Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. Must Watch.

“Obomsawin’s film, as part of its undoing of the cultural construction of Mohawk warriors as terrorists, asks the white Western viewer to identify with the gaze of the Mohawk Other that reads colonialism as white state-sponsored terrorism.” – Christopher E. Gittings

Everyone should watch Alanis Obomsawin’s, “Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance.”  Obomsawin passionately captures a certain “Native” point of view, powerfully evoking a sense of empathy; in the course of watching this film, many of “their” frustrations became mine… its upsetting, unsettling, but, more importantly, inspiring.

90% of reservations are operated at states comparable to the third world

The movie is a documentary about the conflict (The Oka Crisis) between a Mohawk First Nations group, and the Quebec and Canadian government.  Basically it shows the Canadian military laying siege to a First Nation’s community in a dispute over land.  The appalling thing is that the land in question was apparently purposed for a luxury housing development and to expand a goddamn private golf course!!  This documentary arose all sorts of strong feelings within me, I physically felt sick watching it.  There was so much senseless anger and violence and hate, it just didn’t make sense, I felt like screaming.  Examples of events portrayed or talked about in the film: townspeople throwing stones at Natives leaving the area, a 14 year old girl bayoneted, media being forcibly removed, and other unnecessary physical violence…sometimes both ways. 

Watching the movie, after awhile, its strange, it just felt so close to me… its funny the things that get you, there was this moment when some guy was just talking to his kids over the phone, and it just hit me…. it was maybe one of the most beautiful moments I’ve experienced on film. I don’t even know if the guy was Native, it doesn’t even matter, its just the contrast between that love and such anger was so startling and effective.

“it’s hard to defend democracy against people who don’t believe in democracy.” -Canada’s prime minister Brian Mulroney

What really scares me though is that this past event doesn’t even scratch the surface of things going on in present places!…for equally, if not more, senseless reasons!  I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if their were no camera there… and to think – those events occurred in Canada… God, I just wonder, what happens in places with zero coverage? With no camera?  And you know what? I don’t have to wonder – I absolutely know!  

At the end of World War II, the common German citizen, when asked, cited ignorance in regards to atrocities committed by their government to Jews…. I find that hard to believe.  And I look at us, basking in our riches, forgetting that, among many other things, we have relatively silently succeeded in annihilating a culture in the process; many of the gains we enjoy in life, are absolutely built on the desperate loss of others.  How will history look back on us?  Fuck history. How will I?  Will I cite ignorance?  Will I say, what could I have done? I’m just one person?  Fuck that. JUST one person?  EVERYTHING starts with JUST one person.  Just.

 There are scenes in the film that are particularly poignant… in which you watch the native “warriors” accost individual soldiers… basically, screaming at them, “how could you do this?”  And it is infuriating, because you realize the soldiers have no idea why they are doing anything, yet still do it.  I think this is a very striking metaphor to society, and myself, as a whole… people everywhere are screaming, “why?” And I have no answer, and because I don’t I do nothing! But, like the soldier, my nothing, is, if anything, a large part of the fuel that feeds the fire… that keeps the subaltern subjugated; if I am not a part of the solution, then I am a part of the problem.  And, I realize, startlingly, that I am exactly that infuriating soldier, I am exactly that madness.

How can I be part of a society that is so willing to turn a blind eye?  I don’t even mean just towards first nation injustices or Canada….this is the world, and I am a part of it.  How can I excuse myself by claiming impartiality?  I can’t claim I don’t know, because I DO know!  I don’t want to forget the messages this movie invoked in me, because I know in the past, with similar things, I have; I see something, on the news, in a movie, and I say, “oh, how sad,” and then go have dinner.  Maybe, at dinner, I talk about it, and maybe I feel better about myself, because, “hey I thought about it.”  Maybe I feel smarter, more noble, because I’m now aware of something others, to a degree, may not be, and now I can point it out to them, “hey I’m smart, and I think about doing good things once in awhile.”  And then  I forget. Its so EASY.

But I CAN’T let myself forget – I can’t just keep talking, and not doing anything!  It doesn’t affect me?! Than I have to go somewhere and MAKE it affect me!  You know? 

“A man who does not know foreign language is ignorant of his own.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I look just in the past week, and my heart breaks at what I haven’t done; the uselessness I’ve committed.  I went to go see my friends band play last last night, and I felt good at the time.  Why did I feel good? How could I feel good.  I wonder, the 20 or so dollars I spent that night, where else could it have went?  Could it have fed someone? A family maybe? Could it have saved a life?  The 4 hours I spent – for what? For me? Why?! What did I do that meant anything?  Who am I that I deserve fun?  More importantly, was it even “fun”?  What is “fun?” I tell you now, I feel ten times better doing something as simple as walking an old lady down the street, then I do downing five tequilas.  And if my friends can’t handle that, then I need new ones.  I don’t mean to say, “don’t have fun, don’t be happy,” I mean to say don’t be selfishly happy.  How can I invest in my happiness or enjoyment knowing full well that it is bought tenfold at the expense of another? ….whether through my needless consumption, or what I could be doing, but am not.  I want everything I do to be in the process of something better.  People will argue, you can’t spend every hour doing something worthwhile, talking about things of import, you need release once in awhile, down time.  But sometimes release is the escape that negates action…. for me, especially now, down time feels completely, utterly ugly.   I don’t want to have time for bullshit anymore.  Really, I’ve spent 20 years bullshitting, and, to be honest, I feel desperately horrible.  I am looking for something to believe in, to waste my time on what is fundamentally escapism, in hindsight, is absolutely ridiculous.  I don’t need fun, I need passion.

“A learned man is an idler who kills time with study. Beware of his false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” –George Bernard Shaw

That said, I don’t mean to be a downer. I don’t mean to say, just focus on all the negative things in life, because don’t.  Their is wonder in this world, and things worth smiling about all the time; catch a breeze, its magical.  Anyway, hopefully I find something I can do in the next couple of days, and then maybe I’ll post about it.  Or if anyone has any ideas, or is doing something, or wants to do something, do tell!

  “It is clear that without Obomsawin’s 1993 film, the history of Oka circa 1990 would be dominated by [Prime Minister Brian] Mulroney’s assertion, reproduced in the documentary, that the armed Mohawks were criminals and illegally wielding weapons.”– Brian McIlroy