Relay re-routed off Six Nations' Territory
by Alex Hundert
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/2383
Ohsweken, Grand River Territory--Yesterday, as reported in many
mainstream media outlets, organisers from Six Nations of an action
against the Olympic Torch Relay declared the day a success. Their goal
of keeping the torch and the relay caravan out of the "heart" of their
territory was set in order to prevent the Torch Relay from being used
to paint a benevolent image of Canada's relations with First Nations,
and to prevent a violation of their territorial sovereignty as well as
of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) "Great Law of Peace".
While the entire territory spans beyond the full length of the Grand
River, the declaration made by the Hoskanigetha and Agongweh (Men's and
Women's Councils) as well as youth and other "concerned people"
referred, rather, to boundaries of the Six Nations reserve. The Torch
Relay caravan as has proceeded through most other scheduled stops did
not even enter the reserve. Rather, a few vehicles drove the torch
around the reservation and entered "through the back door" for a torch
celebration on the edge of the reserve.
Spokespeople for the action made it clear that the intention of
blocking the torch from crossing the territory was not about sports or
about confronting their "own people" or preventing them from
celebrating. Accordingly, there was no disruptive demonstration at the
Torch Celebration site. Instead, a group of 30-40 people gathered at a
point on Hwy. 54 which they had declared the torch would have to go
around, even after the celebration had been moved. The Torch
Celebration's original location had been scheduled for a location right
in the centre of Ohswken, the town sitting at the centre of the
reserve. That plan had been called off before noon and announced
officially at a press conference shortly after 1pm.
At that press conference, local event organizers tried to claim that
the re-routing had nothing to do with planned protests, and that they
felt that the Olympics should not be made political. When pressed by
reporters however, organizers admitted that the scheduled actions
against the relay contributed to the decision.
Spokespeople for the action, like activists across the country,
however, were quite clear in their statements that the international
context of the Olympics inherently makes the torch relay political,
especially with respect to Indigenous sovereignty and land rights
(Canada is one of only three developed countries that have not signed
the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).
Olympic organizers and sponsors were accused of using the Torch Relay
and the Games as a propaganda campaign to change their image and
Canada's image on a global stage.
Spokespeople for the action also talked about solidarity with
Indigenous Peoples in so-called British Columbia who have spurred a
national anti-Olympic movement. In both Toronto and Montreal, the main
message of and the primary chants of the rallies have been "No Olympics
on Stolen Native Land." They cited the issues of unceded territories,
land destruction, and the displacement and criminalization of the urban
poor in Vancouver, and Canada's ongoing colonialial and assimilationist
policies and proactices, as just some of the reasons why activists
across the country and in Six Nations have mobilized against the
Olympics, and why the 2010 games are being viewed as in principle, a
violation of the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace.
===
Interview w Six Nations spokespersons Lyndsey Bomberry [
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3312146 (pt1) and
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3312238 (pt2)] and Melissa Elliott [
https://qik.com/dankellar ] --courtesy AW@L Radio
Six Nations protesters disrupt torch relay
CBC News, Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Aboriginal protesters diverted the Olympic torch relay route on Monday
away from the Six Nations reserve near Caledonia, Ont.
Runners had been expected to carry the torch down Highway 54 onto
the reserve. Officials instead drove it to a local hall, where 25
torchbearers took turns running it around a circuit in the parking lot.
Protesters waving Mohawk Warrior and Iroquois Confederacy flags said
the torch had no business on Six Nations land, which they consider
sovereign territory.
But many more reserve members gathered at the hall to support the
aboriginal torchbearers.
Tuesday's route
On Tuesday, the Olympic torch relay will weave its way through southern
Ontario, with stops in Brantford, Paris, Simcoe, Tillsonburg and St.
Thomas, Ridgetown and Blenheim. It will end the day in Chatham, 51 days
before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games are set to begin in Vancouver.
The relay will wend its way through Chatham's downtown before
arriving for a cauldron-lighting ceremony at the Kinsmen Auditorium and
Memorial Arena on Tweedsmuir Avenue at 6:10 p.m.
