Jan 2, 2015 - JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE NATIVE DNA – DOES NOT MAKE YOU EQUAL TO NATIVES STILL LIVING AND DYING AMONG THEIR PEOPLE by Damon Corrie
Sounds objectionable to ethnic ‘Indians’ (people of Amerindian descent but not actually a part of an intact Tribal Nation)….all of my own almost 300 person wider family fits into this category…yes it is true that I still love them, because they are my blood family after all, but their loyalty is NOT with their Amerindian ancestry, sure a lot of them love to say how ‘proud’ they are to ‘know’ of it…but let us be brutally honest…what exactly are they doing FOR our Amerindian people? Something? Anything? I pledged my loyalty to our Lokono-Arawak tribe in Guyana when I married back into the tribe 22 years ago – and had my children born there on tribal lands, so I do not hold it against them just because no-one else of the almost 300 descendants of our last Chief did the same as me, they no longer see themselves as ‘Lokono-Arawaks’ – just as people with a partial ethnic ancestry that INCLUDES Lokono-Arawak (some see themselves as ‘white’ or ‘black’ people today)…..I have always seen myself as a Lokono-Arawak with some other ethnic ancestries that I can do nothing about (the nuns at my primary school used to tell my mother: “Damon would be our best student if we held all of the classes outdoors under the trees”) ….except to see that my own children have more Arawak and less of anything else in their DNA…and I have done this. Every now and then I encounter some relative in the 300 that has become jealous of the fact that the tribe recognises me and not them, they assume (in European terms) that age and birth order has something to do with assuming the mantle of our ancestral hereditary leadership system of the people….they say “They are closer generationally to the founder-matriarch – so therefore they have a ‘claim’ more valid than mine”…..but this has NOTHING to do with any ‘claim’……it has EVERYTHING to do with ACTIONS…..all who are jealous may list one by one (if they even have done at least one thing for the tribe) ALL the things they have done for the people…..then I shall do the same, if my list is longer than yours…..respectfully step aside – or sit your ass down and shut up. In the eyes of our Tribal Nation in Guyana today – you are just a visitor to the tribe (a descendant of someone their ancestors used to follow)…..I belong to it, and I will die for it – can you honestly say the same?
The people know who Damon Corrie is, and what he has done for the tribe over the last 22 years…..you – they have never heard of.
I have some relatives that are very ‘European-minded’, they are so far from the Amerindian cosmovision of their own ancestors – that I can see that if we were living in a time of war and chaos, they would be more likely to be fighting on the side of Political Nation-State forces AGAINST me and other Tribal Nation forces….in their twisted minds people like me are ‘subversive elements’ and ‘troublemakers’ (just because I say that our people are in fact still living under an illegal occupation and have every right to recover our stolen sovereign independence….they have become real ‘uncle Toms’ that would do anything – to materialize their every wish – and ensure their own self-preservation and VIP invitations to the Rat Race.
Luckily there are others – who will never do what I have done, because it is too radical and life-changing out of their comfort zone, but they would still play the role of a covert support chain to me – so I can be the tip of the spear – in a worst case scenario….so I cherish that flame that still lives on within their souls.
I also see among our Kalinago kin in Dominica, that people of Kalinago descent (‘ethnic Kalinagos’) apply for and secure all kinds of benefits that should really go to Kalinagos who live on the territory, every Kalinago Chief I have known has complained to me personally that: “most of them say they are Kalinagos but they live abroad and never do anything for their people on the territory, when they do visit the territory – most of them do not meet with the Council and offer to help…we do not even know they were here until they have already left and someone tells us…but they are quick to ask the Council to supply them supporting documents so they can apply for scholarships etc in the name of the people”.
In Guyana lots of people who are ethnic Amerindians – but who’s loyalty lies with other peoples above and beyond their own, they LOOK pure and have jobs with big titles that give the casual observer the false impression that they are ‘representatives’ of their people….when in truth they are merely mascots (married to non-Amerindians) of political parties founded and led by other races.
This is why our Shamans talk about ‘where your heart lies’, what blood runs in your veins does not count as much as where your loyalty is….if you have both – great, if you have only one – you are of no consequence to the greater good of the people collectively.
So even though this article applies even to me (before I married back into the tribe because I realised that I was existing as a mere descendant – cut off from the people – where I did not belong) and most will be offended, but it actually is explaining a common dilemma that faces the indigenous communities all over the world.
The sad truth IS – that the majority of ‘Ethnic’ indigenous (by descent) ARE more of a hindrance than a help – to indigenous peoples who share a decent AND active membership in still intact tribal nations, though a minority of descendants will always become great assets to the people when their heart is returned to the right place.
This is a photo of me from 1992 – the year I married back into my ancestral Lokono-Arawak tribe at the age of 19.
READ THE ARTICLE FROM INDIAN COUNTRY HERE:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/12/27/are-ethnic-indians-threat-indigenous-rights-158308