by Marta Tahja-Syrett
Disclaimer: I have written this letter to highlight the direct experiences conveyed to me by an Indigenous student at Evergreen. Technically, when conveying personal statements of fact, a journalist must state that the witness “alleges” these things occurred. But how can a person “allege” their own experience. Did you “allegedly” wake up this morning? Are you “allegedly” reading this right now? Over the centuries, oppressed people have had their accounts of reality devalued, obscured or called flat-out lies. “Alleged” is often in the eye of the beholder, especially when one party has much more systemic power than other involved parties. In that spirit, I ask you to listen and understand what one student “alleges” in the following piece. Insert the word wherever you see fit.
Dear Evergreen,
We need to talk. I have some questions. Your motto Omnia Extares roughly translates to “In All Respects, Stand Out.” Even more deeply, it conveys that all things will be exposed. So, why is it that you punish some students for aligning themselves with your own professed ideals? Maybe the answer to this question lies within the testimony of one of your Indigenous community members, who has been willing to rock the boat in the sea of your silence.
Evergreen, aren’t you supposed to be an advocate for Indigenous land rights?
In the fall of 2018, a student named Tony Draper first walked through your doors. Draper enrolled in the Native Pathways Program (NPP), impassioned by the opportunity to study Indigenous-based teachings, which they believed would help them to better serve their tribe along with Indigenous peoples as a whole. Within their coursework, they immediately were drawn to explore critical topics affecting Evergreen’s community. Draper spoke about how Evergreen should consider having local tribes collaboratively manage the school’s reserve lands, this arrangement having the potential to remedy issues pertaining to fire hazards and polluted run-off.
Evergreen, why are you not holding up the voices of those who have been systemically silenced?
In addition to addressing tribal land management, Draper spent their time within the NPP looking at other points of inequity, such as how Registration and Records’ delays in turning over academic records “ … has a negative impact on students who are renewing quarterly tribal scholarships with deadlines to submit transcripts.” Throughout their Evergreen experience, Draper has continued to stand up for the rights of Indigenous people, while also highlighting the ways in which anti-Indigenous systems of power are being reproduced all around us, yes, even here in your hallowed halls of social justice. Despite tireless efforts to shed light on racism, Draper has not been allowed to stand out and be heard.
Evergreen, isn’t it your responsibility to work against the ways in which oppressive power structures show up at your institution?
Draper’s activism didn’t cease when they began working as an election commissioner for the Geoduck Student Union (GSU) in October of 2019. While reviewing the GSU’s constitution, policies and bylaws, Draper spotted inconsistencies that they felt were causing minority students, specifically those from the NPP, to be barred from representative opportunities. Draper noted that “Failure to follow policy during the Fall 2019 student election resulted in incumbent student representatives, in paid positions, being able to keep their seats without competing.” Within the GSU’s actions, Draper saw a lack of democracy that was harmful to some minority students seeking visibility.
Evergreen, why do you refuse to take action when Indigenous students call on you to help them?
As the school year continued, Draper’s experience with anti-Indigeneity, endorsed on an institutional level, met with more personal forms of harassment. During a specific incident, a facilitator made the remark that Draper could bring “feathers and drums” to the Equity Symposium. Following the interaction, Draper became more vocal about the anti-Indigenous stereotypes being pushed onto them. Draper believes that they were later targeted and surveilled by certain GSU members, along with members of a minority student union, due to their outspokenness on the mistreatment of Indigenous people.
Additionally, Draper believes that a leave of absence that they had to take because of a personal emergency sparked one GSU member, in particular, to call them a “shit-eater” and “useless.” After saying that the GSU should better accommodate disabled students, Draper was accused of having a “colonial mindset.” This same GSU member also frivolously filed for a restraining order against Draper, stating that they were a “cannibal,” “dissociative psychotic,” “violent minority” and a potential “school shooter.” Because of this person’s claims, Draper was threatened with forced gun seizure, mental health evaluation and substance abuse testing. Public records left Draper’s home address, as well as the names of their family members, exposed to doxxing. The case against Draper was later, unsurprisingly, dismissed for a lack of evidence.
After enduring continued harassment from individuals within the GSU, Draper filed formal internal complaints, along with a Title IX discrimiation complaint. Even after having made these efforts to stand up against verbal accosts, Draper said, “To date there has been no justice in my case from the administration.”
Evergreen, why are you withholding guaranteed rights from an Indigenous graduate candidate?
