52. Let's Talk about Pretendians
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52. The Pretendian Wound
Pretendians are European settlers who take on false Indigenous identity. It comes from wounding. It comes from being cut off from Land and Source.
We are called by Land to Belong, but this is not the way.
Transcript
Lezley (00:12):
Hey folks, let's talk about pretends. Okay, before I start, a couple caveats. First, I'm talking to settlers. I'm talking to European settlers. We're the ones that need to know about this, okay? Indigenous people already know are well aware of this. I find that European descendants do not. The second is anything I say about this in this video in no circumstances means that I condone or accept or allow pretend or the grift or European settlers falsely claiming Indigenous status. If you're not aware, pretends are European settlers who claim Indigenous status. They claim to be Indigenous. They insert themselves into Indigenous spaces, take Indigenous resources, win Indigenous awards, all the while not participating in Indigenous culture and not having the authority or the legitimacy to be knowledge keepers or to be teaching, or to be presenting an Indigenous worldview, not on Turtle Island. This is a fruit of colonialism.
Lezley (01:38):
This is a fruiting of spiritual wounding. This is a fruiting of cutoff, spiritual and ancestral and cultural cutoff. It is the fruit of an unhealed ancestral wound, and it's the wound of cutoff, specifically from land, specifically from our own spiritual source. This is the result of the ancestral inheritance of cutoff, where we are specifically, and I'm going to speak specifically from my own experience as an Irish, Scottish, English Welsh descendant on Turtle Island on Mahiki ee, we have an unhealed ancestral wound of cutoff from the land because of the way our own ancestors were colonized, how our ancestors were cut off from their language, cut off from their culture, cut off from their connection to land by colonizers and by Christianity. Christianity said that our traditional ways of knowing our to our direct relationship with spirit and the unseen and with land was evil, not allowed, sinful, whatever Christianity said it was.
Lezley (02:54):
All of that contributed to this ancestral wound of cutoff. Add to that, our ancestors fleeing our original Indigenous homelands, Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, our ancestors fled from the cutoff and from the oppression and from the trauma, either by force or by choice. Not all of us came willingly and then came to Turtle Island, came to Mahiki ee, and then visited that same trauma on the Indigenous peoples here. This is all there for us to heal in our roots. Attempting to connect to Indigenous roots without healing our own first is literally an ongoing traumatization and an ongoing colonialization. Taking on Indigenous identity is literally standing on someone else's ground. See how that is an extension of colonialization ongoing and it's spiritual, philosophical, emotional colonization. Taking on Indigenous identity as a settler is accepting unearned authority because you haven't yet done the work to belong to the land.
Lezley (04:08):
There is a transformation happening on the planet and it is a reconnecting to the land. And with that comes re-enchantment. With that comes magic and beauty and knowing in a way that Europeans haven't allowed. This is really important. The reconnecting to the land, the re-enchantment of the land. You cannot be an embodied individual without healing your roots. You cannot be spiritually embodied here without healing your roots and connecting to the land. It's all about the land. It really is. We're in the world of land. We're in the world of form. It's all about the land. The land is a gatekeeper, except the land doesn't keep anything from us. We keep it from ourselves, and that's the cutoff. This is what's being healed right now. This connection to land is being healed. It's coming into our consciousness. The more we talk about it, the more it's going to happen and it's resulting in re-enchantment. That's the re-enchantment of this world and it's fucking beautiful. Protectionism is a symbol of a spiritual wound. It'ss another symbol of the work that European settlers, European descendants have to do on this land, because you literally carry, your body is literally made by Turtle Island.
Lezley (05:41):
You literally, you belong to the land, fucking hee. Whatever's in the way of that, heal your roots, reconnect to land. It's valuable and it's important. And I understand this draw. I understand draw because I had the same inclination when I was in my early twenties. There was a deep draw, and I think there is a deep draw for those who are searching and yearning for reconnection. There is a draw to Indigenous knowledge. There's a draw to Indigenous wisdom. How could there not be? The Indigenous people of Turtle Island are people of the land. They know the land. They belong to the land. They know what we need to thrive. I understand the need, the very deep and often unconscious need to feel connected to land, to be connected to source. Christianity didn't give that to us. Unfortunately. Christianity cut us off from the land further and said that the only way to source is through spirit and through the church.
Lezley (06:53):
I mean, none of that's real. None of it's helpful and it's just another wound that we have to heal. So I understand the draw to roots. I understand the draw to rooting and feeling the need to be rooted, but there's nothing in Western society that gives legitimacy to that or gives you a pathway of healing. But pretending is taking on Indigenous identity. Gross. Gross. And I see it also as the root of anyone who's a European descendant that goes to other cultural grounds. It's all seeking to fulfill a need that needs to be worked on within self. The roots of European descendants on Turtle Island are what need to be healed. And we don't and cannot do that through looking to other cultures, and we definitely can't do that by taking on Indigenous identity. Because here's the thing on Turtle Island, what European settlers are doing, what European descendants are doing is becoming Indigenous to this land. It's required. The land wants you to belong to them. The land already knows us as belonging to them. It's up to us to catch up. That was fucking really long. Look at 11 minutes. Bullshit. Love you. Bye.
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Pretendians are European settlers who take on false Indigenous identity. It comes from wounding. It comes from being cut off from Land and source.
We are called by Land to Belong, but this is not the way.