Aboriginal Title

Video #1 Overview of Aboriginal Title





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.