On Tuesday, Feb 12th, at 7 p.m., Kanahus Pellkey of the Native Youth Movement will be in Toronto talking about how the upcoming Olympics in Vancouver is impacting Indigenous lands, and how people are mobilizing around this issue.
From the event’s email (location of the talk and contact info below):
With the 2010 Winter Olympics scheduled to occur on unceded Coast Salish, St’at’imc and Squamish territory in two years, the spectacle surrounding them continues to wreak havoc on Indigenous people, poor people, and the Earth.
“By them choosing to have the Olympics here, it’s opening up our land, our sacred sites, our medicine grounds,” says Kanahus Pellkey. “We want
investors to know our land is not for sale.” Pre-Olympic fever occupies
the province of BC, and the economic excitement has massively accelerated gentrification and the building of highways, resorts, and condos. The construction of infrastructure for the 2010 Olympics itself is adding to extensive destruction of traditional homelands of the local Indigenous peoples.
In October 2007, more than 1500 Indigenous people representing communities across this hemisphere held the Gathering of the Indigenous Peoples of America, on Yaqui territory in Vicam, Sonora, Mexico. They stated in their final declaration, “We reject the 2010 Winter Olympics on sacred and stolen territory of Turtle Island, Vancouver, Canada.” This speaking tour is strengthened by this momentum, and by the knowledge that hundreds, if not thousands of Indigenous people now plan to attend the Olympic Games, not in celebration, but in resistance to the danger the Olympics poses to Indigenous lands, identity, culture, health, livelihoods, and to future generations.
The Native Youth Movement is a Movement of Native youth that works to
revive traditional knowledge and inspire Native youth to defend their
Peoples and Territories.
Kanahus Pellkey is a Secwepemc and Ktnuxa Warrior and a spokesperson for
the Secwepemc chapter of the NYM. She has been jailed before for fighting against the illegal occupation and theft of Secwepemc Lands for the Sun Peaks ski-resort, and is active in opposing the 2010 Olympics.
Endorsed by: OPIRG-Toronto, No One Is Illegal-Toronto, OCAP, CUPE 3903
First Nations Solidarity Working Group, Coalition Against Israeli
Apartheid
Tuesday, February 12th 7:00PM
Sidney Smith Hall (University of Toronto)
100 St.George Street
For more info, email: opirg.toronto@gmail.com or nooneisillegal@riseup.net
OTHER TOUR DATES 2008:
Hamilton …Wednesday, Feb 13
CONFIRMED: Feb 13 - 11:00AM @ Sir John A MacDonald High School,
McMaster University: Feb 13 - 7:30
Six Nations
Peterborough
Tyendinaga
Sharbot Lake
Kingston
Akwesasne
Kahnawake
Kahnasatake
Ottawa
Montreal
Penobscot
Portland
Boston
Binghamton
Ithaca
For further information on this cause please visit:
www.no2010.com
www.2010watch.com nooneisillegal.org
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two comments
Wow, this is one instance where "shameless" is actually a bad thing. It's unbelievable that we would host the Olympics on aboriginal soil. Quite the metaphor though. Showy Capitalism of the Free World shoving aboriginals and low-income people out of the way to make nice Oympic Village and have lots of fun skiing on big hills and fighting barbarically on ice rinks. Yay!!! On the other hand, the aboriginal youth movement has been urging people to wear khaki to rallies...
Posted by Natalie
February 13, 2008, 7:10 PM
A version of this happens every year in any tourist town during high season. Business owners suggest to police that the local "undesirables" should be rounded up out of sight to make everything look shiny and new and unproblematic for the tourists. With the Olympics it is writ large.
Posted by piKe
February 14, 2008, 9:21 AM
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