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Talking Leaves Forum - a wide ranging discussion forum of indigenous issues from an indigenous perspective
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Untangling Ourselves from the Doctrine of Discovery

When the Vatican repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery on March 30, 2023,  it presented those of us who are Indigenous with the possibility of beginning to disentangle ourselves from harmful historical narratives. We now have an opportunity to complete the task of demolishing and finally laying to rest the (im)moral foundations of a colonial mindset and a pseudo-legal legacy emanating from the US Supreme Court Johnson v M’Intosh decision. We also have an opportunity to unburden ourselves of a long and disempowering tradition of wedding our identity to a victimhood mindset that is entangled with the DoD. This second opportunity may prove to be as much of a challenge as was pressuring the Vatican to repudiate its doctrines.

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