This Film was made in 1992 by Alec Maclead. The film is about the mohawk crisis the events that happened in Kahnwake, Quebec back in 1990. A group of mohawks that called themselves the warriors made a barricades to protect the pines the place that the government was trying to expand a golf course onto aboriginal burial grounds. When the warriors did not open the barricades the army became very violent and the two were at war with each other. Many Mohawk women are on the film showing their support for the community and to the warriors by voicing their opinion to the public and protesting while the warriors were fighting inside the barricade. The film has many interviews with many different people, the film is not one sided and shows different things that were happening in and outside the community.
The Atlantic Aboriginal Economic research program was a group of elders that came together for a gathering in Millbrook to discuss ideas on how to pass mi'kmaq traditional knowledge. Many elders voiced different ways to spread traditional knowledge, the elders talk about who is an elder, what is traditional knowledge and how to honour it, they discuss about making an elders group with elders all across Nova Scotia, issues in community and strategies to overcome these problems in communities, and the guard line to respect an elder.
Elders are very important to every community we need their knowledge and teachings so that us the younger generation does not forget who we are and where we came from.
Class Lecture
The class lectures help me understand Aboriginal title, treaties and rights. For example I never took part in conservations that my father used to share with my mother and other people in the community about Mi'kmaq treaties and rights. I asked him why he did not share these teachings with me. He responded back "It was not me it was you" which was true I never took the time to listen and I never tried to learn them because to me it was not important. The class lectures made me realize how important it is for me to know my rights and treaties. It also got me thinking about how I can make change or how can I help explore more about Mi'kmaq right and treaties. Now I find myself talking about what I have learn in class, videos, guest speakers, elders and sharing them with other .
The video dancing around the table part 1 and 2 was made in 1987 by Maurice Bulbulian. The film deals with the struggles that aboriginal people have had for self government for years. In 1983,1984 and 1985 many aboriginal people took part in a conference with the prime ministers and chairmen of Nova Scotia to fight for Mi'kmaq self government. In 1983, 1984 and 1985 the aboriginal people went to the conference hoping that the prime minister and chairmen would make the change to the constitution act. Sadly after each conference they still would not negotiations the change.
Instead the primister try to negotiation something that would have no benefits to aboriginal people. They had no interest in changing the constitution act instead they wanted the aboriginal feel like they had no choices and that they had to take the deal presented infront of them. In the end the deal was to keep aboriginal people stuck in the same position they always were in. Maybe the thought for them was if we keep them out of sight and out of mind we wont have to deal with these people.
The Mi'kmaq Rights Initiative video helps give knowledge on what is happening about Mi'kmaq rights and treaties. The video shows how people are trying to get Mi'kmaq rights and treaties recognize and how they are . The team involved are negotiators, researcher and Mikmaq advisors they call themselves The Assembly Of Nova Scotia they do not make any decisions without the consent of all 15 chiefs of Nova Scotia. The Assembly and the Chiefs of Nova Scotia have five pillars that they are excersing and they are:
1. achieve recognition, acceptance, implementation and protection of treaty, title, and other rights of the Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia; 2. develop systems of Mi'kmaq governance and resource management; 3.revive, promote and protect a healthy Mi'kmaq identity; 4.obtain the basis for a shared economy and social development; and 5. negotiate toward these goals with community involvement and support.
With having these five pillars the assembly and chiefs are on the right path on reaching all 5 pillars and once all five are reached it will be a huge deal for all the Mikmaq people in Nova Scotia and many people will be satisfied with the results.
The picture posted above is a picture of Jack Woodard, he is the one speaking in the video. Jack works for a full-service law firm working with First Nations, Aboriginal organizations, Aboriginal companies and Tribal Associations and he is the author of the novel Native Law. In this video he talks about aboriginal title in British Columbia and how the crown and provincial government has choose to ignore and not deal with the problem on who's owns the land. They do recognize that aboriginal do have aboriginal title on 45 percent of land claimed in British Columbia but still choose to ignore the issue. The people that will be affected by this problem when it is resolved are the tax payers and the investors. The reason why the investors will be affected when the change occurs is because many of these investor have money that they invested into these lands, the land that is rightfully owned by aboriginal people and the land they will eventually get back.
