Your organization took a photo of Ashley Callingbull, and used it to promote V-Day Canada and One Billion Rising, without her consent. You then wrote the word “vanishing” on the photo, and implied that Indigenous women are disappearing, and inherently suggested that we are in some type of dire need of your saving. You then said that Indigenous women were V-Day Canada’s “spotlight”. V-Day completely ignored the fact that February 14th is an iconic day for Indigenous women in Canada, and marches, vigils, and rallies had already been happening for decades to honor the missing and murdered Indigenous women.[...]Read the full letter here: An Open Letter to Eve Ensler - Life Returned ht.ly/kIGXq
When women in Canada brought up these exact issues, V-Day responded to them by deleting the comment threads that were on Facebook. For a person and organization who works to end violence against women, this is certainly the opposite of that. Although I’m specifically addressing V-Day, this is not an isolated incident. This is something that Indigenous women constantly face. This erasure of identity and white, colonial, feminism is in fact, a form of violence against us. The exploitation and cultural appropriation creates and excuses the violence done to us.
When I told you that your white, colonial, feminism is hurting us, you started crying. Eve, you are not the victim here. [...] This is not being a good ally. [...]
At the end of our conversation you offered me the opportunity to join V-Day. Offered me money. Offered me to become a spokesperson for Native American women. These are things I am not interested in. I do not want to be part of the white savior industrial complex, and I never want to duplicate saviorism and colonialism within my own organization, Save Wiyabi Project, and I’m surely not interested in selling my soul and integrity for a bit of cash and perceived prestige.
The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening. ... The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.
Western journalists increasingly assume the voices of subjugated countries’ natives while muzzling them by denying them access to the press. In the United States, the more visible venues of the alternative press, such as online news sites Truthout, Common Dreams, and Huffington Post are essentially closed to native writers. This colonialism of the mind is rampant when it comes to Haiti ... Westerners, whatever their political leaning, do reserve their right to rule the world, and the right to pontificate to the ignorant natives is very much a part of it.
« L’aide est violente, arbitraire, aveugle, imbue d’elle-même. Un monstre paternaliste qui balaie tout sur son passage. Elle fait semblant de résoudre les problèmes qu’elle s’applique à entretenir », critique le cinéaste dans le film.
En marge de la projection, Raoul Peck est intervenu pour souligner l’intérêt de sortir du discours permanent de critiquer l’Etat haïtien dans la gestion de l’aide humanitaire en évoquant comme argument la faiblesse de celui-ci.
Cette tendance empêche d’aborder les discussions structurelles, relatives au sens même de l’aide, explique t-il.
Le cinéaste plaide en faveur de la prise en compte des compétences haïtiennes dans la reconstruction du pays.
« Le terrain est vicié par un ensemble d’influences que nous ne contrôlons pas. Quand quatre-vingt pour cent de l’argent du budget d’un Etat n’est pas entre ses mains, c’est une grande perte de légitimité et de pouvoir », fait-il remarquer.
Soulignant le dysfonctionnement de l’aide, il appelle tous ceux qui sont impliqués dans cette reconstruction à rebattre les cartes et repenser l’ensemble du dialogue enclenché.
"The aid is violent, arbitrary, blind, self-important. A paternalistic monster which sweeps everything in its wake. It acts like it is solving problems that it in fact maintains" says the director of the film.
Raoul Peck intervened to stress the importance of getting out of the discourse of permanently criticizing the Haitian government's management of the humanitarian aid citing the state's weakness.
This tendency avoids structural discussions having to do with the aid itself.
The filmmaker pleads in favor of using Haitian competencies in rebuilding the country.
"The terrain is maligned by a set of influences that we do not control. When 84 percent of the money in a government's budget is not in its hands, it is a huge loss of legitimacy and power" he adds.
Underlining the dysfunction of the aid, he calls on all those implicated in the reconstruction to reshuffle the cards and rethink the conversation."
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| La Troupe Makandal at Pwezi Anba Tonèl last night in Brooklyn. A Haiti Cultural Exchange event. |
