Work for All | Week 6: Kanehsatake at Schema : more than ethnic

Work for All | Week 6: Kanehsatake

In 1990 the mayor of Oka, Montreal, thought adding nine holes to a golf course was just cause for mowing down the pines of Kanehsatake, Mohawk territory. A fledgling protest on a dirt road leading into the land became a full-blown resistance movement led by the Mohawk people, joined by their indigenous and non-indigenous allies. Thus began the Oka Crisis, subject of the documentary Kanehsatake directed by Alanis Obomsawin. 270 years of resistance to giving up their territory had taught the Mohawk a thing or two about sticking to their guns. That said, the heroes of Kanehsatake show commitment to both their cause and the cause of peace, through escalating tension with the police, the army, and even townspeople inconvenienced by the blocking of roads through Mohawk territory.

The film shows the women of Mohawk telling army men surrounding their barricaded territory that they will be ashamed to tell their children where they were posted. You had better say you were in Germany, they say. Don't tell them you took other people's land. They receive no answer. Each soldier knows his only justification is 'orders'. Already having been betrayed by the Sulpician order, a religious organization, which took over rights to their land in the 1700s under pretense of supervision, the Mohawk stand tall against a history of oppression in 1990. They are not about to defer to any authority, or sink to the levels of those who do them wrong. They are simply out to defend the land.

Though history will tell you that their fight is not yet finished, the self-control exerted by their warriors, who did not hurt anyone except possibly in self-defense (one officer was hit after police efforts to control a protest led to shooting: who killed him was not known) is admirable. So is the perseverance of those Mohawk who remained within barricaded territory with their warriors till the very last stand, when the army had pushed them inwards, and continued to celebrate their culture as they became cut off from food and the months grew colder.

The Mohawk braved all sorts of hostility, mockery, and hardships from July to September of 1990. Despite their patient negotiations with the government, during which they remained vocal and refused to back down on their demands, not all of their concerns were met. When they finally walked out of the forest, having disposed of their weapons, they were treated with disrespect. Watch Kanehsatake for a revelatory look at a struggle many can relate to in Canada.

Read more on the Work for All website | Watch the making of Kanehsatake | Watch an interview with Alanis Obomsawin