TEXAS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S INTEREST GROUP
LAND BACK
Texas Indigenous People's Interest Group (the TIPI Group, or TIPI) is a collective of Indigenous and First Nations people based in Central Texas on Tickanwa•tic and Numunuu land. TIPI is focused on Indigenous sovereignty, mutual aid, and abolition. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and activists fighting for racial justice.
We are primarily focused on outreach and resource sharing—particularly while due to the COVID-19 pandemic, event planning is on hold.
Austin-area Indigenous activists and allies are encouraged to get in touch with TIPI and stand with us for Indigenous interests.
CORE BELIEFS
We believe the United States of America is a "country" that exists immorally on stolen land, and that—should the state wish to pay reparations—the land must be returned to its rightful Peoples. We believe that even if the state does not wish to pay reparations, the land must be returned to its rightful Peoples.
We believe in racial justice and in the importance of Black lives. We believe that a crucial element of the United States' reparations must be paid to Black people who have been subjugated and abused by the state since its inception.
We believe in the abolition of policing, the criminal justice system, and the oppressive structures which make it impossible to live safely as a marginalized person. We believe in outreach, harm reduction, and decriminalization.
We believe in water and land protection, and in working to heal the land we live on. We believe that the capitalist, colonizing forces who have polluted the Earth must be stopped before they can do more damage.
We believe in cripping[1] activism: creating radical space for disabled people to participate and be heard, valuing cripple insight over abled arrogance, and holding intersectionality sacred. We believe in cripping the world, and raising up our sick and disabled as well as our elders, as the Peoples have always done.
We believe in the power and spirit in every Indigenous activist who fights against oppressive structures, and in our collective ability to dismantle those structures.
[1] From "Cripping the Comic Con": Using the terms “crip” and “cripping” is one way of “taking back” language and power from the people who and the institutions and systems that have used it... to harm and demean disabled people, including certain at times “crippling” physical disabilities... Language, control, and social power are thus asserted by disabled people, who have the right to speak for ourselves and act on our own behalf... by using the terms “cripping” and “crip"... one may claim that a host of well-meaning diagnoses, labels, treatments, options for intervention, and medical cures have the potential to be unwelcomed by — if not harmful to – the individuals they are designed to “help.”
Individuals with disabilities and disability identities have the right to exist, to make our own choices, and to be expected, included, and welcomed in all societal spheres. Individuals who are disability identified have ownership of our own bodies, minds, ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
Projects
Follow the below links to learn about some of the things we are raising awareness about.
Contact
You can find us in any of the following places.