Video #2 Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance
Alanis Obomsaw went to a mohawk community called Kanehsatake to film what was happening to the community. The events that happened in this film was in 1990 the members of Kanehsatake were in rage by the decisions that were being made about their land by the mayor of Oka. He wanted to expand a golf course from seven holes to twelve holes. So this had meant he wanted to built into the pines, the land where it was a spiritual burial ground owned to the mohawks. The community created a group of 30 men, 19 women, 7 children, 1 spiritual leader and 1 traditional leader and they called themselves "The Warrior" the men in the group were the ones who were to fight and protect the land. The warriors set up a road block to prevent anyone other then the members or people they had decided to let into the community, when the warriors did not take down the road block like demanded by the army. The Canadian Army then tried to bully their way onto the land but The Warrior did not scare easily and continued to protest. They kept the Canadian army on the other side of the barricade and away from the land this was done for the safety of the warriors and so this way the army could not take over the land.
At one point guns were fired on both sides and one of the Mohawk warrior was shot and later died. Even though the warrior were afraid and were unsure what may happen to them they were determined to protect the pines. The warrior had set up larger and better barricades after a while to be sure to kept the army from coming onto the land that they later will take down the community leaders had a meeting and made the agreement with the non natives parties that were involved that they will agree to take down the barricades thinking they will to proceed with making the golf course. The Mohawk people were treated unfairly and with respect as they thought that was apart of the agreement but the army did not treat the people with respect and took over everything including the pines. The warrior were very upset with how the army was taking over and treating them unfair and decided they will not give up and decided to regrouped but this time at a local place in the community and they did continued the protest.
The protest went on for 78 days before the warriors decided it was time for them to go home they were sick of the living conditions, lack of food and they had missed their families and it was time to go back to their regular life style . The warrior were happy with the fight that they had fought and they all say they did not give up or surrender. When the decision was made and it was time for the warriors to go home they had walked out passed the army's bob wire fences and then arrested and token into custody. The community members are very proud of warriors and the fight that the community went though to fight for the land owned by them, they believe that even though they are not protesting the way they did before the fight is not over until the issue with the land is resolved.
The film Incident at Restigouche was filmed by an mi'kmaq women named Alanis Obomsawin, she film the video in the first nation community called Restigouche in 1984. The event that had occurred in Restigouche in 1981 was that the Quebec government decided to restrict fishing for mi'kmaq people in the community. The Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) raided Restigouche on June 11,1981 and then again on June 20th 1981. They had seized and destroyed all the fishing nets that they had discovered in the community and also in the river. The QPP had invaded the whole community and the mikmaq people had no choice but to listen to the police officers, they had arrested twelve people including two minors and beaten any person who did not listen or asked questions.
The second raid on June 20, 1981 the Mikmaq people had been ready for them to try and raid the community again. Many other mikmaq communities had heard what had happened in Restigouche and were anger and wanted to help and show support so they had organized to fight back. The Quebec government and parties involved had seen that the mikmaq people were prepare and were not going to let them take over the community again. They then came to an agreement that they will left the boundaries on both side of the river and they were able to fish freely with rules that they had to follow.
Video #2 Our Nationhood
The film took place in the Restigouche community, it was film by Alanis Obomsawin in 2003. The film is about mikmaq land, the community wanted the land that the government had claimed the land where the government hired his people to cut this land belong to mikmaq community called Restigouche and they wanted it back. When the government did not agree to just give the land back. The community then protested for the land and made road blocks up. The mikmaq people demanded that the government negotiate some kind of fair agreement that the whole community will agree a pond. They made two agreements with the community but they did not accept the two. They made a third agreement which was for 500 cubic metres that the community can have and after the whole community had a meeting to discuss the agreement the community agree to the offer. Many of the members in community were not happy with this agreement and not satisfied with the offer. The leaders in the community told the members "that even though it was not as much as they wanted, they will continue to fight for more". Three years later from when they had protested change has occurred in the community but not about the land right issue. They still have not made any real good progress and still have not reached their goal in how much land they want back.
The community is now doing really well in commercial fishing, they had purchased more fishing boats for the community, more employment availability, fishery program that educate new employee, fishier building, larger areas to fish and they are making more money . Since 1981 the community has come a long ways and for the better and many people are happy with the results in the decisions made with their fishing rights the community will continue to make changes for the better and grow stronger.
Video #3 Is the Crown at war with us?
