as small as a world and as large as alone, voltron-da-eclair: “He didn’t want my Mohawk...

4:37am October 25, 2013

“He didn’t want my Mohawk name, he wanted an English name. He said for the court records, we have to have another name, a Canadian name, so that they can check to see if I have a record… They said they would release all the women—except me. So we were all sent back downstairs to the holding cells and one lawyer came in and took me in another room. He says, “You’re gonna be the only woman left here. They’re gonna take you back to Farnham. There’s soldiers there, they can do things to you, beat you up or rape you or whatever. It doesn’t look like they’ll release you today.” I said, well, I’m here for a reason. I’m not here just to do what they want, just because the prosecutor wants to change my name! He left and I went back into the holding cell with the other women. The other lawyer came down, called me to the front of the cell. He says, “You! You could get out today, if you give an English name.” I said, they took enough from us! We’ve been through enough and you want me to give another name just to satisfy the courts?”

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For people following the Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nation anti-fracking protest, My Name is Kahentiiosta is on Netflix.

It focuses on the Oka Crisis, the result of the town of Oka’s efforts to develop a golf course on land that had traditionally been a Mohawk burial ground. (See also: The Ipperwash Crisis.)

I know it’s fun to think of Canada as that ‘sweet apartment above a meth lab,’ as Robin Williams recently put it, but they’re still just looking for any old excuse to kill First Nations people.

I mean, Aboriginal women are seven times more likely than other women to be killed, and even the UN has recommended “a national inquiry into the ‘disturbing phenomenon’ of missing and murdered Aboriginal women,” but the government responded, “LOL, actually, it’s no biggie.“ The Canadian ambassador to the UN even had the gall to elaborate: "Canada is proud of its human-rights record, and our peaceful and diverse society.”

See, that’s the thing about renting an apartment above a meth lab: nobody’s gonna notice if you’ve been cooking meth, too.

You can sign the petition to tell the RCMP to stop violently intervening in First Nations protests here.

(via femalevillain)