"It'll be something really to see," said Ashley White, project
manager for Chatham-Kent's torch relay. "We've got great acts and local
dance groups. We've got fireworks to finish off the night."
The torch will also be blessed by members of the Oneida of the Thames
and Chippewas of the Thames.
With blockade threatened, relay moves to parking lot
By James Bradshaw, The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Olympic torch relay's planned stop on Six Nations land was
waylaid by a threatened blockade yesterday, pushed to a contingency
site at the fringes of the reserve southwest of Caledonia, Ont.
Fearing protests, organizers of the relay decided to scrap plans to
have torchbearers run through the reserve. The relay was moved to a
bingo hall just inside the reserve's boundaries - with torchbearers
running laps on a circuit around the parking lot, retracing their own
steps repeatedly and ultimately finishing back where they started.
If there was any unfortunate symbolism in the circular route, it was
lost on the crowds, not to mention the torchbearers.
"I don't think it mattered where we were going to carry the torch,
because everybody's so proud it was here," says Fern Burning, 64, a
30-plus-year veteran of the Six Nations Skating Club who will volunteer
at the Vancouver Games in February.
"I'm just so proud so many people were here to back us up."
Despite the displeasure voiced by dissenting Six Nations groups,
hundreds turned out to the parking lot to celebrate, many of them
clutching Canada pennants and sporting Olympic apparel.
Six Nations band council Chief Bill Montour said the celebration
marked the long history his community has had in sports, and the great
pride it takes in them.
A makeshift stage hosted traditional music and dancing against a
backdrop of jerseys from local sports teams.
The protests came from members of the Hoskanigetah (Men's Fire
Council), the Ahgongweh (Women's Fire Council) and the Grand River
Onkwehonwe. Lindsay Bomberry, a spokeswoman for the Ahgongweh, said the
groups' members do not consider themselves Canadian, and were asserting
their rights to the land and self-determination granted them under the
Two Row Wampum treaty.
They reject the authority of the Six Nations band council, the elected
body that had welcomed the torch relay to the reserve.
The groups voiced their opposition at an Aug. 20 community meeting,
but had felt ignored since then.
"We didn't have a choice," Ms. Bomberry said. "We needed to assert
our position because band council obviously didn't think it was a
priority."
About 40 protesters gathered along Highway 54 to force the torch to be
rerouted, but that became unnecessary.
After extensive consultations, torch relay director Jim Richards and
his Six Nations task force concluded that they would be blockaded if
they went ahead as planned, and switched to plan B. They arrived at the
bingo hall from the north along a smaller road to avoid creating any
additional controversy.
"We don't want to come down Highway 54 and fly in the face of those
saying we're not welcome. So we'll come in as quietly as we can, have a
nice event for the community at large, and depart as quietly as we
can," he said.
Mr. Richards called the compromise "more than satisfactory," and Ms.
Bomberry agreed it was acceptable given that it pushed the torch relay
out of "the heart" of the Six Nations land, to "the fringe."
But she stressed that the groups believe their territory stretches
well beyond the reserve, to other torch sites such as Caledonia, so the
arrangement was still "definitely not ideal."
A public statement from the groups called the torch's appearance a
"façade of peace and unity," angering many in the celebratory crowd,
and in particular one of Ms. Burning's disciples at the Skating Club,
17-year-old Kari Hill.
"It's a big opportunity for our community to show our talents for
everybody else to see, and to give hope to the younger ones that they
can make it somewhere," she said. "[The protests] really made me mad."
So, too, for Laura Williams, 47, who lives on the reserve but works
off it. "We do have our own sovereign identity, but really we're still
part of the overall society, of what's Canadian," she said.
A few protesters did attend the parking lot celebration, but failed
to cause much disruption amid a gleeful crowd, many of whom trotted
behind the torchbearers as they made their rounds.
One man heckled the torchbearers about the cost of the relay and
Canada's treatment of indigenous peoples, but each time he raised his
voice, it was deliberately drowned out by well-timed cheers from the
flame's entourage.
"People have a right to protest, and I don't think this venue should
be politicized," Chief Montour said. "It's community, it's for the
kids, the elders, people who've spent their whole lives in sport."
