Brantford Blockade Continues

The letters NYM are tagged on a sign on a blockade at Oak Park Road in Brantford. Behind the blockade at the Hampton Inn site that has been completely shut down for over a week now, is a barricade structure known as “The Fort.” About fifty meters away is the original camp site where Boots Powless had been living in a tepee for 51 days when he was arrested Tuesday morning - on a coffee run for the crew that has been at the center of a historic summer in Brantford where activists from Six Nations have been acting on an obligation to protect the land on their territory.

Boots was released from jail the next morning on the condition that he not (travel) within 1500 meters of any Brantford site named on an existing injunction. To avoid breaching his conditions he moved his tepee less than 2 kilometres away to the massive King & Benton Oak Park Road development site that had been shut down for almost two weeks last month before resuming work a week ago. Soon enough, Boots will be shutting them down for good, just like he did with Kingspan and the Hampton Inn. Keeping an eye on those sites is a crew of youth from 6 Nations who have chosen to self-identify and organize as a newly formed NYM-6 Nations.

The NYM crew has dug in on Fen Ridge Road beside the Hampton Inn. The Fort stands despite persistent efforts by the police to have it taken down. The camp itself has seen a growing number of tents as well as visitors, and is now surrounded by black tarping and fencing marking a perimeter and forming a barrier. Fires burn around the clock.

These site shut downs are about land protection. They are about shutting down industrial development, commercial intensification, and urban sprawl. They are about protecting habitat, ecosystem, and the river. They are about protecting the land for future generations, for both 6 Nations and Settlers. But they are also about recognition and respect. These shut downs are an assertion of right and ‘title’ to land. One might say ownership of land, but the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace that guides the activists from 6 Nations doesn’t consider land to be an ‘ownable commodity.’ Instead, a land base is a part of who a people are and should be cared for accordingly.

Boots and the NYM-6 Nations crew aren’t new to this either. They were all intensely involved in the incredible work done by folks from 6 at the Douglas Creek Estate starting in Spring ’06. And it was out front of the DCE site on Tuesday morning that 6 Nations activists showed what happens when police arrest one of their own who has been peacefully protecting the land. By 10am that morning, the hydro tower barricade had been dragged out across the road and tire fires had been lit on the Bypass. The barricades and fires lasted a few hours before being taken down. The Fort in Brantford still stands.

The DCE in Caledonia is where I first met the youth who now self identify as a chapter of the Native Youth Movement, and I am truly honoured to have been welcomed to stand alongside them doing the necessary work of land protection. Working with them, Boots, and others at 6 Nations has been some of the most inspiring and meaningful times of my life, and has played a major factor in shaping my analysis of not only Indigenous issues and the territory I live in, but also about my responsibility to take action to uphold deep truths such as the integrity of land, and its interconnection with community and, in turn, with ones actions.
I’m heading back to Brantford in a few hours to back up Boots and the Boys. Things can always start popping off at any time.

PEACE
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