[Migrantjusticedocumentary] Awkwesasne this Friday?

[Aaron Lakoff]

Hi folks,
Sarita just shared this action callout about a demo in Awkwesasne this
Friday. Is anyone able to go? It's about 2 hours from Montreal.
Danielle, would you be able to drive?
Aaron

MOHAWK NATION CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION AGAINST THE INFRINGEMENT
OF ITS INHERENT INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
For Immediate Release
Akwesasne Mohawk Territory - Onerahtohkó:wa (May) 7, 2013
Greetings from the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation of the Haudenosaunee Six
Nations Confederacy. Straddling both sides of the Kania’tarohwá:nen (St.
Lawrence River), the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory exists within the ancestral
homeland of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, which has never been ceded by any
legitimate authority of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Without the free, prior and informed consent of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation,
both Canada and the United States have since unilaterally drawn their
national boundaries directly through our traditional and ancestral
territory and now limit and disrupt our free and unobstructed movement
within our own territory. Despite this challenge to our territorial
sovereignty, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation continues to retain and assert its
inherent sovereign and indigenous right to cross freely into all
Haudenosaunee territories.

Since the imposition of the Canadian Port of Entry within the Akwesasne
Mohawk Territory, the Kanien’kehá:ka have experienced and endured racial
harassment and mistreatment, the denial of their Haudenosaunee citizenship,
arrest, and the confiscation of property by the Canadian Border Service
Agency (CBSA). Since the Port of Entry was relocated to Cornwall four years
ago, this mistreatment and abuse has intensified.

Therefore, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy are
calling upon all people to join us in a call for action on May 17, 2013, to
bring an end to Canada’s abuse and mistreatment of our citizens and their
refusal to respect and honor the inherent sovereign and indigenous rights
of the Haudenosaunee to freely move about its traditional and ancestral
territory without hindrance. Despite the Government of Canada’s commitment
towards truth and reconciliation with the Indigenous Peoples of this land,
these regularly unprovoked and insensitive acts by the CBSA are another
demonstration of Canada’s indifference and lack of respect towards
indigenous peoples and demonstrate its callous disregard towards resolving
these issues in good faith.

To resolve the border issue the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires the
following:

1. To begin the process to rectify this longstanding conflict between our
peoples, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires an immediate meeting between
the Government of Canada and the traditional leadership of the
Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy.

2. In keeping with the principles of coexistence and non-inference as
embodied through the Two Row Wampum, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires a
commitment by the Government of Canada to retain a nation-to-nation
relationship with the traditional Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, as
their British fathers had in the past.

3. In order to preserve and maintain the distinct identity of the
Haudenosaunee as a sovereign people, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires the
Government of Canada to recognize Haudenosaunee citizenship, by virtue of
whatever identification issued by the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy.

The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation calls upon its people to gather at the Mohawk
Nation Longhouse at 9am on May 17, 2013, for a peaceful march across the
imaginary line that cuts through our nation, to let all know that we shall
continue to exercise our inherent sovereign and indigenous rights and
uphold them for future generations. For more information, please contact
the Mohawk Nation Office at 518-358-3381
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/migrantjusticedocumentary/attachments/20130513/6ef4c776/attachment.html>