Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author and artist

Julian Brave NoiseCat, author

Nicole Willis, political consultant

Moderated by Jaskiran Dhillon and Bernard E. Harcourt

April 12, 2018

The following is a short film made by Metis filmmaker Cara Mumford for Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s song-poem “Leaks” from her album, Islands of Decolonial Love. The music is written and performed by Tara Williamson, and the video was made with the help of Rulan Tangen, Minowewebeneshiinh Simpson and the support of Marrie Mumford.

April 12, 2018 from 6:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Jerome Greene Annex

Columbia University

The Standing Rock protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline during 2016-2017 built on decades, or rather centuries, of resistance to ongoing colonial dispossession and dehumanization—or, in the judicious words of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, to four centuries of “conquest, genocide, expansive dispossession, unfettered capitalist exploitation, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy and environmental apocalypse.” The long history—and its present manifestation—is indeed a travesty of justice and inhumanity. There are no other words to describe it.

We gather at Uprising 12/13 to explore and discuss the unique dimensions of what we are calling “Standing Ground,” in honor of Standing Rock, as a specific modality of revolt. Although it shares certain features with other forms of resistance that we have already analyzed—features such as nonviolence (which we explored in our session on Satyagraha), breaking silence (which we discussed in the nave of Riverside Church on the anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.), or social media and digitization with #NoDAPL (which we explored both in the context of the Arab Uprisings and #BlackLivesMatter), we encounter with Standing Ground/Standing Rock certain dimensions that are novel or more accentuated than elsewhere:

a domestic, American story of ongoing anti-colonial struggle
an encampment as a form of resettlement
a gathering of multiple sovereignties as a form of “counter-sovereignty”
a spirituality tied to the land and water
a target of counterinsurgency warfare strategies.

Our Uprising 12/13 session will explore these unique dimensions of Standing Ground/Standing Rock with four exceptional artists, activists, and scholars: author and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author Julian Brave NoiseCat, professor Jaskiran Dhillon, and political consultant Nicole Willis.

Welcome to Uprising 12/13!