Unsettling Mormonism
an archive of unsettling histories, mythistories, and mystories
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
This is a follow up to the previous post: "Ok, so what now?: Answers, solutions, advice" -------------- So the next question may be, “how do we destroy settler-colonialism?” I answer: By learning and integrating its history and how the myths of those histories are made real in your body and environment is one way I do it -- By being in accompliceship with Peoples who have the most experience resisting, destroying, and living beyond these oppressive everyday systems is another - One of the smallest ways we can do that is through $upport—redistributing the money you’ve made through settler-colonization. This goes triple for anyone who has inherited wealth, property, land. - Please $upport the folks through whom I directly joined this conversation: @indigenouswomenhike / venmo: jolie-valera @jenmarley1680 / v: jenmarley1680 @native_power_rangers / v: abesbah and @retrosoul__ (whose art is featured in this one) / cash app: $DaanaTownsend These people are each doing community centered work. $upporting them supports their People. ——- Even further you can find / build / contribute to a local native land tax—whether that is where you live or where you’re from or both! I contribute monthly to the Honor Native Land Tax that supports The Red Nation and Pueblo Action Alliance This year ABQ SURJ raised over $100,000 for these orgs working to increase Indigenous sovereignty. —-- That said please know that this kind of $upport isn’t a check list or a white-guilt eraser or a pass to “go back to brunch.” This is step one on a lifelong path on which you will mess up and cause harm and be accountable. and community will help you/me back up and back onto the path. —-- Accompliceship is mutual stakes Is race-treason Is the destruction of settler-colonialism—in our world and ourselves. —-- Lots of work to be done. - P.S. Please know that I am not an expert / prophet. I am a learner and practitioner. I've found that others want what I've learned and as an artist I want to share it. - I am NOT perfectly living these things (that’s not even the point) perfection and personal purity will keep us from ever emerging. because our emergence is from a chrysalis. we must be completely destroyed to emerge. I am practicing. not perfect. - Thank you for your support as we learn and fall apart and grow together. Here's a quote from James Baldwin on guilt that I find helpful: "I'm not interested in anybody's guilt. Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford. I know you didn't do it. And I didn't do it either. But I am responsible for it because I am a (person) and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, too, for the very same reason. Anyone who is trying to be conscious must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we've used so long to cover it up. To lie about the way things are." - James Baldwin Also thanks to Bobby Hill and John Redcorn: Speaking of guilt and ignorance. I usually connect with ex-catholics. I figure it is because of the religious guilt we both share from growing up in religions that focus on “enduring to the end” rather than being here now — who see the Earth as a fallen Eden rather than the source of all life and home of all afterlives — who see most of life as a temptation to be avoided rather than experiencing “how strange it is to be anything all” — who see the “natural (person)” as an “enemy of God” rather than an earthling participating in the web of life
In how many ways does this guilt and shame and terra-phobia show itself? What hierarchies does it build? Does belief in a fallen Eden actually allow for the extractive-capitalist practices that are destroying all life on earth en masse? Does guilt keep us from engaging to end these violences? How can you find support to move from guilt and shame to responsibility? - P.P.S. I was feeling very Bobby Hill as a began this project, learning things about Mormonism that I’d never heard in 18 years of going to church 6 days a week (twice on tuesdays)
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AuthorI am nicholas b jacobsen, an artist, researcher, historian, educator, and organizer. I am a trans-non binary Euro-settler raised in the Nuwu lands of so-called Utah. My family has been Mormon and Utahn for as long as either of those concepts have existed. My ancestors sacrificed everything--their identities, homelands, jobs, health, & safety to become Mormon, Utahn, U.S. American, & white--to settler their Zion. They also sacrificed their humanities as they committed genocide against Kuttuhsippeh (Goshute), Timpanogos Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, Ute, Nuwu (Southern Paiute), and Diné (Navajo). Because my ancestors made my home through Indigenous genocide in their home/lands––I take it as my personal responsibility to unsettle what my ancestors settled, while helping my fellow settlers do the same through reading, writing, art, and community building. Archives
June 2023
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