2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Sir George Williams University in Montreal in 1969 by Black and Caribbean students who were protesting racist treatment by professors at the institution, as well as the 150th anniversary of the Métis Nation’s re-occupation of Fort Garry at Red River (Winnipeg) in 1869.

“The established media focused their attention on who they judged to be the leaders and organizers — that is, Native American males. Their cameras and tape recorders only grazed the faces of Martha Grass from Oklahoma or Ann Jock from Akwesasne or the many strong women who like Anna Mae Pictou breathed life into an idea.”

“Why, after killing an Indian, was an avowed political racist charged with manslaughter instead of murder and sentenced to a short prison term? Why was there no trial and no opportunity for a court to publicly examine the crime and Nerland’s political activities?”

This violent state repression consisted of dozens of murders and assaults, including an assault on a non-Native legal defence team.

Hundreds of residents of the Aboriginal community of Palm Island, Australia, burned down the local police station, court building and the housing barracks of local police officers on November 26, 2004, after a coroner’s report on the police custody death of island resident Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Aboriginal man, was read aloud to a community meeting.

“We continue to live the laws of Creation. Is it enough to save the earth from destruction? As the disease of greed spreads itself like a blanket smothering all of the Creation’s breath.”