Six Nations: One Year, One Struggle, Many Victories

It has been almost a year since a small group of people from Six Nations reserve near Brantford took back a piece of land that was slated for development on the border of Caledonia. Back then, people slept in their cars or near the Sacred Fire, ate ice cold Timbits, and joked about using frozen coffee as a weapon in the event of a police attack.

As the word spread through Six Nations and other communities, it began to grow – in numbers and in significance. The handful of people became several dozen and then hundreds. When the OPP raided on August 20th, about two thousand gathered to defend the land. If retaking the land was the first major victory, removing the OPP from it was the second.

As the days went by and more and more people began to show their support, the political importance of the Reclamation Site increased dramatically. It went from a small occupation on what seemed like an unimportant housing development to something that grabbed the attention and imagination of people across Turtle Island. Communities inside the outline of Canada, Native and non-Native, called for and held solidarity actions from rail, bridge and highway blockades to public meetings, pickets and rallies. People saw others were fighting back and worked to support it. Each time this happened, it was a victory.

In fact, there are many victories coming out of the Reclamation site to count. Each time someone learned something about the traditional Onkwehonweh ways, each time someone spoke out against racism, each time someone passed on what they knew about the land and the struggle, each time people put aside their differences to come together to support the struggle, it was a victory.

Right now, there are some things that are very discouraging. The province is giving the OPP an extra $20 million to police the Reclamation. The land is appraised at $17 million but the government is willing to pay more than that to try to keep it from its rightful caretakers. Further, it has recently come out in the media that the federal negotiator doesn't even have a mandate to actually address the land claim. How is it supposed to get solved if Canada refuses to try to solve it? The media also gives racists like Gary McHale free reign in their papers and on their screens to pull ridiculous stunts and attention grabs. McHale has repeatedly tried to fly Canadian flags outside the Reclamation site. Each time the media gives him large amounts of publicity, helping him promote his racist crusade. Similarly the media has repeatedly reported false stories coming out of Caledonia (like that a house was vandalized by people who ran onto the Reclamation site) but rarely even gives lip service to the views of the Six Nations people.

While all of these things are very negative, the Reclamation remains after 11 months. Everyone needs to do whatever they can to support it and ensure that they keep the land. When all is said and done, taking the land back will be a major victory. However, it is important that we remember the smaller victories, each one a step towards decolonization, each one step closer justice.