WHAT IS THE LAND BACK MOVEMENT ABOUT ?
Canadians are hesitant to discuss the concepts of Land Back, Indigenous Sovereignty and Inherent Jurisdiction. Such conversations are difficult to have with settlers as they often get defensive about how they came to be on this land that we now call Canada. ‘Land Back’ is a relatively new phrase that is emerging out of the Canada-First Nations situation. At the first sound of it, it can be mistaken to be a “everyone, except for the Indigenous peoples, go back to where you came from” narrative, but it is not that. The situation is more complex than that and it should not be simplified for a shutdown of discussion. To us at NCH, in an easy-to-understand language for a lay-Canadian, it means to understand the history of where you live and also, how you get your livelihood. It means to understand, for enabling your gain, what was stolen and what continues to be stolen. And then understand what has to happen to stop this ongoing theft. Canadians need to connect these dots and then work on the relational accountability that they owe to the Indigenous Peoples. In a nutshell, it is about taking outcome-based corrective action on - what happened, where we are stuck now and where we should be.
The five structures that define and sustain Canada and its continued land theft are — Doctrine of Discovery, Doctrine of Reception, British North America Act, the Confederation and the Indian Act. The basic premise of the new arrivants in 17-18th century was to settle on lands previously occupied, with their respective monarchs and church leaders enabling this activity by creating any law possible - whether it was the “Doctrine of Discovery” - a lie that no one occupied the Americas - or, the “Doctrine of Reception” – that only English or French laws will be imported and imposed on the original occupants of this land. With that in place, illegal laws kept getting created. Whether through the Canadian Confederation, Indian Act, Residential Schools or more. There was ban on voting, ban on hiring lawyers, ban on how we used our lands. Sweeping and extensive tracts of land across Turtle Island were just for taking by the settlers. The quick enshrining of these early colossal illegal laws and constitution has led to two centuries of a complex web of case laws that continue to sustain land grab. Organization like ours have a list of such case laws. None of this ever had First Nations on the decision making tables. Why would it? Which First Nation would have said “Yes - take my land, and then my children, my language, my very way of being”?
Also, we all need to question exactly what is “crown” land — a term pulled out from thin air in time of occupation and now a highly entrenched term in Canadian courts — or, who decides how this so-called “crown” land (or, public land) is handed out or managed (our organization is studying the rapid spread of suburbs, mining and other extractive corporate agencies in last few years in previously “crown” lands), all these are nothing but the continuing by-products of the foundational piece we mentioned above — the five illegal constitutive structures that define and sustain Canada and its continued land stealing.
Where we are stuck now
So, once the basic foundation of current relationship rests on unlawful premises, something that mainstream Canada is still not talking about — it is not in school curriculum, it is not in Canadian citizenry tests for the tens of millions of people who have recently become “Canadians” — we are all going about current land stewardship like the parable of the blind men and an elephant. This ancient story is from the Indian subcontinent and describes how a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and conceptualize what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant's body, and then describes the elephant based on their limited experience. Each description is different, and they even come to blows for disagreeing. The moral of the parable is that humans tend to claim a truth based on their limited, subjective experience. And settlers in Canada ignore the basic premise – that this land has lived experience of thousands of years by the Indigenous people. And that it was stolen. I do not have to detail here the devastation— the land encroachment, the environment devastation, the Indigenous society devastation that has taken place in last two centuries. Especially in the last 50 years. Pick any report up on Indigenous peoples to know that. It is time for Canadians to connect the dots…if you take an Indigenous child away to state care, you get easier access to land. If you allow MMIW to happen, it gives you easier access to land.
Where we should be
There is so much that can be done much of which has already been researched and reported on, beginning with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in 1996. It details solutions to the challenges affecting the relationship between the Indigenous Peoples, the Canadian government and Canadian society as a whole. A reset/reconstitution is the desired outcome for a more just system of land governance. These are difficult and unfathomable words, I know, but this has to be done for just systems. Our communities must be treated as nations with our own laws. Currently, we do not even have the veto power on extractive projects. If we do not repair and reset the very foundation, the house will continue to stand on a weak base. There are thousands of non-Indigenous lawyers in this country – as they go about their livelihood, my first call to action would be to them – do some self-reflection and ask where their law/the Canadian law, is originally stemming from. And then knowing that, why are they continuing to go about business-as-usual? If the Canadian Constitution was imported in a matter of days, surely, corrections can be made in similar time frame. Each passing day of status quo is a day of unlawfulness that they help retain.
Lastly, if there is one simple thing that I could request of the allies – is to focus and prioritize. There are myriad of issues and problems in our current world. And it is easy in this age of connectivity to be constantly distracted. But if you understand that the problems in Canada today stem from the foundation of illegal occupation – whether it is environment degradation, racism, infrastructure inequity, youth incarceration or suicide, third-world like poverty – then prioritize that foundational issue first. Ask for a reset of Canadian laws and Constitutive structures. Let us work on foundational pieces. Indigenous organizations like ours have many ideas.
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