ABSTRACT
Solidarity work can serve a number of strategic functions in the processes of decolonization. Indigenous solidarities can contribute to strengthening a power base for decolonization, counter-hegemonic forms of recognition, deeper connections, and resiliency for coping with the legacies and current forms of colonial traumas. Decolonization may take various forms, but is at its core a process of actions and changes, not a position or an identification to claim. Part of the challenge of working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples is reorienting our approach away from avoidance of settler uncertainty or solidarity as a type of settler identity, and towards decolonization as a practice that includes nurturing a habit of discomfort. Employing an anticolonial paradigm, I explore decolonizing solidarity as a strategy, and suggest a framework for its deployment. I argue that it is possible to build deep decolonizing solidarities, if they are negotiated across power imbalances beginning from the bottom, are not based on self-interest, and engage continuously with unsettled relationality. In whatever form decolonization takes, working in solidarity with Indigenous struggles means taking responsibility for our relationships with the land, including the discomfiting emotions and the personal and national identity challenges that come with that.
