Everyone Calls Themselves an Ally Until it Is Time to Do Some Real Ally Shit 

Xhopakelxhit is a Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth, and Snuneymuxw matriarch, medicine maker, water protector, and activist who works in collaboration with Ancestral Pride. An Indigenous organization founded in Ahousaht First Nation in Canada, Ancestral Pride endeavors to reconnect Indigenous peoples with their ancestral lands by reclaiming sovereignty from non-Indigenous occupiers. Xhopakelxhit produced two zines under the umbrella of Allyship Zines: Everyone Calls Themselves an Ally Until it Is Time to Do Some Real Ally Shit and When Being An Ally Turns into Being an Appropriator (Settler Conduct and Self Check). Both publications provide a roadmap for those interested in supporting Indigenous land rights and combating cultural appropriation.

Ahousaht is a Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation situated on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. In the Nuu-chah-nulth language, Ahousaht means “people living with their backs to the land and mountains” and “facing opposite from the ocean.” The Indigenous peoples of this region have faced forced assimilation going back to 1895, when the Presbyterian Church established a day school near the Maaqtusiis (Maktosis) reserve where Indigenous language and customs were usurped by white, Christian ideals.