Crown lands are viewed as storehouses of resources to be
exploited and Indigenous Peoples have no say over what happens on most
of it
Nick Lachance PHOTO| Six Nations Land Defenders rally at Queen's Park in October 2020.
The Indigenous Land Back movement isn’t new, but it’s gaining increasing public attention and support.
In this time of facing uncomfortable truths about past and ongoing
harms inflicted on Indigenous Peoples and others, it’s important to
understand the history of colonial oppression, and the roots and goals
of Land Back and what it means.
It’s not just about land. In the first of three short Land Back videos (about 12 minutes each) – Past, Present and Future
– Ojibwe journalist Jesse Wente says, “It’s about self-determination
for our Peoples here that should include some access to the territories
and resources in a more equitable fashion, and for us to have control
over how that actually looks.”
Throughout Canada’s history, Indigenous Peoples have been forced from
the lands that sustained them for millennia to ever-diminishing
“reservations” so colonizers could exploit “resources.” Even national
parks, including Jasper and Banff, and municipal parks like Vancouver’s Stanley Park, were created after the original people living there were expelled.
As Jasper’s website says
of the park’s creation in 1907, “Indigenous peoples were considered
incompatible with nature and so couldn’t live in, hunt or harvest within
park boundaries. First Nation and Métis peoples were physically removed
from the landscape, blocked from accessing it and banned from
harvesting plants and animals, holding gatherings and accessing cultural
sites.”
Most federal and provincial Crown lands are viewed as storehouses of
timber, oil, gas and minerals to be exploited and mostly exported.
Indigenous Peoples have no say over what happens on most of it, so land defenders have to step in.
Wente argues that Canada was established more as an “extractionist corporation” than a country.
Anishinaabe storyteller and artist Bomgiizhik agrees: “When Canada
formed and became its own country, they created something called the
Indian Act, which was to force people off their traditional lands, have
them contained onto reservations and then filtered into colonization so
that they would never, ever become a threat to resource extraction.”
As with the recent finding of 215 children
buried on the grounds of the former Kamloops Residential School (and
evidence of many more throughout the country), growing awareness of
missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, the appalling foster care and “’60s scoop” systems and more, these issues are not history; they’re ongoing, with impacts that continue through generations.
Ultimately, Land Back is about confronting these colonial abuses and
charting a new path. But it holds different meanings for different
people.
Anishinaabe-Ininew 4Rs Youth Movement co-ordinator Ronald Gamblin writes in a blog,
“When I hear Indigenous youth and land protectors chant ‘Land Back!’ at
a rally, I know it can mean the literal restoration of land ownership.
When grandmothers and knowledge keepers say it, I tend to think it means
more the stewardship and protection of mother earth. When Indigenous
political leaders say it, it often means comprehensive land claims and
self-governing agreements. No matter what meaning is attached, we as
Indigenous nations have an urge to reconnect with our land in meaningful
ways.”
It’s about responsibilities as well as rights. Beverly Jacobs, acting
dean at the University of Windsor’s law faculty and a member of the
Haudenosaunee Confederation, says Indigenous laws are about
responsibility, relationships and reciprocity. “It isn’t until we bring
in the colonial law that all of a sudden we’re talking about rights,”
she says, noting that rights are based on the individual whereas
Indigenous law is based on responsibility to “all our relations,”
including land.
That’s important, as western ways are unsustainable. “It’s not that
the earth can’t sustain all of humanity. It’s that the earth can’t
sustain what humans are doing,” Wente says.
The goal is to move forward together, not return to some idealized
past. “Every relationship evolves, and our relationship with land has to
be one that accepts our modern circumstances as Indigenous People,”
Anishinaabe-Métis associate professor Aimée Craft says.
Bomgiizhik says Canada must listen to Indigenous Peoples not just
when they’re protesting or blockading. “How we’re going to win is by
people working together and actually getting on the land and building
sustainable economies with their bare hands.”
Land Back is rooted in Indigenous Peoples’ rights and
responsibilities, but it’s also about finding a better way forward for
everyone who lives here.
Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington. Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.
![People from the Mosakahiken Cree Nation hug in front of a makeshift memorial at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada [File: Cole Burston/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/000_9D36H7.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
![Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Chief Rosanne Casimir speaks ahead of the release of findings on 215 unmarked graves discovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, July 15, 2021 [Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-15T185644Z_664108146_RC2XKO9GTC0J_RTRMADP_3_CANADA-INDIGENOUS-CHILDREN.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
Residential
school survivor Mona Jules takes part in a presentation of the findings
on 215 unmarked graves discovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School
in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, July 15, 2021 [Jennifer
Gauthier/Reuters]