The lack of fairness illustrated within the prior incident isn’t reflective of the only time when Draper was left in a stranded position due to Evergreen’s deferred action. On Feb. 3, 2020, Draper applied to Evergreen’s MPA in Tribal Governance program. Due to ethical concerns revolving around anti-Indigenous discrimination within the field of higher education, the administration assured Draper that their previous grievances would be made separate from the graduate admissions process. At the time of writing, a formal decision still has not been made on behalf of Draper’s application, despite the fact that some of the program’s candidates were accepted months ago. Draper believes that, in part, their application is still being reviewed because of some satirical emails they sent out months ago, criticizing the harassment they faced while at Evergreen. Draper thinks that these correspondences are being used against their graduate study pursuits. After attending a meeting about their fitness for the MPA program, Draper wrote to leading attendees that “ … those emails did make it to you, being sent to you by your assistant directors as you stated today, and the fact that they were considered in the graduate admissions process is a perpetuation of damaging libel, slander, defamation of character and malicious gossip … ”
Evergreen, will you stop denying the strengths and abilities of your community?
In an email sent to Draper on June 4, 2020, an academic dean stated that Evergreen needed to be sure about Draper’s ability to contribute positively within the MPA’s learning environment, and that graduate applicants must possess emotional intelligence. Anyone willing to sit down and have a conversation with Draper will quickly see that they are someone who speaks from the heart, seeking out opportunities to make the world a better place in the face of ongoing systemic oppression. Draper speaks for all of our brown-skinned grandmothers and great-grandfathers who have been forced into silence by persistent physical and cultural genocide. They speak to resist holocaust, and because they understand that healing is multi-generational. To the steps of truth, Draper brings a sense of fearlessness that every graduate program should be trying to coax out of students — this burning passion shows through in all of their writing, along with their strategic storytelling techniques.
As the co-coordinator of the Cooper Point Journal, I have worked alongside many writers as well as editors, and I can confidently say that Draper’s capabilities are unmatched at this school. Taking away the future of one of your Indigenous students due to the frustration that they have expressed in regard to their own abuse feels like a familiar scenario within the context of colonization. Those who express distress stemming from oppression oftentimes get labeled as the aggressor — the one who decides to strike back called the instigator. Hundreds of years of systemic violence rest on the back of your institution, and it is time to set it down. It is time to let voices like Draper’s rise up without repercussions. As Angela Davis said within an interview for Democracy Now!, “ … any campaigns against racism in this country have to address, in the very first place, the conditions of Indigenous Peoples … ”
Evergreen, with your motto, you encourage students to stand out and expose all of their truths. Today, and in every day to come, will you use your institutional power to ensure that Omnia Extares is a principle of truth for all people at this school, as opposed to some?
Sincerely,
Marta Tahja-Syrett
Creative Director – The Cooper Point Journal
B.A., June 2020 (Third-Generation Evergreen Student)
We R Knot Aloud 2 Say
by Tony Joseph
We are not allowed to say
after being raped and
molested and
forcibly impregnated and
murdered by the millions
by the conquistador
priest
and sadistic nun
murderous monk
and teacher preacher
slave owner
and pilgrim with gun
soldier and policeman
that their churches and
military bases and
police stations and
banks and
all their shit
should be heavily taxed for reparations
and then burned to the ground
We are not allowed to say
after being terrorized
and beaten
and bullied
and dirtied
and sullied
and buried behind
schools
according to the usual genocidal rules
that they should all be torn down
brick by brick
by little brown hands
and erased
in disgrace
and never replaced
We are not allowed to say
after all the missing and murdered
and drugged and mugged
after all the usury and abuse-ury
payday loans
dirty broken pay phones
plasma banks
drunk tanks
whiskey sips
needles pricks
in cold wet alleys
urban death valleys
that the cities should all go dark
every spark
extinguished
revenge for these
We are not allowed to say
after their millions of massacres
for the last and next thousand years
and everybody drowning
in the tears
that they should be finally and totally overthrown
and driven back across the sea
We are not allowed to say
anything angry
when we should be rage
never ending
instead we are
always careful
to never be offending
for they’ll only have us
forgiving and fawning
but we know forgetting
equals dying
We are not allowed to say
bring back the guillotine and noose and firing squad and electric chair and lethal needle
for these politicians and their attendant death tolls and
horror scenes
We are not allowed to say
while the Earth runs red
with our blood
that those who take babies
from mama’s breasts in the night
and take so much delight
shaming and claiming
abducting and renaming
should be the ones eternally locked in cages
We are not allowed to say
that all these old white men
stinking of Russian perfume
are no longer of any fucking use
O Lady Liberty
with your silver veins
and golden chains
how does it feel
to be one of the abused?
