11- 270 Years of Resistance - The Aboriginal People

11- 270 Years of Resistance - The Aboriginal People 

by Audrey, Daniella and Lindsay

This week screening was Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance and as an additional film we watched Le Peuple Invisible; the Invisible Nation. Both films represent the life of Indigenous people and how they are being treated differently than others. Seeing this happen, makes us think about how the world can be unfair at times.  Indigenous peoples are peoples defined in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations that are often politically dominant. Watching these two films we get to see how they try there hardest and still manage to struggle to defend their origins.                  

The Oka Crisis                                                                                                          

On July 11, 1990, a crisis began between Mohawks, the Quebec police and the Canadian army and lasted 78 nerve-wracking days. This crisis was caused because the mayor of Oka wanted to expand the golf course as well as sixty luxury condominiums were planned to be built on Native land. Against that project, Mohawks did everything they could to stop it; they protected their land as their ancestors did for so long before them. This documentary shows how Natives defended their rights against racial and cultural act. 

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

In this 119 minutes documentary, released in 1993, directed by Alanis Obomsawin, we discovered what happened during the Oka crisis in 1990, and the struggles the Mohawks faced to protect their land. Through the movie, Obamsawin interviewed many of these Indigenous people, on their thoughts, and many of them were ready to fight to their death to keep their land . When the Mohawk nation heard about the project to destroy their sacred land for a golf course, they knew they had to do something; they didn’t spend 270 years protecting that land for it to be torn apart for a golf course.  Barricades were built on both sides, the Quebec police where not allowing anyone to enter the village. Oka citizens Mohawks, Iroquois couldn’t get to their homes or their families because of the barricades, they were really mad. They are living in Canada, in a free country, and couldn’t go home, the Mohawks were physically and verbally assaulted by the police. Some were even arrested just for saying what is on their mind, or didn’t want to obey the police. All the arrest were illegal, every Native who got arrested got out of prison with no charges, expect 3 men. All these arrest, because they were protecting their land, their roots, their family. The Canadian army was there too, they were inspecting each bag, packet, box of food before passing it over the barbed wire fence to the Mohawks. They inspected everything that got in our out, making sure no weapons or illegal items were passing through.  The Natives fought together, as a nation, as a community, they protected their land, just like their ancestor did before them.

This week topic was all about Nations and Communities, how a nation can come together and achieve so much. Just like the Natives did, they became one; one strong, connected, helpful community. Together, they protected their land, their rights, and their traditions, everything they were thought as young children by their ancestor. We also learn about Gaia, goddess of earth, mother of all gods,as well as Pachamana, Aztec Goddess of the Earth, and about The Venus of Willendorf. They were able to protect the children, to protect their home, their land. Just like we saw in Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, the women protected their land, fought for their land, they were truly warriors.

Colonialism and Racism were both presented in the film. Colonialism is defined by denying a people’s culture, erasing it, assimilating it.  The natives were fighting because they didn’t want to lose their land, where their ancestors lived, where they made history. By losing their land, they would have lost more than just their homes, they would have lost their culture. Racism is defined by; the hatred of a people based on differences of race and culture, has two effects when it is exposed: empathy for the victims of racism and shame for the perpetrators of racism. The people from Quebec didn’t like how they looked in the film, they were ashamed and it is why it took some time before Alanis Obomsawin was able to show her movie in Quebec, because the Quebecois didn’t wanted to be reminded of what they did in 1990.

If you want to learn more about the Oka crisis, here is articles were Bill Sears, Skaghenhate’, War Chief tells his story.  Click down below to read this article:

                                                                                                              http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/mohawk-warriors-society-revival-campaign-notification/

Le Peuple Invisible; the Invisible Nation                                  

“The Invisible Nation” “You have to know your history. You have to know what is behind you in order to know where you are going. If you do not understand that history, you cannot ever have any vision about where it is you want to go.”

Many years ago, before all of us were here; many different powerful people walked this land; the natives. Three common names we usually think of when we hear the word “native tribes” are the Algonquin, Mohawk and Iroquois. It’s them vs. us; we live in two parallel worlds. Being side by side, but not being able to connect and have peace between each other.  They are the people we don’t often think about, and that we rarely hear about anymore. Although these people have lived on this earth for years and they deliver a huge impact in our world.

The invisible nation that we speak of now is the Algonquin’s. The documentary “The invisible Nation” we viewed is 93 minutes and was written by Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie in the year 2007. The Algonquin’s were harmonious people, owning and occupying a vast , widespread land spanning several territories .The Algonquin’s are located north of Ottawa, along both sides of the Ottawa River, QC Ontario. Living in what they call the “kingdom of blackflies” was were their families rested and where they felt safe and well protected from invaders. The Algonquin’s call themselves the “Anishinaabe” meaning ‘first’ or ‘original peoples’. The “original people”, are the ones who have their own unique path, the ones who celebrate their many traditional values.

As the sixteenth century came along with the European settlers, this caused a huge shift in the Algonquin way of life. Trading and doing business with the French was a great way for receiving new stock and being able to expand. In 1763 the Royal proclamation came rolling around, and the Algonquin lands soon began to populate with the Europeans. Seeing this happen, the Algonquin’s soon realized that this wasn’t intended to protect them, but for their beavers. With the Europeans taking over, destruction began very rapidly. As the years progressed the white men no longer needed the Indians, they only needed there land. In 1850 the authorities decided to take the Indians out of the woods and isolate them, turning the Indian lands into refugee camps. The devilish plan was to throw them out of the woods for thousands of years.

