This weekend we present All eyes on Mi’kma’ki, an excellent documentary short on Sipekne’katik fishers’ struggle to assert their treaty rights and establish a moderate livelihood fishery to support the community.

Saturday, Sept 26, 11am, Halifax Waterfront (by the big wave)

Mi’kmaw fishers are currently under attack by angry non-indigenous fishers who mistakingly claim that Mi’kmaw fisheries have no basis in Canadian law. Come out to show solidarity with Mi’kmaq people earning a moderate livelihood through the fishery!

This weekend’s documentary, Martha Stiegman’s In defense of our treaties, looks at the fishers of Bear River First Nation, in Annapolis County, who proudly held on to their treaty rights and insisted on fishing the waters of the Bay of Fundy on their own terms, not on terms imposed by the Department of Fisheries.

We first posted this video in 2016, but with all that’s happening these days in Digby County, not all that far from Bear River, a re-post is warranted.

Many different groups have challenged Mi’kmaw sovereignty over A’Se’k and the area around it, and for centuries, the Mi’kmaq have resisted and protected their homeland. Historian Colin Osmond describes how today’s Mi’kmaq protectors of A’se’k walk in the footsteps and shadows of generations of Mi’kmaq who have done the same.

Last week Mi’kmaw Water Protectors traveled to Antigonish to confront politicians attending the annual meeting of the provincial Liberals about federal efforts to accommodate the Alton Gas Project. Sadie Beaton explains what is going on. Video by Eliza Knockwood included

Today, the RCMP moved to enforce an injunction on behalf of Alton Gas (a subsidiary of Alberta-based AltaGas) against Mi’kmaq water protectors at the Shubenacadie River. They arrested Mi’kmaq grandmothers, and have blocked others from accessing the site.

Join us at the legislature to make a public show of solidarity against this clear violation of the treaties of Peace and Friendship.