George Beaver
Friday, July 13, 2007
Brantford Expositor
The recent national day of protest passed without very much disruption of our comfortable lives here in Canada.
The blockage of a few highways and a CN Rail line could have been repeated dozens of times, all across the country. We aboriginals of this land have certainly suffered enough injustice. The history books are full of examples, for those who will open them.
The reason so many of the protests were fairly peaceful may be because of Six Nations' example in Caledonia.
When Janie Jamieson and Dawn Smith led their young group of Six Nations people to reclaim the former Douglas Creek Estates site in February 2006, they did not take weapons. They only took their knowledge of Six Nations history and the Haldimand Proclamation - and a whole lot of courage.
They also had determination. The snow and cold of winter did not make them give up and go home. The rain and mud of spring could not do it, either. Even when the OPP staged an early morning raid on the sleeping encampment with an overwhelming force of armed officers, they did not give up.
By now, they had the support of large numbers of Six Nations people. Hundreds had visited the reclamation site to deliver food and bedding or just offer encouragement. Many of us had relatives there. When cellphones alerted their supporters about the police raid, all over Six Nations people scrambled out of bed and headed down Sixth Line Road toward the reclamation site. As they got near, they found that the OPP had blocked the road, so they parked their cars and walked across the fields. Some carried axe handles and crow bars. They were not prepared to watch their women and elders get mistreated by men swinging police clubs. But they were willing to leave their hunting rifles at home.
It must have been a scary sight for the OPP officers to see wave after wave of Six Nations men and women coming out of the misty fields into the reclamation site so early in the morning. In a short time, the OPP were no longer an overwhelming force or even a majority.
show of support
If there had been doubt about how much support the protesters had at Six Nations, the OPP raid showed that it was considerable. There was a cross-section of supporters of the elected council and the Confederacy chiefs. Longhouse believers stood shoulder to shoulder with church people and those who had no discernible religion. Some were university graduates, while the formal education of others ended with elementary school. All were there to reassert Six Nations's right to the land.
News accounts like to point out that half of Canada's aboriginal population is under 25. However, many of the people who answered the call this time were in their 30s and 40s. Now the reclamation of Six Nations land is no longer just a youth movement. But without Six Nations youth it may not have gotten started.
It may be because of these thirty- and forty-somethings that the reclamation site was quiet during the national day of protest. As Dawn Smith said, "Every day for the last year and a half ... has been a national day of protest."
George Beaver is a freelance writer based in Ohsweken.