Torch Blocked, Forced to Detour at Six Nations

Olympic Torch Relay Stopped at Six Nations
Relay re-routed off Six Nations' Territory

by Alex Hundert
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/2383
Ohsweken, Grand River Territory--Yesterday, as reported in many mainstream media outlets, organisers from Six Nations of an action against the Olympic Torch Relay declared the day a success. Their goal of keeping the torch and the relay caravan out of the "heart" of their territory was set in order to prevent the Torch Relay from being used to paint a benevolent image of Canada's relations with First Nations, and to prevent a violation of their territorial sovereignty as well as of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) "Great Law of Peace".

While the entire territory spans beyond the full length of the Grand River, the declaration made by the Hoskanigetha and Agongweh (Men's and Women's Councils) as well as youth and other "concerned people" referred, rather, to boundaries of the Six Nations reserve. The Torch Relay caravan as has proceeded through most other scheduled stops did not even enter the reserve. Rather, a few vehicles drove the torch around the reservation and entered "through the back door" for a torch celebration on the edge of the reserve.

Spokespeople for the action made it clear that the intention of blocking the torch from crossing the territory was not about sports or about confronting their "own people" or preventing them from celebrating. Accordingly, there was no disruptive demonstration at the Torch Celebration site. Instead, a group of 30-40 people gathered at a point on Hwy. 54 which they had declared the torch would have to go around, even after the celebration had been moved. The Torch Celebration's original location had been scheduled for a location right in the centre of Ohswken, the town sitting at the centre of the reserve. That plan had been called off before noon and announced officially at a press conference shortly after 1pm.

At that press conference, local event organizers tried to claim that the re-routing had nothing to do with planned protests, and that they felt that the Olympics should not be made political. When pressed by reporters however, organizers admitted that the scheduled actions against the relay contributed to the decision.

Spokespeople for the action, like activists across the country, however, were quite clear in their statements that the international context of the Olympics inherently makes the torch relay political, especially with respect to Indigenous sovereignty and land rights (Canada is one of only three developed countries that have not signed the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). Olympic organizers and sponsors were accused of using the Torch Relay and the Games as a propaganda campaign to change their image and Canada's image on a global stage.

Spokespeople for the action also talked about solidarity with Indigenous Peoples in so-called British Columbia who have spurred a national anti-Olympic movement. In both Toronto and Montreal, the main message of and the primary chants of the rallies have been "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land." They cited the issues of unceded territories, land destruction, and the displacement and criminalization of the urban poor in Vancouver, and Canada's ongoing colonialial and assimilationist policies and proactices, as just some of the reasons why activists across the country and in Six Nations have mobilized against the Olympics, and why the 2010 games are being viewed as in principle, a violation of the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace.

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Interview w Six Nations spokespersons Lyndsey Bomberry [ http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3312146 (pt1) and http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3312238 (pt2)] and Melissa Elliott [ https://qik.com/dankellar ] --courtesy AW@L Radio

Six Nations protesters disrupt torch relay
CBC News, Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Aboriginal protesters diverted the Olympic torch relay route on Monday away from the Six Nations reserve near Caledonia, Ont.

Runners had been expected to carry the torch down Highway 54 onto the reserve. Officials instead drove it to a local hall, where 25 torchbearers took turns running it around a circuit in the parking lot.

Protesters waving Mohawk Warrior and Iroquois Confederacy flags said the torch had no business on Six Nations land, which they consider sovereign territory.

But many more reserve members gathered at the hall to support the aboriginal torchbearers.

Tuesday's route
On Tuesday, the Olympic torch relay will weave its way through southern Ontario, with stops in Brantford, Paris, Simcoe, Tillsonburg and St. Thomas, Ridgetown and Blenheim. It will end the day in Chatham, 51 days before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games are set to begin in Vancouver.

The relay will wend its way through Chatham's downtown before arriving for a cauldron-lighting ceremony at the Kinsmen Auditorium and Memorial Arena on Tweedsmuir Avenue at 6:10 p.m.

