08/14/2026
Now that “colonial” and “colonized” seem to be the catchwords of this era, I’m gonna throw one out there:
Diabetes is colonial. LOL.
So if you got diabetes, maybe you’re colonized too.
Maybe decolonizing isn’t only about ceremony, language, politics, or how somebody else thinks. Maybe it’s also about what’s on your plate.
Maybe it means going back to traditional foods, moving your body, looking after yourself, and understanding that wellness was never only spiritual.
We talk about the Medicine Wheel: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. All four. Not just the one that is convenient to talk about.
You can pray every day and still neglect your body.
You can talk about decolonizing and still live on food that is making you sick.
You can know every teaching and still ignore your mental and emotional health.
That isn’t balance.
And it’s kind of funny how language moves through our communities. “Colonized” feels like the cousin of “lateral violence,” which was the term everybody was throwing around a few years back. Before COVID, everything was lateral violence. Today, everything is colonized.
Sometimes we even use the word colonized in a lateral way—another label to throw at somebody because they think differently, live differently, or don’t fit somebody else’s idea of what Indigenous is supposed to look like.
Different word. Same possibility for disrespect.
I prefer an older word.
Respect.
Respect for yourself.
Respect for other people.
Respect for your body.
Respect for food.
Respect for medicines.
Respect for your mind.
Respect for your spirit.
If you genuinely practiced respect, a lot of what we now call lateral violence wouldn’t happen.
And maybe decolonization starts there too—not with judging everybody else, but with having enough self-respect to look after all four parts of yourself.
So yeah…
Diabetes is colonial.
There’s your controversial thought for the day.
A thought from the mind of your favorite uncle, Rich Unk — Dopest Natives Alive.
Chime in the comments.
