Canada Itself Exists As An Occupation of First Nations’ Territory

northern ontario | indigenous | feature Wednesday July 09, 2008 18:41 by Clarissa Lassaline

Good morning. Bonjour. Anni. Welcome everyone.

Today’s activities have been initiated by a local group called Sudbury Against War and Occupation (SAWO). We are a mixed group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous folks concerned with all forms and consequences of war and occupation. While this includes working against Canadian involvement in war and occupation all over the world, SAWO sees it as central to recognize that Canada itself exists as an occupation of First Nations’ territory and that struggles of Indigenous Peoples against that occupation must be supported. There is an urgent need to support communities standing up for their lands and for their sovereignity and understand how non-indigenous people are a part of and contribute to the continuing violations of that soveriegnity. Mohawk activist of Tyendinaga, Shawn Brant, called for a different way of doing things on National Aboriginal Day last year when he cried out: “We bury our children in this country every day. We have to force them to drink polluted water. We’re sick and tired of it. It’s going to end-June 29 is going to mark the time when First Nations people are going to be in a different relationship with the rest of the country.”

To learn how to build respectful relations between settlers and indigenous peoples SAWO has been attempting to engage in self-education and the holding of events open to the community. These have included Reading Groups and Film Showings followed by discussions on specific First Nation Struggles and how non-indigenous folks can be allies to Indigenous peoples in their struggles. Some members of our group worked to bring renowned Indigenous thinkers and activists Ward Churchill and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz to speak in Sudbury. Earlier this year we assisted in a memorial to honour and create awareness around the hundreds of missing and murdered indigenous women across Canada. We have also become increasingly aware of recent ruthless attempts to criminalize struggles for the land and throw the leaders of these struggles into prison. This has happened at Six Nations and at Tyendinaga, Ardoch Lake and KI. And it was in the context of this renewed violent repression and criminal prosecution that we started organizing for a day of public education, and one where some funds could be raised for local native John Moore of the Serpent River First Nation and his struggle against a racist justice system.

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Bienvenus à cette journée d’éducation populaire et de sensibilisation aux revendications territoriales autochtones. Notre but ici est surtout d’apprendre sur les luttes pour les terres ancestrales et la souveraineté et d’explorer pourquoi les non-autochtones ont la responsabilité de porter leur appui aux autochtones dans leurs luttes contre l’occupation des territoires traditionnels. Les activités de la journée se dérouleront en anglais uniquement mais il y quelques personnes ici aujourd’hui qui peuvent répondre à des questions en français et nous vous encourageons de vous exprimer dans la langue de votre choix.
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There is a need to explore what roles we can play to educate ourselves and others on the roots of colonialism that began here on Turtle Island with many of our ancestors. And the numerous ways the Canadian State through such legal instruments as the Indian Act with its band councils and the Residential School system initiated and maintains to this day colonial practices that discriminate against and oppress the First Peoples of these lands. Much of this has to do with land and ressources which the entity Canada has stolen in all sorts of devious and ruthless ways. It continues to do so in its refusal to deal with indigenous claims to their lands and sovereignity over them, all the while approving land expropriation and granting licenses to forestry and mining companies to exploit and extract those ressources.

Indigenous insurgence and resistance is accelerating because communities everywhere realize that survival of their Nations and culture depends on the defense of their sovereignity and their lands. Serpent River First Nation has recently publicly refused any more uranium mining on its territory because of the damage wrought to the land and to their own physical bodies. And the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (Whitefish Lake First Nations) has launched a claim on the mineral ressources wealth in the Sudbury area, their traditional territory. There have been important victories with these struggles against colonial occupation as in the very recent one won by Grassy Narrows who have struggled for over 10 years against the giant Abitibi-Bowater which has finally agreed to remove itself from the Whisky Jack Forest, ¾ of which covers Grassy Narrows traditional territory. Activists leaders at KI up North and Ardoch Lake have also recently been released from prison after being charged for maintaining blockades on their territory in spite of court orders. In Tyendinega, however, the activists protecting their quarry continue to be brutally treated by both police and the prison system. The murder of unarmed Dudley George at Ipperwash for protecting, along with others, land sacred to his people is turning out to be a lesson unlearned. The Ipperwash Inquiry made constructive findings and recommendations regarding policing, decision-making, the wrongful use of force against indigenous people and the racist demeanor of Ontario’s then-Premier Harris and the police.

So it is in such contexts that we need to understand what the Canadian State is doing and not doing in our name. We need to look at the recent Residential School apology and realize how long it took for the government to offer this apology and the decades of indigenous struggle it took to make that happen. We need to look at its limitations. On the one hand the government apologizes for policies and practices of past assimilation on the part of the Canadian State but on the other hand does not recognize the resulting genocide that remains ongoing through the children’s aid society and health and education practises. This same government refuses to act in consultation with First Nations even as it continues to find ways to dispossess them. And this same government of Canada has refused to sign the United Nations declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

In the spirit of contextualizing current government practices of colonialism and resistance to the colonial project, SAWO, with the support of Myths and Mirrors (itself involved in indigenous solidarity around the land through Mining Watch - who opens their space here for today’s event but also on an ongoing basis for our activist work) has organised this event. We see it as part of a build-up to a much larger public education event we are working on for the Fall, which will feature speakers from many of the indigenous communities currently in struggle. In preparation, and to help us begin to understand the great need to decolonize ourselves and the land, there is a workshop today in which land claims struggles will be approached through the Teaching Blanket. There is also an important workshop that specifically raises questions settlers interested in solidarity with indigenous struggles need to address.

I think it’s appropriate to close with a few words from the most recent issue of Briarpatch because they speak very well to something SAWO is trying to do here: … public opinion in favour of the just, prompt resolution of Native land claims has not yet translated into public indignation, let alone mass action. Until non-Natives are blocking highways and railways in direct solidarity with their Native brothers and sisters, indigenous struggle will most likely be met with state-sanctioned violence and repression, and Shawn Brant’s call for settlers to establish a new relationship with Native peoples will remain unanswered.”

Thankyou for coming out today. Miigwetch. Merci