"It'll be something really to see," said Ashley White, project manager for Chatham-Kent's torch relay. "We've got great acts and local dance groups. We've got fireworks to finish off the night."

The torch will also be blessed by members of the Oneida of the Thames and Chippewas of the Thames.

With blockade threatened, relay moves to parking lot
By James Bradshaw, The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Olympic torch relay's planned stop on Six Nations land was waylaid by a threatened blockade yesterday, pushed to a contingency site at the fringes of the reserve southwest of Caledonia, Ont.

Fearing protests, organizers of the relay decided to scrap plans to have torchbearers run through the reserve. The relay was moved to a bingo hall just inside the reserve's boundaries - with torchbearers running laps on a circuit around the parking lot, retracing their own steps repeatedly and ultimately finishing back where they started.

If there was any unfortunate symbolism in the circular route, it was lost on the crowds, not to mention the torchbearers.

"I don't think it mattered where we were going to carry the torch, because everybody's so proud it was here," says Fern Burning, 64, a 30-plus-year veteran of the Six Nations Skating Club who will volunteer at the Vancouver Games in February.

"I'm just so proud so many people were here to back us up."

Despite the displeasure voiced by dissenting Six Nations groups, hundreds turned out to the parking lot to celebrate, many of them clutching Canada pennants and sporting Olympic apparel.

Six Nations band council Chief Bill Montour said the celebration marked the long history his community has had in sports, and the great pride it takes in them.

A makeshift stage hosted traditional music and dancing against a backdrop of jerseys from local sports teams.

The protests came from members of the Hoskanigetah (Men's Fire Council), the Ahgongweh (Women's Fire Council) and the Grand River Onkwehonwe. Lindsay Bomberry, a spokeswoman for the Ahgongweh, said the groups' members do not consider themselves Canadian, and were asserting their rights to the land and self-determination granted them under the Two Row Wampum treaty.

They reject the authority of the Six Nations band council, the elected body that had welcomed the torch relay to the reserve.

The groups voiced their opposition at an Aug. 20 community meeting, but had felt ignored since then.

"We didn't have a choice," Ms. Bomberry said. "We needed to assert our position because band council obviously didn't think it was a priority."

About 40 protesters gathered along Highway 54 to force the torch to be rerouted, but that became unnecessary.

After extensive consultations, torch relay director Jim Richards and his Six Nations task force concluded that they would be blockaded if they went ahead as planned, and switched to plan B. They arrived at the bingo hall from the north along a smaller road to avoid creating any additional controversy.

"We don't want to come down Highway 54 and fly in the face of those saying we're not welcome. So we'll come in as quietly as we can, have a nice event for the community at large, and depart as quietly as we can," he said.

Mr. Richards called the compromise "more than satisfactory," and Ms. Bomberry agreed it was acceptable given that it pushed the torch relay out of "the heart" of the Six Nations land, to "the fringe."

But she stressed that the groups believe their territory stretches well beyond the reserve, to other torch sites such as Caledonia, so the arrangement was still "definitely not ideal."

A public statement from the groups called the torch's appearance a "façade of peace and unity," angering many in the celebratory crowd, and in particular one of Ms. Burning's disciples at the Skating Club, 17-year-old Kari Hill.

"It's a big opportunity for our community to show our talents for everybody else to see, and to give hope to the younger ones that they can make it somewhere," she said. "[The protests] really made me mad."

So, too, for Laura Williams, 47, who lives on the reserve but works off it. "We do have our own sovereign identity, but really we're still part of the overall society, of what's Canadian," she said.

A few protesters did attend the parking lot celebration, but failed to cause much disruption amid a gleeful crowd, many of whom trotted behind the torchbearers as they made their rounds.

One man heckled the torchbearers about the cost of the relay and Canada's treatment of indigenous peoples, but each time he raised his voice, it was deliberately drowned out by well-timed cheers from the flame's entourage.