Threatened protest changes torch route
The Canadian Press
By Susanna Kelley, The Canadian Press Posted Monday, December 21, 2009
SIX NATIONS INDIAN RESERVE, Ont. - The Olympic torch's journey
across Canada was forced yet again to take a detour in the face of
aboriginal opposition to the Games, with an Ontario First Nation
rerouting its relay amid a protest from a splinter group in the
community.
While the torch still made an appearance on the Six Nations reserve
near Brantford in southern Ontario, the original plan to run the flame
through the reserve - supported by the elected band council - was
altered at the 11th hour.
Instead, the torch was taken directly to a bingo hall on the reserve
for a celebration during which some two dozen torchbearers circled the
hall with the flame.
Although the splinter group of Six Nations protesters did not
succeed in blocking the torch from entering the reserve - a stated aim
of their demonstration - the fact the original relay plan was scrubbed
and the celebration relocated had them calling their protest a success.
"It's the first time where any person who has stood up against these
torch and Olympics has actually had a success in being able to move the
celebration,'' protest spokeswoman Missy Elliott said.
"Different protesters have been able to hold it off for an hour or
some time but it's never been moved, so this is a huge significance.''
Many, however, were thrilled the flame made it onto the reserve.
"I think it helps bring communities together, to see something like
this, and I'm thrilled with it,'' said Barbara Bomberry, whose
daughter, a championship lacrosse coach and player, was one of the
torchbearers.
Former Six Nations chief and honorary elder David General blessed the flame.
"Images of this evening will burn lasting memories in the minds and
spirits of everyone in attendance,'' he said.
"Though the flame will depart . . . it leaves embers that can be
fanned to ignite the spirit of our youth to pursue athletic and
sporting dreams at all levels - national, international and Olympic.''
The torch has run into aboriginal opposition on several occasions.
On Dec. 8, the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee agreed to drop
the usual RCMP escort for the Olympic flame as it passed through a
Mohawk reserve. Games organizers made the concession after a flurry of
negotiations with community members who were upset by the prospect of a
non-aboriginal police force patrolling their territory.
The agreement allowed the flame to pass through a community that
played a role in the Oka crisis, a tense summer-long standoff between
aboriginals and police in 1990.
Last Thursday in Toronto about 100 protesters rang bells, drummed
and chanted "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land'' - the rallying cry for
those who protest the Games on the basis that they're being held on
unceded aboriginal land in B.C. The group took over a downtown
intersection, forcing organizers to alter the torch route.
In Montreal a week earlier, protesters succeeded in delaying the
arrival of the flame about an hour as about 100 people took over the
main stage set up at a square.
While Six Nations parks and recreation director Cheryl Henshaw
wouldn't comment on what role the protest played in changing the plan
Monday, she did admit to some security concerns. Holding the relay in
one location made it more of a community event, she added.
"We found a better venue which is going to allow the supporters who
come out for the event to basically stand in one place and see the
torchbearers ... carry the flame,'' Henshaw said before the torch's
arrival.
The Six Nations reserve at the heart of Monday's protest is no
stranger to controversy.
First Nations members there are also involved in a land dispute over
a former housing development on the outskirts of Caledonia. The land
has been occupied by Six Nations protesters since February 2006 and has
been the site of a number of violent confrontations between aboriginals
and town residents.
The Ontario Superior Court issued an injunction in March 2006
ordering the protesters to stop interfering with construction on the
site.
The provincial police raided the site one month later, with about
180 officers, and arrested about 16 people, but the protesters amassed
and the police were overrun and forced to retreat.
The province of Ontario purchased the land in July 2006 for $12.3
million and land claim talks are ongoing.
The Six Nations protesters said participating in the relay plays
into what they say is Canada's attempt to hide the negative image the
country has on the world stage over its treatment of aboriginals.
The Olympic flame is passing through more than 1,000 communities on
a 106-day journey before arriving in time for the Vancouver Games on
Feb. 12.
FFF-FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!
