On February 28, on the second anniversary of the start of the Six Nations land reclamation at Caledonia, McMaster University was the site of the important event, “The Land Reclamation at Caledonia/Kanonhstaton: Two Years Later...” The day-long event brought together many of the major figures of this historic and ongoing struggle. The following is a brief summary of the first part of the event.

The event began with an extended preview of the new documentary, “The Dish With One Spoon” co-directed by Dawn Martin-Hill, academic director at McMaster's Indigenous Studies program and long time Six Nations activist. The documentary aims to inform the public on the history of the Six Nations, on the key treaties signed between the Six Nations and the British Crown, the long list of broken treaties and historic injustices committed by the Canadian government as well as on the contemporary struggle at Caledonia. Viewers will be struck by the blatant theft of Six Nations land and funds by the Canadian government, the deep racism that the current struggle has brought to the surface of this supposedly multicultural and peaceful country and the peaceful determination of the Six Nations to continue to struggle according to the principles of their constitution, the Great Law of Peace.

Janie Jamieson, one of the initiators of the land reclamation spoke following the film. She emphasized that she chose to fight back after “being backed into a corner” by the poverty and violence experienced in her life as a Six Nations woman and that she is “fighting for our right to exist” as a people. She stressed that this struggle is not only the struggle of the Six Nations but of all people who wish to stop the damage being done to the environment.
Speaking of the divisions that exist within the Six Nations, she said that “struggle creates unity” and that this struggle “made us realize what we are capable of.”

Hazel Hill, another Six Nations woman who began the land reclamation, spoke next. She explained her decision to get involved by talking about the frustration and anger she feels over how relations between the Six Nations and the government are supposed to be governed according to the Great Law of Peace and what the Canadian government has actually been doing including breaking its own laws. She also spoke of the need to protect the environment and of how she refused to stand back any longer. She stressed the need for direct environmental action in the face of ineffective or absent government policy and corporate control of politicians, and pointed out that the land reclamation at Caledonia stopped the building of a 600 house subdivision. She ended by telling us to “let go of your racism and ask yourselves what kind of life you want for your children.”

Next to speak was Bill Montour, the elected band council chief. He began by attacking the prelevant and racist view held by many Canadians that indigenous people contribute nothing and live off the state. He pointed out that when indigenous people live on-reserve and work off-reserve, they pay all the taxes and get almost none of the benefits living in levels of poverty that rank among Third World countries. He then spoke on the history of the Six Nations in Canada. Some of the key points he mentioned were that the Canadian government rejected and forcefully, via RCMP intervention, tried to remove the Six Nations traditional consensus-based decision making practice and with it the 500-year old Six Nations Confederacy by creating the band council system. However, they were unsuccessful as the Confederacy remained active and today the Canadian government is for the first time in 80 years sitting at the negotiating table with the Confederacy. He ended by applauding the courage of those who began the land reclamation, despite the fact that in so doing they went outside the authority of the band council. As he put it, “they had no choice, our homeland is here” and this is the only place in the world where all of the Six Nations live together.

Last to speak was Rick Montour, a professor in the Indigenous Studies program at McMaster University. He criticized the lack of education among people in Southern Ontario about the Six Nations pointing out that the Six Nations reserve is the largest in Canada. He was also critical of people and the media who complain about the two years of inconvenience caused by the land reclamation. He asked those people to multiply those two years by 100 to get an understanding of the “inconvenience” suffered by the Six Nations, inconvenience which included what should be called a coup d'etat when the RCMP overthrew the traditional Confederacy in 1924.

The audience was next given an opportunity to ask questions. One audience member asked if anyone could point at any document or moment when the Six Nations relinquished sovereignty or were formally annexed by the Canadian government according to the standards of international law (which set out the conditions under which the sovereignty of a people is said to be ended, including by military occupation). All speakers said that the Six Nations have never formally ceded or lost sovereignty and that such ceding of sovereignty is “inconceivable in Six Nations cosmology.”

Another person asked about the recent establishment of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI). Bill Montour explained that the HDI is intended to function as a Six Nations-run zoning department that will regulate land and water use on the Haldiman tract, the Six Nations territory in Ontario. Its aim is to protect the environment, protect burial grounds and ensure Six Nations consultation by developers in the future as an additional 3 to 4 million people are expected to settle on the Haldiman tract.

The final question came from a Steelworkers Local 1005 member who asked what can solidarity groups do to support the Six Nations. According to all the speakers, by far the most important thing that solidarity groups can do is educate their own communities. They all emphasized that this struggle will continue for many years and decades and that raising awareness, especially among new generations, is the most important thing we can all do. Getting unions to pressure the Canadian government, getting the teachers' union to fight for changes in the school curriculum, prison solidarity work and supporting McMaster's Indigenous Studies program were also mentioned by the panelists as areas where solidarity groups can help.

The event ended, as it began, with a traditional Six Nations opening and closing ritual given, as it was pointed out, by one of the few Six Nations youth who can still perform the ritual in his native language. As such it underlined Janie Jamieson's statement that this is a fight “for our right to exist.”

By Common Cause Hamilton