[Indigsol] Taking the Road Back: From Wampum Belt Promises to Highway Blockades

[Pei-Ju Wang]

Taking
<http://citizen.nfb.ca/blogs/podcasts/taking-the-road-back-from-wampum-belt-
promises-to-highway-blockades/>  the Road Back: From Wampum Belt Promises to
Highway Blockades


Written by tim <http://citizen.nfb.ca/blogs/author/tim/> 
Posted in Podcasts <http://citizen.nfb.ca/blogs/category/podcasts/> 
January 8, 2009 at 4:08 pm


We often hear of the difficult situation on aboriginal reserves and in their
communities. For many of us, our vision is characterised by media reports of
poverty, unemployment, leadership disputes and internal divisions. 

We also hear their calls for treaty rights and other signed agreements to be
respected by the federal government. We see their protests and actions to
put pressure on the government after what is seen as years, even decades, of
foot-dragging and outright disregard. But these stories are often divorced
from a discussion of the impacts that decades and centuries of colonialism
has had.

Last summer when the Canadian government formally apologized for the horrors
of the residential school system there was a rare break is the conventional
discussion. Both government officials and the media made reference to how
the historical abuses of the residential school system had contributed to
the current struggles facing most First Nations communities across Canada. 

But those links are often both quickly forgotten and rarely discussed. 

When members of the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake blockaded a major
highway in northern Quebec twice this past year, there was little discussion
in any venue about the historical context that would bring members of a
small, northern Algonquin community to initiate a blockade and face the
harsh repercussions. In episode 80 of the CitizenShift podcast, Montreal
journalist and member of Barriere Lake Solidarity Courtney Kirkby delves
into this history, from before the first encounters and treaties with
European settlers to their current struggle to have management and say over
their land and their community.

As always, if you have any thoughts or comments on this issue, wed love to
see them posted below. 

To find more media on First Nations and aboriginal rights and culture in
Canada, visit our two dossiers, on the topic: Language Lost
<http://citizen.nfb.ca/language-lost> , on the struggle to maintain native
languages in Canada, and Rebel With a Cause: Alanis
<http://citizen.nfb.ca/alanis-obomsawin>  Obomsawin, a look back at the work
and career of this groundbreaking aboriginal filmmaker. For more on Barriere
Lake, visit barrierelakesolidairty.blogspot.com
<http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com> .

Listen to Episode #80 Taking the Road Back: From Wampum Belt Promises to
Highway Blockades (Running time: 24:57)

Download mp3 <http://citizen.nfb.ca/podcasts/080_citizen.mp3> 

http://citizen.nfb.ca/blogs/podcasts/taking-the-road-back-from-wampum-belt-p
romises-to-highway-blockades/

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/indigsol/attachments/20090110/34eb7b28/attachment.html>