Canada is arming and supporting Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion. At various points in its history, it’s been everything from an invader to an arms supplier to invaders, not defenders.
In this episode of
Don’t Call Me Resilient, we take a look at land rights and some of the people on the front lines of these battles. These are the land defenders fighting to protect land against invasive development. Both our guests have stood up to armed forces to protect land.
Their work is about protecting the environment. But it is much more than that: it is fundamentally about survival and about the right to live openly on what is stolen land.
Ellen Gabriel has been resisting land encroachment for 31 years. She was at the centre of the 1990 Kanehsatake resistance, (known as the Oka crisis), a 78-day standoff to protect ancestral Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) land in Québec.
Vinita Srivastava: From
The Conversation, this is “Don’t Call Me Resilient.” I’m Vinita Srivastava.
Anne Spice: For me, I think the land defender is not a title that you claim for yourself. It’s an action. And it’s about the practice of actually being on the land and reclaiming ancestral territories and territories that are under attack.
VS: In this episode, we take a look at Indigenous land rights and the people on the front lines of these battles. These are the land defenders fighting to protect land against invasive development. Both my guests today have stood up to armed forces to protect land. Their work to defend land is about protecting the environment, but it is much more than that. It is fundamentally about survival and the right to live openly on what is stolen land. Ellen Gabriel has been resisting land encroachment for 31 years. She was at the centre of the 1990 Kanehsatake resistance. You might know it as the Oka Crisis. It was a 78-day stand-off to pro