{"id":265,"date":"2005-04-28T22:48:59","date_gmt":"2005-04-29T02:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/?p=265"},"modified":"2012-07-25T12:37:44","modified_gmt":"2012-07-25T16:37:44","slug":"mnn-144-mohawk-oka-crisis-film-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/28\/mnn-144-mohawk-oka-crisis-film-exploitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mohawk Oka Crisis film exploitation."},"content":{"rendered":"
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EVERYTIME WE TURN AROUND THERE?S ANOTHER ARROW COMING OUR WAY. NOW SOME NON-NATIVE OUTFIT IS GOING TO FILM THE ?MOHAWK OKA CRISIS OF 1990!?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>MNN. April 28, 2005.<\/strong>\u00a0A guy named Claudio Luca of Group Cine Tele Film in Montreal is embarking on a project funded by Canada and Quebec. He is recreating the Mohawk Oka Crisis of 1990! That’s when Quebec sent in the paramilitary troop of the Quebec Police (SQ) who opened fire on Mohawk men, women and children in
\nKanehsatake on July 11th. 1990. This attack in the Pines, escalated to the point that Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney sent thousands of Canadian Army soldiers to surround three of our Mohawk Territories ? Kanehsatake, Kahnawake and Akwesasne. The Mohawks were resisting the building of a golf course by Oka over our burial and ceremonial grounds.<\/p>\n

Now they want to exploit our misfortune. They have made no attempt to
\ndetermine our feelings about their project. The funders, producer,
\nwriters and researchers are non-native. Let?s hope the Mohawks will
\nnot be portrayed by non-native actors! Canada and Quebec, the
\nfinanciers, are colonial powers. They have continually suppressed
\nindigenous points of view. This kind of bias violates international
\nhuman rights law.<\/p>\n

The way we responded to the attack on our cultural integrity at Oka
\nwas entirely our collective invention. These non-native entities have
\nno right to our creation. The constant one-sided way of looking at
\nour issues proves that they do not understand what we were doing.
\nThey continue to violate the respect that is due to all human beings.<\/p>\n

As one of the people who was involved and remained to the last at the
\nKanentoken Treatment Center, they do not have my permission to
\nreplicate my actions.<\/p>\n

International audience. Since this is being created for French
\ntelevision it is a transparent attempt to present us in a biased way
\nand to prejudice international opinion. We are appalled at their
\ninsensitivity towards everything that we Kanienkehaka have suffered.
\nSince both Canada and Quebec live on our territory, they are obligated
\nto ensure that our interpretations are presented. The United Nations
\nDeclaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic,
\nReligious and Linguistic Minorities, adopted on December 18, 1992 is
\nsupposed to safeguard us. We never gave them permission to depict us
\nthrough a story written exclusively by non-native writers, filmed by
\nnon-native filmmakers for a non-native audience. This is cultural
\nexploitation at its worst.<\/p>\n

The Euro-Canadian and European public will be mislead. This film
\nshould not be made because the entire Mohawk population own this story
\nand they need our permission to use it.<\/p>\n

They forget that we are people. This is our story. It is not just a
\ncommodity to be packaged and sold to the highest bidder. They cannot
\nchange facts or add fictitious characters to suit their needs as has
\nbecome the established custom in previous dealings between our
\ncultures.<\/p>\n

Misappropriation of our image. It is obscene the way people try to profit from
\nthe one-sided depiction of our lives, our tragedies and our struggles. If they
\nrespected our humanity and took the trouble to get to know us, they would
\nunderstand the harm they are doing by appropriating our image, our actions and our
\nevents. If the story is ever to be filmed, it will be by the Mohawk people being
\ntotally in charge of everything.<\/p>\n

Their theft of our culture by filming this event brushes aside the
\ncentral issue. They think we have no intelligence. This is why they
\nfeel free to exploit us.<\/p>\n

What is it that makes them think that the Mohawk people are of no
\nconsequence to their production? What makes them think that it is
\ncool to ignore what we have to say? Why do they think it is open
\nseason to use our struggles for their commercial and political
\npurposes to entertain and shock their audience?<\/p>\n

We do not want to be used. They would not want to be used this way
\neither. If they had suffered a personal tragedy as significant and of
\nthe same consequence as ours, they would not want to have it exploited
\neither. Would they not feel violated?<\/p>\n

They should read up on colonialism. They are participating in the
\nabuse of our people that has been going on for 500 years. When will
\nthis stop?<\/p>\n

If they really wanted to help our people, they would do what needs to
\nbe done to give us a voice. Instead, they are telling the story they
\nwant to hear. The story that they wish was there, instead of what
\nreally happened. This is called ?twistory?. The Europeans took our
\nland and our resources. Now they are taking advantage of us again.<\/p>\n

Our issues need to be addressed. We must stand together as Mohawk
\npeople. This is one of the most basic rules of our culture. It is
\none of the rules that the non-native culture, with its totalitarian
\nhabits, seems to have the most difficulty understanding.<\/p>\n

We believe in respect and honesty.<\/p>\n

Stop production. It would be in the best interests of the Mohawk
\npeople and the Canadian public to stop this production completely.<\/p>\n

All we ask for is to be treated in a respectful way.<\/p>\n

Since they can?t seem to understand our rights according to our
\ncultural values, we are asserting them on terms that they can
\nunderstand. We have copyrighted our story. So now the rights belong
\nto us under Canadian law. A copy of the Copyright Certificate of
\nRegistration, No. 1024217, dated October 20, 2004 has been sent to
\nthem. It is duly registered under Canadian law and internationally
\nrecognized in over 130 countries.<\/p>\n

The right to this story belongs to us. We lived it!<\/p>\n

Kahentinetha Horn
\nMNN Mohawk Nation News<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

poster: Thahoketoteh<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EVERYTIME WE TURN AROUND THERE?S ANOTHER ARROW COMING OUR WAY. NOW SOME NON-NATIVE OUTFIT IS GOING TO FILM THE ?MOHAWK OKA CRISIS OF 1990!? MNN. April 28, 2005.\u00a0A guy named Claudio Luca of Group Cine Tele Film in Montreal is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[696,697,698,262],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-culture","tag-claudio-luca","tag-group-cine-tele-film","tag-kahnawake-and-akwesasne","tag-kanehsatake-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}