G7 brings Ward Churchill to Winnipeg this weekend

This one’s for all the locals: given you are reading this, you may well have heard of Ward Churchill. Churchill is one of the most outspoken Native American activists and scholars in North America, and a leading analyst of indigenous issues.

Ward Churchill will speak at the newly established Rudolph Rocker Cultural Centre (located on the 3rd floor of 91 Albert Street) on Saturday April 28th at 7 PM on the topic of colonialism at home and abroad in a lecture entitled Colonialism: Past, Present and Future. Admission is by donation, and a question period will follow his talk.

Churchill earned international infamy in 2005 when Fox “News” personality and far-right mouthpiece Bill O’Reilley launched a smear campaign against him that resulted in Churchill’s life being threatened, his home vandalized and his career as Professor of Ethnic Studies and Coordinator of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado jeopardized.

In the subsequent climate of political correctness, the University of Winnipeg Student Association, in collaboration with the University of Winnipeg Aboriginal Student Council, revoked their invitation for Churchill to speak (without explanation) on campus in 2005.

Apparently, neither academic freedom nor excellence are on the agenda for the U of W, despite the fact that there has been a mass international mobilization of academics to Churchill’s defense against the myriad smears and allegations against him in this character-assassination campaign, a partial list of whom appears at the end of this post.

Thankfully, independent and clear-headed factions within each University — the University of Manitoba History Department, and CKUW 95.9 FM at the University of Winnipeg — along with G7 Welcoming Committee Records, refuse to succumb to the destabilization campaign that’s been leveled against Ward, instead favouring free public discourse of the nature one would expect to reign supreme in a democratic society.

Here’s but a partial list of academics and Individuals standing in solidarity with Ward Churchill (see here for more on his defense against the witch hunt):

• Noam Chomsky, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Kathleen Cleaver, Senior Research Fellow, Emory Law School; Lecturer, African American Studies, Yale University
• Jim Craven (Blackfoot), Professor of Economics and Chair, Business Division, Clark College
• Carrie Dann (Western Shoshone), elder and activist
• Elisa Facio, Assoc. Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado-Boulder
• Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice, Princeton University
• Jennifer Harbury, attorney, author and human rights activist
• Evelyn Hu-Dehart,Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University
• Moana Jackson (Maori), attorney and professor, Auckland, New Zealand
• Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe), activist and author
• Barbara Mann (Seneca), author and lecturer, University of Toledo
• Dr. Russell Means, Esq., Oglala Lakota Patriot, activist, author and attorney
• Glenn T. Morris (Shawnee), Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado – Denver
• Natsu Taylor Saito, Professor, Georgia State University College of Law
• David E. Stannard, Professor of American Studies, University of Hawai’i
• Haunani-Kay Trask (Kanaka Maoli), Professor, Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai’i
• Sharon Venne (Cree), attorney and author, Edmonton, Alberta
• Robert A. Williams, Jr. (Lumbee), Professor, University of Arizona Law School
• Michael Yellow Bird (Arikara-Hidatsa), Assoc. Professor, Indigenous Nations Studies, University of Kansas

Posted by Jesus H. Chris on April 23rd, 2007 in Commentary