Land is the most important asset for people around the globe which represents their social and cultural identities. Some people consider it as something they own and an asset to make profit from while others have a spiritual and cultural connection with their land. Canada, as we know it today, is the second largest country in the whole world which was built on the land of many indigenous nations and communities. The formation of Canada came for economic reasons, primarily to benefit the companies that were trading Canadian natural resources as it is a front for a huge network of resource extraction companies, oil barons, and mining magnates. All these corporations have been exploiting the lands and rights of indigenous people who represents resistance to Canada.

Canadian government has used warfare, diplomacy and myriad of tactics to eliminate the resistance represented by Indigenous people to Canada. Indigenous people and first nations have used ample of resistance methods to stop the settler development and exploitation of their land and they have also filed thousands of petitions to get their land titles acknowledged. Whenever the resistance broke out the police are brought in to remove indigenous people from their own land in the name of development. They have always been reclaiming parts of their land but there has always been a question as to whom does it actually belong- Canada or Indigenous people. For non-natives the resistance of indigenous people merely relates to the ownership of land but actually their struggle relates to the usage of land and they consider their land as a social relationship between living and non-living beings.

Canada has formed various treaties with first nations to opt out of Indian Act that forbid them to file court cases for Indigenous land title in order to create economic certainty for Settlers Corporations who are willing to develop Natives Land with their investment. Mushkegowuk (Swampy Cree) writer Jacqueline Hookimaw-Witt explained in her 1997 thesis, based partly on interviews with Elders, the difference between the Cree concept of land ownership and the colonial concept of private property: “You cannot buy land and own it like you own a car. Yet, we do own the land in a different sense, which is explained in the answer of John Mattinas, who states that as much as we ‘own’ the land, the other beings on the land (animals, plants, rocks) own the land as well, meaning that we were put on the land by the Creator, and everything on the land belongs there and can use the land.”

We are all taught a one-sided history and as new comers in Canada we were told to avoid indigenous folks and neighborhood and we are unknowingly getting shaped to dislike them or turned against their land reclamation efforts. Colonial tactics have changed over time but the motive has always been to eliminate the challenge and resistance posed by indigenous to settler corporations. It has been and always will be the same until and unless indigenous people get their relations with land and not their “Land” back as they are fighting for the right to their relationship with their mother earth and creating a life worth living for them.

The question of the belongingness of land still remains unanswered. However, it is quite clear that everyone has a different for the land which is basic reason for all the conflicts. So, the main question that arise here is that what it will take to reconcile those meanings in the society.

References:

Gamblin, R. (n.d.). Land back! what do we mean? 4Rs. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://4rsyouth.ca/land-back-what-do-we-mean/#:~:text=The%20land%20is%20our%20home%2C%20our%20mother%2C%20our,would%20need%20to%20separate%20us%20from%20this%20relationship.

Albers, G. (2011, June 6). Indigenous Land Claims in Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/land-claims

Gurpreet Kaur (76642) Sangdeep Singh (76645)