Land Back

In the summer of 2013, the Mi’kmaq in New Brunswick began a campaign against fracking in their territories. Through protests, blockades and sabotage, they managed to kick SWN Resources out of their territories and inspire indigenous people across the country. As part of our series “Indigenous Resistance in Five Minutes,” historian and comic book artist Gord Hill retells the story of Elsipogtog.

On a July day in 1990, a confrontation propelled First Nations issues in Kanehsatake and the village of Oka, Quebec, into the international spotlight. Director Alanis Obomsawin spent 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-off between the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) People, the Quebec police and the Canadian army. This powerful documentary takes you right into the action of this historic confrontation. The result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades.

Excerpt:

A Blackfeet man from Montana, who requested to be identified only by his first name, said that he moved to Los Angeles during the Relocation Era in 1963. A social worker, and military veteran, he spoke of being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “With men, that is war, but with children, that is genocide,” he said. As a social worker, he spoke of the intergenerational trauma he has experienced working with many American Indian/Native American families in the area. He said families shared of their hair being cut, punished for speaking their language or taking a liking to their Native culture, and made to feel ashamed of their heritage. “That is genocide,” he repeated.