"People have a right to protest, and I don't think this venue should be politicized," Chief Montour said. "It's community, it's for the kids, the elders, people who've spent their whole lives in sport."

Threatened protest changes torch route
The Canadian Press
By Susanna Kelley, The Canadian Press Posted Monday, December 21, 2009

SIX NATIONS INDIAN RESERVE, Ont. - The Olympic torch's journey across Canada was forced yet again to take a detour in the face of aboriginal opposition to the Games, with an Ontario First Nation rerouting its relay amid a protest from a splinter group in the community.

While the torch still made an appearance on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford in southern Ontario, the original plan to run the flame through the reserve - supported by the elected band council - was altered at the 11th hour.

Instead, the torch was taken directly to a bingo hall on the reserve for a celebration during which some two dozen torchbearers circled the hall with the flame.

Although the splinter group of Six Nations protesters did not succeed in blocking the torch from entering the reserve - a stated aim of their demonstration - the fact the original relay plan was scrubbed and the celebration relocated had them calling their protest a success.

"It's the first time where any person who has stood up against these torch and Olympics has actually had a success in being able to move the celebration,'' protest spokeswoman Missy Elliott said.

"Different protesters have been able to hold it off for an hour or some time but it's never been moved, so this is a huge significance.''

Many, however, were thrilled the flame made it onto the reserve.

"I think it helps bring communities together, to see something like this, and I'm thrilled with it,'' said Barbara Bomberry, whose daughter, a championship lacrosse coach and player, was one of the torchbearers.

Former Six Nations chief and honorary elder David General blessed the flame.

"Images of this evening will burn lasting memories in the minds and spirits of everyone in attendance,'' he said.

"Though the flame will depart . . . it leaves embers that can be fanned to ignite the spirit of our youth to pursue athletic and sporting dreams at all levels - national, international and Olympic.''

The torch has run into aboriginal opposition on several occasions.

On Dec. 8, the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee agreed to drop the usual RCMP escort for the Olympic flame as it passed through a Mohawk reserve. Games organizers made the concession after a flurry of negotiations with community members who were upset by the prospect of a non-aboriginal police force patrolling their territory.

The agreement allowed the flame to pass through a community that played a role in the Oka crisis, a tense summer-long standoff between aboriginals and police in 1990.

Last Thursday in Toronto about 100 protesters rang bells, drummed and chanted "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land'' - the rallying cry for those who protest the Games on the basis that they're being held on unceded aboriginal land in B.C. The group took over a downtown intersection, forcing organizers to alter the torch route.

In Montreal a week earlier, protesters succeeded in delaying the arrival of the flame about an hour as about 100 people took over the main stage set up at a square.

While Six Nations parks and recreation director Cheryl Henshaw wouldn't comment on what role the protest played in changing the plan Monday, she did admit to some security concerns. Holding the relay in one location made it more of a community event, she added.

"We found a better venue which is going to allow the supporters who come out for the event to basically stand in one place and see the torchbearers ... carry the flame,'' Henshaw said before the torch's arrival.

The Six Nations reserve at the heart of Monday's protest is no stranger to controversy.

First Nations members there are also involved in a land dispute over a former housing development on the outskirts of Caledonia. The land has been occupied by Six Nations protesters since February 2006 and has been the site of a number of violent confrontations between aboriginals and town residents.

The Ontario Superior Court issued an injunction in March 2006 ordering the protesters to stop interfering with construction on the site.

The provincial police raided the site one month later, with about 180 officers, and arrested about 16 people, but the protesters amassed and the police were overrun and forced to retreat.

The province of Ontario purchased the land in July 2006 for $12.3 million and land claim talks are ongoing.

The Six Nations protesters said participating in the relay plays into what they say is Canada's attempt to hide the negative image the country has on the world stage over its treatment of aboriginals.

The Olympic flame is passing through more than 1,000 communities on a 106-day journey before arriving in time for the Vancouver Games on Feb. 12.