brandon
Brandon is a community organizer with the K’e Infoshop located in so-called Window Rock on the Navajo Nation.
"Indigenous peoples are constant reminders of the failures of settler colonialism"
Jaiden: So our first question: what does land back mean to you all?
Brandon: for us, land back is like the restoration of kinship with the land, and all the relatives who also have kinship with the land as well. And that may seem like a nebulous idea, like what does it mean to have kinship back with the land? And it's simply that. It's restoring like original songs and ceremonies to the land, for example, we had done a ceremony on some land that was in contestation with the Navajo Nation. And we were trying to figure out-and I was a young organizer at the time- and we were trying to figure out what should we do? And one of the Hatalli's, one of the medicine people said, just sing a song, when was the last time the-the land, the hills, the trees, the rocks around here heard like a hozho-ze song like a beauty way song, and we started to do that and it started to rain, which was really like a beautiful affirmation of the-the land misses that type of kinship, uh so, and I'm sure we're not the only people who sing songs of kinship to the land as well. That's one important aspect of it is the land has taught us so much, uh how to live, how to live in a good way, and how to be good to each other, and once we began to see land as property, as land as a finite resource to exploit, uh, we began to see ourselves that way, you know, that old that old proverb, what we do to land we do to ourselves. I think that's an important aspect of liberation is to reinvigorate those ideas of, we are-what we do to the land we do to ourselves, and that's the- I would say, the wishy washy part. You know, the new ageyier part, but you know land back has heavy political means as well. Uhm, Indigenous peoples are constant reminders of the failures of settler colonialism, and are a constant threat to the settler colonial project because we demand land back, because the original people who inhabited the lands, who were raised by the lands are still here. So, we're a constant reminder that there-there's a failure in capitalism, there's a failure in settler colonialism because the people who were meant to be eliminated are still here and they're still demanding justice. So that's one portion of it, and the second portion is, you know when people hear "land back" they immediately think of ethno-nationalism right? They think, the Indigenous people want their land for themselves and they're going to kick everyone else out who wasn't originally from this continent, when the truth is is that we want- when we talk about restorative kinship, we're talking about restoring kinship with each other as well. Uh, not just between the land and the people who were on this continent prior to European contact, but with all relatives who are still being raised by the land, uh whether they see that or not. the land is still teaching them things that they weren’t being taught anywhere else. So how do we-and one way of like liberation is to nurture that kinship in a more meaningful way and the only way we can do that is with land back. it's harder to do in urban areas. And with more densely populated cities, but I think it's uh one concrete demand we can have from people ask - like what could be done? And I always tell people that. 'Cause every time I give a talk or something, and there's always like a white settler who asks, what can I do? And I say landback, like do you have uh title or deeds to land, or do you know someone who's going to give away land? That's one thing you can do right now is just give the land back. And that’s when you can tell like who’s really down for the just causes and who isn't. 'Cause once you say land back and say, yeah it's just simply that. Just give us the land back. 'Cause then you’ll hear like a constant uh hemming and hawing, people are like giving excuses, they're like, they're flabbergasted by the idea. Because they've tied money, they've tied capital, they've tied economic reasons to the land. That's made up the identity. And so you demand something that they've built they're identity on, it causes problems for them. And so I think that helps them to think further on, what does it mean for them to be a meaningful relative to Indigenous people rather than doing performative things, like real world concrete things.
Jaiden: So our next question says, what does the nonprofit industrial complex mean to you and how do you fight those dynamics within it?
"Protect your spirit"
"Protect your spirit"
Brandon: So [laughs] I always used to tell folks that beware of who you give your spirit to. There's this fire that's inside you, especially when you're young. Because there's a lot of organizations who-who prey on your fire, on your urgency, on your fierce power, and they extinguish it - through bureaucracy, through what-about-isms or like through 'this is how it has to be done' doctrines that they try to force into you either through electoral politics or [] through the non-profit industrial complex. And it's-the majority of them, they're vampiric. Like I said, they suck your spirit away. And so what we've done, how to work around this is that we maintain our fierce autonomy by building trust autonomously. You know, we're not looking to build trust with millionaires and billionaires [] our organization. We're looking to build trust with community and to have a strong principle of being a community funded project, notor Kellogg or [] funded project, but a grandma and grandpa signed off on us. Or auntie signed off on us, you know or your cousin or nephew signed off on us, either by volunteering at the info shop or providing material needs. Uh, and that's hard to do. It's the hard-probably one of the harder things to do is for someone-to get the community to believe in your project uhm especially for Indigenous people because we’re so used to people parachuting in and you know, offering solutions, and often bringing in like so-called "experts," people who are business minded, people who you-know, want us to go to school and get a stem degree so that we can for for NASA, you know, because that-the-to them, that's the way out. And I’m sure you all, and myself have heard that same type of rhetoric bring up from mega-Indian, science-Indian society, from our high school teachers, you know, we're constantly told to leave-we're constantly told that these are ways to leave the rez, and anyone who stays is met with suspicion-like why weren't you successful enough to leave?Uh, so we had to go a lot against that type of capitalist, individualist thinking by being like a steady constant presence in the community. Uhm, and it's not going to happen right away. Like as you know, our collective is made up of some prominent folks and we still uh-wouldn't say, we don't struggle as much now, but in the beginning, I was solely funding the infoshop and we'd get donations from here and there. But slowly, we've gained the trust of the people we want to help first, which was the unsheltered, cause, I wanna share a story-often, the info shop was broken into twice early, in the beginning. And after they found out who-whose info shop they broke into, they brought our stuff back. [Laughs]. That's because we built trust with the folks that we were helping. Once they were like, oh, so-like so -and-so broke in and took something, we told them to give it back because you guys, like you help us so much. That meant a lot to us-to like, ok we built trust with them and then slowly the rest of the community we had to build trust by being present. So that's what it means to me.
