Earlier this summer, Sean Carleton sat down with Ellen Gabriel to talk about the recent developments Kanehsatà:ke. As of 29 August, Trudeau is refusing to meet with the Mohawks and declare a temporary moratorium on development so that a peaceful resolution to ongoing tensions can be negotiated. This is unacceptable. CD stands with the Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) of Kanehsatà:ke and proudly publishes their most recent press release.

On 21 August 2019, Ellen Gabriel and other Kanien’kéha:ka held a press conference in the Pines, the site of the so-called “Oka Crisis”, to address the ongoing land fraud in their homelands. They are giving Justin Trudeau and the Government of Canada 10 days to intervene in the 300-year long land dispute and to stop all illegal development in Kanehsatà:ke.

For the Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) of Kanehsatà:ke, the return of stolen land – fraudulently sold first by a religious order and then by the municipality of Oka, Quebec and the Government of Canada – has been at the heart of their demands for 300 years. Mohawk resistance to the ongoing theft of Kanien’kéha:ka homelands is well-known. Most notably, in the summer of 1990, during the so-called “Oka Crisis,” Mohawks defended a forested area known as the Pines from development.

Though many Canadians saw the events of that summer as a “crisis,” to the Mohawks, “Oka” was just the most recent event in an almost 300-year struggle to protect their land from colonial and capitalist development. With the 30th anniversary of Oka on the horizon, CD’s Sean Carleton sat down with Ellen Gabriel to discuss the legacy of Oka and the future of Indigenous resistance.

In 2015, Micheal Langan created Colonialism Skateboards, an independent company that makes skateboard decks, to highlight Indigenous people’s perspectives, history, and culture. He has released nine graphics to date, covering a range of issues from the history of the pass system to residential schooling. I recently had the chance to meet Micheal in Regina to talk about skateboarding, history, and the power of education.

At a time of rampant anti-Indigenous racism, the big-budget film confronts the legacy of Indian Residential Schools in Canada and does so in a relatable way for a general audience: the story is rooted in the main character’s relationship with the game of hockey. For anyone interested in hockey and history and figuring out how to strengthen relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, Indian Horse is a must-see movie.

It is interesting to note that while Monkman planned Shame and Prejudice in 2014, the exhibit speaks poignantly to recent debates about Canada’s one-sided celebratory history. Monkman’s exhibit thus offers people an opportunity to see history from a different and more truthful perspective. As a result, settlers in particular should make it a priority to witness Shame and Prejudice. The exhibit will be travelling throughout Canada for the next few years.

The collaborative project will be an ongoing poster series that aims to intervene in the Canada 150 conversation. We hope to encourage people to critically examine history in ways that can fuel our radical imaginations and support struggles for radical change in 2017 and beyond. Join us as we use activist art to remember, resist, and redraw our world with an eye to changing it for the better.

2016 produced a Trump presidency and witnessed the rise of the “alt-right” and increasing violence against women, workers, and Indigenous, LGBTQ2, and racialized peoples. 2016 also saw the approval of new pipelines, Brexit, and the deaths of pop culture legends like Prince, Phife Dawg, and David Bowie and revolutionary figures like Muhammad Ali and Fidel Castro.

It was RATM guitarist Tom Morello’s idea to form the Prophets of Rage to counter the current political climate, specifically in the United States. With Zack de le Rocha uninterested in a RATM reunion, Morello and the rest of the band reached out to legendary MCs Chuck D and B-Real to pool their collections of protest songs and launch an attack on the status quo. We should be glad they did.