(1921-2001)
Revolutionary Métis Marxist scholar and professor Howard Adams grew up in a Métis community in Saskatchewan. He was a leader in the struggle for Indigenous rights, selfdetermination, and socialism.
The native nation, in a state of archaic suspension for the last hundred years, will break out of its colonial molds. Nationalism will usher in a new humanism and harmony that will set native culture in motion once again and open the doors to new cultural developments. This revival of culture will not be refined or sophisticated but it will be vigorous. Formalism and ritualism will be abandoned in favor of new forms of expression that will depict struggle, freedom, vitality, and hope.
Since red nationalism is essential to Indian/Metis liberation, it must be a spearhead force for the native movement, and must provide the machinery for educating the masses politically. Since the cultural awakening is only one stage of liberation, steps must be taken to ensure that the national consciousness will develop its political aspects as well.
Excerpt from "Decolonization and Nationalism" in Prison of Grass: Canada from a Native Point of View (Fifth House Publishers, 1989)
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