Check out:
http://www.No2010.com
http://www.warriorpublications.com
by Alex Hundert
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/2383
Ohsweken, Grand River Territory--Yesterday, as reported in many
mainstream media outlets, organisers from Six Nations of an action
against the Olympic Torch Relay declared the day a success. Their goal
of keeping the torch and the relay caravan out of the "heart" of their
territory was set in order to prevent the Torch Relay from being used
to paint a benevolent image of Canada's relations with First Nations,
and to prevent a violation of their territorial sovereignty as well as
of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) "Great Law of Peace".
While the entire territory spans beyond the full length of the Grand
River, the declaration made by the Hoskanigetha and Agongweh (Men's and
Women's Councils) as well as youth and other "concerned people"
referred, rather, to boundaries of the Six Nations reserve. The Torch
Relay caravan as has proceeded through most other scheduled stops did
not even enter the reserve. Rather, a few vehicles drove the torch
around the reservation and entered "through the back door" for a torch
celebration on the edge of the reserve.
Spokespeople for the action made it clear that the intention of
blocking the torch from crossing the territory was not about sports or
about confronting their "own people" or preventing them from
celebrating. Accordingly, there was no disruptive demonstration at the
Torch Celebration site. Instead, a group of 30-40 people gathered at a
point on Hwy. 54 which they had declared the torch would have to go
around, even after the celebration had been moved. The Torch
Celebration's original location had been scheduled for a location right
in the centre of Ohswken, the town sitting at the centre of the
reserve. That plan had been called off before noon and announced
officially at a press conference shortly after 1pm.
At that press conference, local event organizers tried to claim that
the re-routing had nothing to do with planned protests, and that they
felt that the Olympics should not be made political. When pressed by
reporters however, organizers admitted that the scheduled actions
against the relay contributed to the decision.
Spokespeople for the action, like activists across the country,
however, were quite clear in their statements that the international
context of the Olympics inherently makes the torch relay political,
especially with respect to Indigenous sovereignty and land rights
(Canada is one of only three developed countries that have not signed
the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).
Olympic organizers and sponsors were accused of using the Torch Relay
and the Games as a propaganda campaign to change their image and
Canada's image on a global stage.
Spokespeople for the action also talked about solidarity with
Indigenous Peoples in so-called British Columbia who have spurred a
national anti-Olympic movement. In both Toronto and Montreal, the main
message of and the primary chants of the rallies have been "No Olympics
on Stolen Native Land." They cited the issues of unceded territories,
land destruction, and the displacement and criminalization of the urban
poor in Vancouver, and Canada's ongoing colonialial and assimilationist
policies and proactices, as just some of the reasons why activists
across the country and in Six Nations have mobilized against the
Olympics, and why the 2010 games are being viewed as in principle, a
violation of the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace.
===
Interview w Six Nations spokespersons Lyndsey Bomberry [
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3312146 (pt1) and
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3312238 (pt2)] and Melissa Elliott [
https://qik.com/dankellar ] --courtesy AW@L Radio
Six Nations protesters disrupt torch relay
CBC News, Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Aboriginal protesters diverted the Olympic torch relay route on Monday
away from the Six Nations reserve near Caledonia, Ont.
Runners had been expected to carry the torch down Highway 54 onto
the reserve. Officials instead drove it to a local hall, where 25
torchbearers took turns running it around a circuit in the parking lot.
Protesters waving Mohawk Warrior and Iroquois Confederacy flags said
the torch had no business on Six Nations land, which they consider
sovereign territory.
But many more reserve members gathered at the hall to support the
aboriginal torchbearers.
Tuesday's route
On Tuesday, the Olympic torch relay will weave its way through southern
Ontario, with stops in Brantford, Paris, Simcoe, Tillsonburg and St.
Thomas, Ridgetown and Blenheim. It will end the day in Chatham, 51 days
before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games are set to begin in Vancouver.
The relay will wend its way through Chatham's downtown before
arriving for a cauldron-lighting ceremony at the Kinsmen Auditorium and
Memorial Arena on Tweedsmuir Avenue at 6:10 p.m.
