Afro-Indigenous Relations in a Reimagined Future
Land Back, Black Lives Matter, Indigenous sovereignty,
reparations—these words should continue to shape our collective
pursuit for freedom, but what does freedom look like for African
Americans and Indigenous peoples? In the 2015 documentary What Happened, Miss Simone?, an interviewer asked singer-songwriter and musician Nina Simone,
“What is freedom?” Pausing to think about all the oppression she had
dealt with as a Black woman, Simone responded, “Freedom is no fear.”
I remember being struck by that statement. Imagine being a Black
woman and living without fear. Envision what it would be like for
Black and Indigenous peoples to live in a world that was free of
violence and injustice.
Freedom for Black and Indigenous peoples requires that we first use
our power of imagination. At the forefront of these imaginings are
young Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous artists who are coming together
in solidarity through creative collaborations. In the aftermath of
the murder of George Floyd and the nationwide Black Lives Matter
protests, the Seattle-based yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective
partnered with Afro-Indigenous artists to create a series of free
online posters that celebrated Black and Indigenous unity. The
partnership actively rejected a separation of struggles. It also
acknowledged that not only are Black and Indigenous communities
bonded by the shared experiences of violence, erasure, and
generational trauma, but that Black Natives are Native people too.
The yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective partnered with artist Paige
Pettibon (Black, Salish, and white descent) to create this poster
inspired by a traditional Tulalip story. It tells how the people and
animals of the world joined together to lift the sky so they could stand
upright. The poster symbolizes Black and Indigenous peoples coming
together to lift one another up.
Courtesy of yǝhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective
The Land Back movement is another space where Black, Indigenous, and
Afro-Indigenous activists are converging. At its core, “land back”
is a call for governments who have robbed and dispossessed
Indigenous peoples of their homelands to return those lands. It also
means a return to personhood, which is tied to land. Indigenous
people won’t be whole until they reclaim their ancestral homelands.
Black and Afro-Indigenous women are already putting their collective
power of imagination into action. Tracy Stewart and Omitosin King
purchased 78 acres of land in Auburn, Washington, as part of the
Gathering Roots wellness collective. They want to design a healing
space where Black, Indigenous, and people of color can freely
explore their cultural connections to each other and the land. This
is the type of work we need.
While it is not feasible for every Black and Indigenous person to
purchase land, nor necessarily desirable given that Native
territories were taken by theft or acquired through dishonorable
treaties, it is a step in the right direction. It represents land
back but also serves as a blueprint for reimagining reparations. The
purchase of land by Black and Indigenous peoples will not repair the
damage of colonial violence; nevertheless, solidarity on the road to
reparations begins with combining our radical imaginaries, because
our futures rely on our shared efforts to free ourselves.
Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times
Omitosin King and Tracy Stewart, co-directors of Gathering Roots, on
land they purchased to house a future healing center for Black,
Indigenous, and people of color.
The displacement and enslavement of Africans and the dispossession
and removal of Indigenous people from their lands have been
intimately linked since the founding of the nation. Because the
development of the American nation is deeply tied to these
histories, some form of reparation is essential. However, we can’t
divorce discussions of reparations for Black Americans as
restitution for the horrors of enslavement from a clear conversation
about the return of land to Indigenous nations, and we can’t engage
in imagining land back without figuring out how to think differently
about the relationship between Black and Indigenous lives.
It is imperative that Black and Indigenous peoples creatively work
towards our co-futures. Going on the way we have been isn’t
sustainable. Building our future is an act of persistent protest
that will benefit all of us. Black and Indigenous women and LGBTQ+
activists have been leading the way. All we have to do is walk with
them in solidarity, be good relatives, and we will gain our freedom.
I know some will say this sounds impossible, but I ask, “Do we even
have a choice?” Given the current circumstances, the time is now—our
moment has come.
Photo by Danielle Hagopian
Kyle T. Mays (Black/Saginaw Chippewa) is an Afro-Indigenous
writer and scholar of US history, urban studies, race relations, and
contemporary popular culture. He is an assistant professor of history,
African American studies, and American Indian studies at the University
of California, Los Angeles. He is also the author of
Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in
Indigenous North America
(State University of New York Press, 2018),
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States
(Beacon Press, 2021), and
City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and
the Creation of Modern Detroit (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022).
