Abstract
This chapter explores the essence of relationships and alliances of healing through traditions, involving ceremonies of water. Using the teachings of a Sikh prayer which focuses on our responsibility to land and all of creation, I reengage with the meaning of this prayer as the grounding for relationship development between and among racialized and Indigenous communities as it relates to our relationship and therefore our responsibility to land. I explore, through Donna Goodleaf’s (Who we are – the Kanienkehaka, In: Goodleaf D (ed) Entering the warzone: a Mohawk perspective on resisting invasions. Theytus Books, Penticton, pp. 5–28, 1995) interpretation of the Two-Row Wampum’s (Gaswentah) sophisticated message of coexistence and the possibility of relationality between these two teachings. I will take up how intellectual and intercultural relationships between my relationship to land—both my homeland in Southeast Asia and the land and traditional territories of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island, where I currently reside—can be the basis of relationship and coalition building with First Peoples and constitute a lived antiracist practice.
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- 1.
Antam, in my mother tongue Punjabi, means the last and final moment or to come to an end. Sarkaar means to burn/cremate.
- 2.
The concept of the closet itself can be a problematic concept contextualized in a Euro-Western framework of understanding. While many 2-Spirit/Queer/Trans/People of Colour (2QTPOC) living in the West and the many diasporas use this term, it holds a different meaning of a risk of loss in a larger community context.
- 3.
I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Martin Cannon for creating a space in his course Centering Indigenous-Settler Solidarity in Theory and Research, where the teachings and meaning of the Gaswentah were generously shared with me. Niaweh!
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Kaur, M. (2014). Honoring Gaswentah: A Racialized Settler’s Exploration of Responsibility and Mutual Respect as Coalition Building with First Peoples. In: Dei, G.J.S., McDermott, M. (eds) Politics of Anti-Racism Education: In Search of Strategies for Transformative Learning. Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7627-2_12
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