CPT creates Turtle Island Solidarity Network

In the wake of the closure of the full-time Indigenous People’s Solidarity Team due to necessary budget cuts at Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), the new Turtle Island Solidarity Network comprised of reservists who are engaged in Indigenous solidarity and decolonization has been created.

Turtle Island is the Indigenous name for North America. 

The new network will strive to take part in actions, be available for accompaniment, provide opportunities for education and advocacy, and work in coalition with other groups. By working together across Turtle Island, the network will work to erase the colonial border between Canada and the United States. 

This two-year pilot project will enable reservists to network and include the advocacy they are already doing as part of CPT. At the same time, CPT will support them through networking calls and opportunities for advocacy.

The mandate of the network is to encourage Indigenous Solidarity within CPT and its constituency through:

• Indigenous Solidarity: Actions, events, accompaniment, petitions and advocacy.
• Settler education: “Undoing oppressions” workshops, resources on dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery, and presentations to educate CPT’s constituency.
• Coalition-building to support Indigenous rights and the struggles of CPT’s partners.
• Undoing settler colonialism: Providing guidance to the CPT body on how it can undo settler colonialism—including the Doctrine of Discovery and ideology of terra nullius—within the CPT organization.

Related story:
CPT closes Indigenous solidarity team