۴ - Memoricide

Today, we're talking about Memoricide.

This is the part of genocidal tactics that targets the memory. That targets the coffee shops you used to study at, the library you used to read in, the bench you used to watch the ocean waves mingle with the shore. It targets the amphitheater you graduated in, the yard you planted trees in, and the roads that led to everyone you love and hold dearly. It also targets your photographs, your identity papers and documents.

This very idea is the reason it is so important to archive. It is so important to capture. To create a wealth of evidence that we are here. A massive divide I continue to notice between colonizer and indigenous is this very idea. Indigenous are taught to leave no trace, to trust the land for what it bears and that our legacy is to leave it untouched, to be forgotten.

Colonizers believe that legacy is to leave your mark on the world. Where has that got us?