In 1875, Indians were living in the country now called Canada in the province Quebec. Being ruled under the federal government was no happiness for them. Indians were being treated like minors and all the children were being neglected. Being treated unpleasantly, however and whenever the government felt like it. Being treated like an Inferior race, their languages, and their identities were taken away. Stripping off their names, and labelling each person by a number. The land was not given to them the same way; they now received a small 3rd of a territory set with many boundaries. They did not want to give up the land they had stolen, because it was now said to be the land of the loggers and whites.

An evil man by the name of Father Moreau was one of the many major destructionists during this time. Moreau did not like the idea that the Indians still had a standing forest right next to his Parrish. For twenty five long hard years Moreau worked relentlessly to create winning conditions, in order to force the Algonquin’s to leave the forest. Moreau would do referendum after referendums just until the response turned yes and abused his power and harassed people constantly. People were being treated like animals “We got thrown a piece of steak and would have to fight for it, and you would be losing your friends, the government liked that" said by Gloria Nault. Their privileges started to be taken away, their land, food, legal consents weren’t allowed to vote or even get a lawyer. This was becoming a huge problem across Canada and remained un-resolved.

The Canadian government founded the “Amos Indian residential school”in 1955. Kids ages 7-12 had to start school. Having no clue what was happening, they had to follow the rules. Leaving their community and heading towards the unknown. This school was hell for the children. Being separated from their families and loved ones for ten months at a time, and not being able to go home on holidays. Kids were forced to learn new languages, and if they spoke Algonquin they would be punished. Having to learn new rules, and if they did not follow, the children were physical and sexually abused.  All these children were completely disconnected from where they came from and were destroyed within their community.

A quote from Lylas Polson that powerfully caught my attention: “They will never apologize; never accept what they did wrong. Think of the hours they spent trying to separate us, nowadays they want to give us money, but in reality you can’t replace what was done, you can’t buy the wrong they did. You can’t buy anything to take away the memories.”

Sixty years after this very unpleasant journey, the Indian Nedelec reserve is trying to attract back over thousands of forced out Algonquin’s to come back. People don’t want to have to re-live the punishment and harassment that they lived years ago; it’s a huge fear in their eyes. People think that they have great lives on the reserve, but in reality it’s different. They are prisoners in their own community; they have nothing left. No longer do they have access to their traditional lands, the language or stories. They are feeling like ghosts on their own land. Today there are about nine thousand Algonquin’s left. Living but also struggling with human rights and trying to keep their traditional values.

The Colonization of aboriginal peoples is a huge part of the Canadian history. The aboriginal including the Algonquin lost almost 98% of their original lands through legal means such as treaties and the Indian Act. Assimilation is a form of racism. In the film the narrator explains how the aboriginal children were put into boarding school where they would be punished to practice their culture and language, and they were forced to be away from their families and learn the ways of the Europeans.

If you want to learn more about the early history of the Algonquin nation, their background and how they had to live there live through grief, click below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN-I2Ce6hVw

 Linking the two films:                                                                                       

Much can be learned through these two films; Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance and The Invisible Nation. The struggle of being an aboriginal in a country where your basic rights to property and many other things are stripped in the governments need for money and power is evident in these two films. With films such as these we see the past of these nations and the suffering they endured and still endure for the past several hundred years. One begins to think that perhaps all citizens of society can easily be stripped of their basic rights as the aboriginals did in both of these films.

In Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, the director, Alanis Obomsawin goes behind the barriers of the Oka Crisis thus giving us the insiders view. The footage is raw and real, you see how those behind the barrier are living and you also see the brutality of those in authority toward these people that are just trying to protect land that is theirs. The only downfall to think technique is that it can be considered bias. This is because she almost never shows the perspective of those in authority which can be considered one sided. Here is a link of Alanis Obomsawin speaking about her time behind the barrier (starting at 2:00): http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/society/native-issues/general-21/alanis-obomsawin-behind-mohawk-lines.html. 

The Invisible Nation is a film about the struggles of the Algonquin people starting when the European settlers marked their territory on Canadian soil. The directors Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie explain in great detail the history of these people and what they had and still have to endure. Their most predominant technique is the use of factual material. They thoroughly explained the history of these people and how they suffered at the hands of those who believed they were nothing but savages and had to be assimilated. Here is the trailer of the film so you can see a preview of what my group watched:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGKJe84lWY0.

In both of these films the directors openly state that not only the citizens of the world but also the citizens of Canada have no idea what kind of life an aboriginal person lives. These film makers proved to us that not everyone is free in a free country. The films put a mirror in front of our Canadian society to show us that inequality and the mistreatment of people, especially minorities does not only happen in third world countries or any other country but that hits home. That it happens every day in Canada that the aboriginal people are seen as a minority and have their land and their rights stripped from them in their daily lives. If you ask any Canadian about how they view us as a society they would most likely respond by saying that they see us as one of the best and most free countries in the world. But ask an aboriginal that lives on a reserve this question and their answer would be extremely different. These films and many others like it are just trying to show us that the Canadian government is not equal to all and that it is time to give the aboriginal people the same treatment as the rest of society, to face the reality of it.

To conclude, the aboriginal people have been struggling to keep their values and culture since 1608 when the Europeans settled in Canada and took their land and culture away slowly but surely. Needless to say, it’s hard to say that Canada is a “free” country seeing how they treat the first people. Regardless of the argument that the aboriginal people were here first, they still live in Canada, a country of fairness. The racism and unequal treatment they receive is just intolerable and we believe Canada is in denial of these acts. It is time to get educated about the first nation people and understand their suffering and make a difference by helping end the racism. But is it possible to undo 270 years of repression?