This July 11, marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Oka Crisis which became one of the most publicized land claim disputes between First Nations and the Canadian government of the late 20th Century. The Mohawk in Kanehsatake have been challenging land claims since 1868 and colonialism before that.
On a July day in 1990, a confrontation propelled Native issues in Kanehsatake and the village of Oka, Quebec, into the international spotlight. Director Alanis Obomsawin spent 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-off between the Mohawks, the Quebec police and the Canadian army. This powerful documentary takes you right into the action of an age-old Aboriginal struggle. The result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades.
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance by Alanis Obomsawin, National Film Board of Canada