Alanis Obomsawin made this film in 2002 in Burnt Church First Nation Community. In the summer of 2000 was the start of war with DFO and non native people about fishing rights. The Mikmaq people of the Burnt Church community were restricted to fish in a small area but the community did not listen to these rukes and fish outside the boundaries . When the DFO seen the mikmaq people in the water and fishing they were beaten, ran over by other boats , pepper spray, sworn by police officers and DFO, boats and nets were destroy. The mikmaq fishermen that were caught were arrested and charged and some of the men were faced with serving time in jail. The non native were not happy as well and protested that Mikmaq not have any fishing rights, they did not want to share any lobster with the mikmaq people. They made a threat that if they continue to fish they will take action in to their on hands. In which they did as well also destroying nets, name calling and fighting.
It cost the tax payers 15 million dollars in one year to try to stop the mikmaq people from fishing because the government will not negotiate a fair agreement. The government agree to give Mikmaq people a boundary to fish but it was small and it was in a place where their were no lobster. The community did not agree with this aggreement made by the government and did not listen to it and fished outside the boundaries. On August 1, 2002 the Burnt Church community finally made an agreement with department of fisheries and Oceans one they felt they will benefit from. The department gave the community 21 new commercial licenses and in the fall fishing was only for food and ceremonial purposes and were not allowed to sale any catch this aggrement was something that the community like better and agree to it.
The Speakers in this video are Jacqueline Romanow, Brian Calliou, Bruno Bonneville, Chief Sophie Pierre, Larry Chartrand and Peter Kulchyski it was filmed on November 8, 2010. The film talks about aboriginals inherit right because Aboriginal people were here first in Canada and we are entitled to certain rights that we have inherited. In this video they stress that aboriginal people become more educated about our rights so we can be more alert about things that are going on around us and we can be apart of decision making if we knew more.
The Steps mention on the video that we as aboriginal people need to take are:
we have to become more familiar with these right
we have to go back to our roots to learn and understand our culture and history
we need to practice these right so we can protect ourselves/communities
we need to stand strong as aboriginal people and fight for our rights.
This film made me think and look at things I never thought of before, things like how I need to become more familiar with our rights and how any aboriginal person can make change. Everyone of the people on the film was full of interesting information and help me realize that I need to educate myself more about our rights.
Video # 2 Governance and Cultural Match
This video was made on November 6 2010. The speakers are Chief Sophie Pierre and Brian Calliou, The two of them are talking about governance and the cultural match, they focus on the question how does first nation match governance with culture and traditions? The list provided below is some of the things they have shared.
Teach tradition and cultural ways in learning institutes.
explore traditional forms of leadership, decision making and governance.
The learning of culture and tradition needs to be relearned. One cause for it being forgotten, is because our culture has not been practiced or learned by many people in such a long period of time.
One form of governance in aboriginal communities that was stated in the video was the chief and council. This is a new form of governace for communities.
Many aboriginal people do not want the one person one vote decision for government. The change that aboriginal people like to see is to have our own governance.
To make these things happen we need to create a relationship between traditional methods and the modern forms of governance.
My thoughts about video are it may be hard to combine governance with culture and tradition but it can be done and will require hard work. We as aborgnal people need to relearn and teach the culture in every aboriginal institute and to our children so this way we can start to make the connections with our tradition and cultural way and tie it into our own governance. Sophie and Brian speak of the ways we can make these connections and what they say is what needs to happen.
Video #3 Tsawwassen First Nation
The speakers in this video are Doug McArthur and Chief Kim Baird. The video was made on December 10th 2010. The Tsawwassen first nation has had self governance since 2006 and it has been a success in the community. They incorporate the culture and language into their law, community member are involve in making some of decision making in community, the Tsawwassen first nation are growing as a community and doing well. The choices sometimes were ambitious; one for example was with their land, they made buildings that benefited the community, and it turned out to be a smart decisions.
The reason why I think the Tsawwassen first nation were very successful with their self governance, is because they made laws and policies that worked for them and then made changes in the constitutions that then benefited them.
Video #4 Membertou First Nation Circle Of Excellence
The people in this video are Chief Terrance Paul, Dan Christmas Alex Paul and Mary Beth Doucette. The film was made on December 10th 2010, they discuss the change that was made in Membertou. Like many other reservation Membertou was in debt and depended on Indian Affairs for funds and they knew they had to make a change for the community. The leaders in the communities look more into making this change and went and seek the help, they then got involved with ISL which was a very great thing.
Then in 1999-2000 they became a debt free reservation, because they were well managed Membertou had big companies calling and wanting to partner with them. They became so successful with this change in Membertou because firstly; they had good leaders second; they got the skills needed to achieve these goals; third they hired the right type of people to help; fourth they became educated about many things and then they learned how to run and own companies properly.
