Resistance to the un-natural gas industry runs coast to coast, with many communities united in solidarity on this crucial issue. Representatives from two of those communities met face to face on the front lines, when members of the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society made a visit to their comrades at the Unist’ot’en Camp this January.
The visit was part of a West Coast/Prairies/Southern Ontario Speaking Tour that brought members of the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society in contact with allies and supporters in many far-flung places, and allowed them to build new contacts and alliances in this struggle to protect our lands and communities.
The Mi’kmaq Warrior Society were joined by a member of Anishinabek Confederacy to Invoke Our Nationhood/Oshkimaadziig Unity Camp, an Anishnabek/Onkwehon:we soveriengty project that has been reclaiming land in an area illegally occupied by ‘Awenda Provincial Park’ since 2012.
The Oshkimaadziig Unity Camp has many similarities to the Unist’ot’en Camp, as a place to assert soveriegnty, to connect with the land, with culture and with the ancestors; to decolonize. Oshkimaadiziig in the Anishinabek Language refers to the New People of the Seventh Fire Prophecy, who will pick up the many things left on the trail to ensure Humanity’s survival in the Eighth Fire.
The Mi’kmaq Warrior Society made headlines around the world last October when they joined members of the Elsipogtog First Nation on a blockade against fracking operations in ‘New Brunswick’.
That blockade began in the summer of 2013, when Houston, Texas-based company SWN Resources Canada began exploring for gas reserves in Elsipogtog territories. An injunction was issued to remove the blockade, and a massive, violent RCMP operation was deployed in October.
Resistance to SWN operations began earlier in the year, and 20 people had already been arrested before the blockade even went up.
Forty people were arrested during the blockade raid, several more in the days and weeks afterwards, with six experiencing prolonged incarceration and two people still remaining in jail. Many of those arrested reported significant abuse while in custody, including beatings and denial of spiritual practice.
The two men that are currently jailed, Germaine (Junior) Breau and Aaron Francis, are at the provincially-run Southeast Regional Correctional Center (SRCC), located in Shediac, New Brunswick. They are awaiting their trial dates, which are scheduled between mid-March and early April, 2014.
A Warrior Legal fund was successful in raising funds to cover legal expenses for the six incarcarated warriors. There is now a new account to cover legal fees for the multitude of Water Protectors who have also gotten arrested, charged and require legal representation for their appearance and trials.
Some have been charged by RCMP and some are being sued by SWN.
These Water Protectors are NOT covered by Legal Aid and cannot afford the solid representation they need. Please share the link and donate if you can.
SWN has announced that they intend to drill two wells on unceded Mi’kmaq land, and the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society and their supporters have vowed to keep up the fight.
Like the Unist’ot’en Camp, the Mi’kmaq resistance to fracking operations is grassroots led, and guided by a strong spiritual connection to land and culture. The Unist’ot’en Camp and the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society stand together in solidarity with everyone on this planet fighting the destruction of land and culture by the oil and gas industry, and we urge you to learn about and support not just our communities, but the many communities coast to coast and worldwide who are taking this very important stand.
For more information on the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society and the Elsipogtog resistance to SWN, try this link: http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/tag/mikmaq-warrior-society/
And once again, the Water Protectors Legal Fund
http://www.gofundme.com/6on5z0
For more about ACTION/Oshkimaadziig Unity Camp visit
http://oshkimaadziig.org
from Unist’ot’en Camp