Land Back

On a July day in 1990, a confrontation propelled First Nations issues in Kanehsatake and the village of Oka, Quebec, into the international spotlight. Director Alanis Obomsawin spent 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-off between the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) People, the Quebec police and the Canadian army. This powerful documentary takes you right into the action of this historic confrontation. The result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades.

Excerpt:

A Blackfeet man from Montana, who requested to be identified only by his first name, said that he moved to Los Angeles during the Relocation Era in 1963. A social worker, and military veteran, he spoke of being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “With men, that is war, but with children, that is genocide,” he said. As a social worker, he spoke of the intergenerational trauma he has experienced working with many American Indian/Native American families in the area. He said families shared of their hair being cut, punished for speaking their language or taking a liking to their Native culture, and made to feel ashamed of their heritage. “That is genocide,” he repeated.