"It'll be something really to see," said Ashley White, project
manager for Chatham-Kent's torch relay. "We've got great acts and local
dance groups. We've got fireworks to finish off the night."
The torch will also be blessed by members of the Oneida of the Thames
and Chippewas of the Thames.
With blockade threatened, relay moves to parking lot
By James Bradshaw, The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Olympic torch relay's planned stop on Six Nations land was
waylaid by a threatened blockade yesterday, pushed to a contingency
site at the fringes of the reserve southwest of Caledonia, Ont.
Fearing protests, organizers of the relay decided to scrap plans to
have torchbearers run through the reserve. The relay was moved to a
bingo hall just inside the reserve's boundaries - with torchbearers
running laps on a circuit around the parking lot, retracing their own
steps repeatedly and ultimately finishing back where they started.
If there was any unfortunate symbolism in the circular route, it was
lost on the crowds, not to mention the torchbearers.
"I don't think it mattered where we were going to carry the torch,
because everybody's so proud it was here," says Fern Burning, 64, a
30-plus-year veteran of the Six Nations Skating Club who will volunteer
at the Vancouver Games in February.
"I'm just so proud so many people were here to back us up."
Despite the displeasure voiced by dissenting Six Nations groups,
hundreds turned out to the parking lot to celebrate, many of them
clutching Canada pennants and sporting Olympic apparel.
Six Nations band council Chief Bill Montour said the celebration
marked the long history his community has had in sports, and the great
pride it takes in them.
A makeshift stage hosted traditional music and dancing against a
backdrop of jerseys from local sports teams.
The protests came from members of the Hoskanigetah (Men's Fire
Council), the Ahgongweh (Women's Fire Council) and the Grand River
Onkwehonwe. Lindsay Bomberry, a spokeswoman for the Ahgongweh, said the
groups' members do not consider themselves Canadian, and were asserting
their rights to the land and self-determination granted them under the
Two Row Wampum treaty.
They reject the authority of the Six Nations band council, the elected
body that had welcomed the torch relay to the reserve.
The groups voiced their opposition at an Aug. 20 community meeting,
but had felt ignored since then.
"We didn't have a choice," Ms. Bomberry said. "We needed to assert
our position because band council obviously didn't think it was a
priority."
About 40 protesters gathered along Highway 54 to force the torch to be
rerouted, but that became unnecessary.
After extensive consultations, torch relay director Jim Richards and
his Six Nations task force concluded that they would be blockaded if
they went ahead as planned, and switched to plan B. They arrived at the
bingo hall from the north along a smaller road to avoid creating any
additional controversy.
"We don't want to come down Highway 54 and fly in the face of those
saying we're not welcome. So we'll come in as quietly as we can, have a
nice event for the community at large, and depart as quietly as we
can," he said.
Mr. Richards called the compromise "more than satisfactory," and Ms.
Bomberry agreed it was acceptable given that it pushed the torch relay
out of "the heart" of the Six Nations land, to "the fringe."
But she stressed that the groups believe their territory stretches
well beyond the reserve, to other torch sites such as Caledonia, so the
arrangement was still "definitely not ideal."
A public statement from the groups called the torch's appearance a
"façade of peace and unity," angering many in the celebratory crowd,
and in particular one of Ms. Burning's disciples at the Skating Club,
17-year-old Kari Hill.
"It's a big opportunity for our community to show our talents for
everybody else to see, and to give hope to the younger ones that they
can make it somewhere," she said. "[The protests] really made me mad."
So, too, for Laura Williams, 47, who lives on the reserve but works
off it. "We do have our own sovereign identity, but really we're still
part of the overall society, of what's Canadian," she said.
A few protesters did attend the parking lot celebration, but failed
to cause much disruption amid a gleeful crowd, many of whom trotted
behind the torchbearers as they made their rounds.
One man heckled the torchbearers about the cost of the relay and
Canada's treatment of indigenous peoples, but each time he raised his
voice, it was deliberately drowned out by well-timed cheers from the
flame's entourage.
"People have a right to protest, and I don't think this venue should
be politicized," Chief Montour said. "It's community, it's for the
kids, the elders, people who've spent their whole lives in sport."
