RESIST THE ATLEO/HARPER WHITE PAPER

Jul 14, 2011

RESIST THE ATLEO/HARPER WHITE PAPER

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RESIST THE ATLEO/HARPER WHITE PAPER!!

FOUR DAYS OF ACTION IN FALL 2011

 

Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo tries to convince First Nations chiefs to"support his blueprint for radically altering, structurally and politically, the relationship between First Nations and the federal government" by meeting with Stephen Harper. As Indigenous people whose lives are directly threatened by the Atleo/Harper agenda, we resist this subversive attack on our land and our communities, and this attempt to sell out our resistance.

We face extreme poverty, the extermination of our way of life and the continuing loss of our land to occupation by illegal governments and corporations. These are the real and present threats to our children and the generations coming after us. All of us who hear with our hearts know that the only way to reclaim ourselves and our land is to resist these monsters and their consuming greed.

Shawn Atleo loudly supported what we risked violence, arrest and even death to oppose: Olympics mega-development on stolen sacred Native land, which destroyed traditional hunting, fishing and gathering grounds, destroyed sacred sites and caused irreparable damage to the land and water.

The Intercontinental Indigenous Gathering on Yaqui territory in Sonora, Mexico called the Olympics “a great threat to Indigenous people and to these goals” and unanimously called for "defense and protection of the land” stating that unity in these efforts of resistance were “central to self determination and freedom.” Leading up to the Olympics, native youth movements and entire communities confronted and disrupted the Spirit Train and the 2010 torch relay.

Atleo has always given the false impression that we are willing to cooperate with our own exploitation and destruction. He sold us out by supporting the Olympics, flaunting his own political agenda by stating to Bay Street that our communities are “open for business”, publicly supports the erosion of our Treaties by pushing for private ownership of reserve land.

The Atleo/Harper White Paper furthers this agenda to further exploit us and undermine our resistance to projects like Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline, a $5.5 billion dollar mega-pipeline project opposed by 61 First Nations in BC alone. Atleo's cozy ties with Enbridge guarantee him a piece of the pipeline pie, as he coaxed native groups in December 2010 to “explore ideas on how they can benefit from resource development projects they support.”

With over 500 years of colonization under our skin, we refuse to be sold out by Indian Agent Shawn Atleo: Our survival depends on resistance, unity on the ground in order to protect, defend and advance our sovereignty and our Treaty rights by every means by which our ancestors resisted and the coming generations deserve.

We call on Native communities, youth movements, organizations, groups and people in every territory and city to fast, raise our prayers, listen and speak among ourselves, and to take four days of coordinated direct action in Fall 2011 against this White Paper, not just to shut down the meeting itself but to shut down the economy these colonial powers seek to impose on our people.

We call on chiefs, councillors and all representative “provincial” native organizations to support and engage in these actions of necessary resistance and to withdraw all support from the AFN.

We also call on non-native allies in the wider movement to support our day-to-day struggles and coordinated direct action, based on our common humanity and the obligation of all settlers of occupied Indigenous territory to resist our shared enemies by strengthening respectful relationships with the land and our peoples.

FALL 2011, 4 DAYS OF ACTION TO RESIST THE ATLEO/HARPER WHITE PAPER!

 

 

For more information, see links below:

 

Pursuing First Nation Self Determination, AFN Annual General Assembly 2011
http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/aga/pursuing_self-determination_aga_2011_eng%5B1%5D.pdf

 

First Nations Under Surveillance, Harper Government Prepares for "Native Unrest"
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4066