinar. And and so, you know, take a take it
Take it with a grain, you know, like take it, embrace it. Take what you need and then release it. You know, the hu you know, Indigenous you know, Miss Collingbull and Emma Morris, Miss World Canada 2022 for standing up and speaking on these issues. Ex you know, like they're examples of what it means to lead with love res despite receiving cruel and arrogant pushbacks. Like understand that.
I mean my whole life I've had I've had that. I've had, you know, like pushbacks, like people people arrogance and you know, everything, verbal, physical, and you know like I I'll r I'll I'll I'll I'll reflect before I close. About thirty years ago, my my childhood friend who married into the Nakotas, the the the week that my niece was born.
was the same week her her daughter was killed in a automobile accident. And it it made it made news. And the T V reporters re interviewed the father, my childhood friend's husband. And he made a comment about forgiveness, forgiving the person who had killed his daughter. And the comment was like, How can you how can you forgive? And and
Marina Crane (58:45.312)
when I think the reality when we talk about holistic holistic and col collective approaches to living and when I talk about historical like c what do they call it collect like restorative and transformative justice and that and that there are our jails and our even even people pretending to be indigenous in the jails so they can get like
like extra like going to sweats and little you know, spiritual things bec because they want to, but there's no proof they're indigenous. So so it adds up like there's a whole bunch of indigenous people in the prisons. But but there are injustices that happen. And and again too, like even last week when that young twenty four year old woman was killed and no, you know, like nobody even mentioned her name for the first couple of days.
Marina Crane (59:45.474)
When when they come home when they come home from prison, they come home. Some go to urban areas and they end up, you know, in horrible situations and back in prison. But for those ones who have a land base, who ha who have an indigenous First Nations community, Inuit community, Metis community, restorative and tran transformative justice is is a process of forgiveness.
So that's why I'm saying, you know, the when people when people like when Ashley and this this Emma Morrison are standing up speaking out on these issues, it means they lead with love instead of cruelty. Because we have to we have to embrace those people we love who did who who who did a crime.
And and then we've got to release them on their own recognizance, hoping that they they never re re offend.
Marina Crane (01:00:53.634)
You know, my my my friend my childhood friend will never get her daughter back. But but it but it's knowing it's knowing that you know it it she's never gonna be here again and in in honor of her memory to forgive. These things that you know, you have to practice these things. And and for this woman who y I I don't wanna repeat her name again, but to be totally
Totally ignorant of of the meaning of what it means to be indigenous, to to totally not understand what respect and and and showing respect for the people you love and those who taught you what what forgiveness is all about. With all the horrors of human trafficking, all the horrors of of children being born because of sexual assault.
all the need to raise our children and and to try and and and say to them, you know, life is worth living. Don't give up. Yet yet in this day and age you have a young scholar, the youngest professor. He he you know, he learned to to read and write as a as a as a teenager. We have so many indigenous youth like that who have accomplished so much
And then all of a sudden you have white privilege criticizing them that they're plagiarizing. Throughout my life I've had people accuse me of so many things, of my divine gift not being mine. I've had the honor and the privilege to go out and seek invisible helping hands and to embrace and release them. And some people don't have that and they end up killing themselves.
Marina Crane (01:02:49.13)
It's systemic racism. People want to poop it and say, it's alcohol and drugs. But when you have a group of people who want to look at you as if you're dumb, stupid, ignorant, and savage-like and have a low propensity for just understanding forgiveness and love.
That's why I talk about healthy human sexuality. My parents loved each other, and so did my grandparents. And as much as we can and try to understand, love isn't isn't forever. We outgrow it. We outgrow each other. And when we do, we have to have the courage to embrace it and let it go. And if love is worth it, then hold on to it for as as long as you can.
before you release it. That's the nature of life. You try to bastardize it or say anything else, that's your choice. That's your life. But anyway, I wanted to put something out there. I'm I'm like I said, this is my third attempt and hopefully hopefully, you know, you as listeners have received something from it. And like I said, it for me it was very difficult, a very provocative thing to talk about.
But but an advocacy and and being an activist isn't easy. And and no matter what you try to contribute, even if it's even if it's criticized, just do it. You have the right to tell your story.