Threatened protest changes torch route
The Canadian Press
By Susanna Kelley, The Canadian Press Posted Monday, December 21, 2009
SIX NATIONS INDIAN RESERVE, Ont. - The Olympic torch's journey
across Canada was forced yet again to take a detour in the face of
aboriginal opposition to the Games, with an Ontario First Nation
rerouting its relay amid a protest from a splinter group in the
community.
While the torch still made an appearance on the Six Nations reserve
near Brantford in southern Ontario, the original plan to run the flame
through the reserve - supported by the elected band council - was
altered at the 11th hour.
Instead, the torch was taken directly to a bingo hall on the reserve
for a celebration during which some two dozen torchbearers circled the
hall with the flame.
Although the splinter group of Six Nations protesters did not
succeed in blocking the torch from entering the reserve - a stated aim
of their demonstration - the fact the original relay plan was scrubbed
and the celebration relocated had them calling their protest a success.
"It's the first time where any person who has stood up against these
torch and Olympics has actually had a success in being able to move the
celebration,'' protest spokeswoman Missy Elliott said.
"Different protesters have been able to hold it off for an hour or
some time but it's never been moved, so this is a huge significance.''
Many, however, were thrilled the flame made it onto the reserve.
"I think it helps bring communities together, to see something like
this, and I'm thrilled with it,'' said Barbara Bomberry, whose
daughter, a championship lacrosse coach and player, was one of the
torchbearers.
Former Six Nations chief and honorary elder David General blessed the flame.
"Images of this evening will burn lasting memories in the minds and
spirits of everyone in attendance,'' he said.
"Though the flame will depart . . . it leaves embers that can be
fanned to ignite the spirit of our youth to pursue athletic and
sporting dreams at all levels - national, international and Olympic.''
The torch has run into aboriginal opposition on several occasions.
On Dec. 8, the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee agreed to drop
the usual RCMP escort for the Olympic flame as it passed through a
Mohawk reserve. Games organizers made the concession after a flurry of
negotiations with community members who were upset by the prospect of a
non-aboriginal police force patrolling their territory.
The agreement allowed the flame to pass through a community that
played a role in the Oka crisis, a tense summer-long standoff between
aboriginals and police in 1990.
Last Thursday in Toronto about 100 protesters rang bells, drummed
and chanted "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land'' - the rallying cry for
those who protest the Games on the basis that they're being held on
unceded aboriginal land in B.C. The group took over a downtown
intersection, forcing organizers to alter the torch route.
In Montreal a week earlier, protesters succeeded in delaying the
arrival of the flame about an hour as about 100 people took over the
main stage set up at a square.
While Six Nations parks and recreation director Cheryl Henshaw
wouldn't comment on what role the protest played in changing the plan
Monday, she did admit to some security concerns. Holding the relay in
one location made it more of a community event, she added.
"We found a better venue which is going to allow the supporters who
come out for the event to basically stand in one place and see the
torchbearers ... carry the flame,'' Henshaw said before the torch's
arrival.
The Six Nations reserve at the heart of Monday's protest is no
stranger to controversy.
First Nations members there are also involved in a land dispute over
a former housing development on the outskirts of Caledonia. The land
has been occupied by Six Nations protesters since February 2006 and has
been the site of a number of violent confrontations between aboriginals
and town residents.
The Ontario Superior Court issued an injunction in March 2006
ordering the protesters to stop interfering with construction on the
site.
The provincial police raided the site one month later, with about
180 officers, and arrested about 16 people, but the protesters amassed
and the police were overrun and forced to retreat.
The province of Ontario purchased the land in July 2006 for $12.3
million and land claim talks are ongoing.
The Six Nations protesters said participating in the relay plays
into what they say is Canada's attempt to hide the negative image the
country has on the world stage over its treatment of aboriginals.
The Olympic flame is passing through more than 1,000 communities on
a 106-day journey before arriving in time for the Vancouver Games on
Feb. 12.
FFF-FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!
Check out:
http://www.No2010.com
http://www.warriorpublications.com