"Build trust in the community that you're building movement in"
[] and of course it's nice to get more funding, and then inevitably we have to handle taxes, right. And what we did-we were offered non-profit status, all this stuff, for a long time. Because like people would say, we could get you millions of dollars to buy this stuff, and then-but it would always seem really sketchy, and it took us a long time to find a nonprofit that would, not only could sponsor us, but that was like-wouldn't seek to exploit us, like we wouldn't have to brand ourselves with their name. They were just cool with taking money and not [] and then paying - that's all we wanted. So we found a person, a couple folks like that, 'cause we were - like I said we're really protective of our autonomy So A) When confronting the nonprofit industrial complex is to protect your spirit, to protect your autonomy, because always looking for someone - always looking to pad their end-of-year reports, like saying 'oh we swooped in and we funded this project that was happening in this poor community' and to always frame it in the economic lease of poverty porn. So protect your autonomy there. And the second is to build trust in the community that you're building your movement in. And it's not going to happen overnight, it's going to take long term commitment and organizing, stable organizing to build that trust, and to also be cognizant of who you're building trust with. You know, are you building trust with government employees? Are you building trust with the folks who have to sleep in the ditch at night? You know, who's really going to be down for you? Uhm, and understand what you mean when you talk about liberation, and isn't too invested in continuing a relationship with the United States, who's invested in destroying that relationship with the United States? And the third is, when you do get those big grant opportunities, because they do come and you will need them, is to find a nonprofit that will- that really understands and truly respects your autonomy, and truly respects that you know, they understand what their privileges are and they're using their privilege, their status to find you funding, and to know that you have boundaries in place, and that you’re fiercely protective of your autonomy. It's very hard to find nonprofits like that, very very hard. Like I said, we were self funding the infoshop for about three years before we found a nonprofit that we could trust.
Jaiden: Cool, uhm, the next question was uh What is the role of young people in the movement?
Brandon: Gosh everything.
It took me a long time to step back and listen and to hear different ideas and new ways of
thinking that young people bring. They bring a different spice to our community and with us
older folks it feels like we keep arguing about the same thing over and over again. There are
new and better ways for us to build our movement, and young people bring that energy in. A lot
of older folks bring hierarchies and the youth are always nipping at the hills of hierarchy to
prevent for that to happen.
At first I didn't give a lot of credit to young ways of thinking, I thought they were coming from a
place of being naive and inexperienced. If a young person has questions I'll answer them and
pass on resources, but I'm not going to tell them how to do things, because I don't have those
answers.
Jaiden: How are you careful to not implement the systems you're fighting against in your work?
Brandon: For me personally, it means combating implied hierarchy. As a cis man whenever people have
questions they come to me, so I turn to others in the infoshop. I try not to replicate implied
hierarchy, the privilege of being an older organizer and being seen as an authority on
organizing. I try to make everything a horizontal process, on how we make decisions and on
how we do things. Always empowering each other and validating each other's ideas and
thoughts. Not worrying so much about how long it takes, but having sincere conversations to
reach a genuine sense of consensus.
I always heard the clock replaced the whip, and in organizing spaces we've replaced sincerity
with so-called efficiency. It has replaced our ability to work together and to see each other's
uniqueness. We are often in a place of urgency.
Jaiden: What advice/ words do you have to tell to young folks who are becoming politically
engaged?
Brandon: Protect your spirit. I could list a dozen books to read, but what I find mre with young folks is that they're anxious and sometimes not confident. Don't be afraid to build up your confidence, while being kind to others be kind to yourself. Don't feel like your opinion isn't important because you
didn't go to marches or make banners. Be kind to yourself because others will take advantage
of those vulnerabilities. Look at how monsters affect your community and organize against it.
Find other people who recognize these monsters, when we started the collective I had little
hope of finding radical people here in Window Rock but if you have that fire others will see it and
will come. Discipline to recognize when something doesn't work and ask yourself why it didn't
work.
What does it really mean to be an uncle to someone, a nephew, a good relative to someone?
Older folks who have been in the movement we have to not continue the abusive behavior of
wanting more from someone. Not perpetuating harmful ways of organizing. If you notice
someone is overstepping their boundaries with you and perpetuating harm, you have the right to
walk away, to organize on your own, to build your confidence, to understand that your fire
matters.
Take discipline to be kind to yourself when you make mistakes. How do I move forward? How
am I a good relative? Not everyone is our relative, how do we build good relationships with our
community.
Jaiden: What is your opinion of the role of autonomous organizations in your work?
Brandon: White organizers overstepping boundaries, to tokenize our autonomy. I don't have to share with everyone how we organize, or how our accountability processes are done. Our ways are so often tokenized. Setting boundaries with non-Indigenous non-poc organizers. Talk about ways to reciprocate kinship and offer support to others organizing. How do we strengthen autonomy without building codependency? Offering resources without gatekeeping.
I urge us all to practice security culture, now more than ever.
