Moving Forward: Land Back
Big Ideas
- Land back is a movement by Indigenous peoples all over Turtle Island (North America) to reclaim stolen lands and have their inherent jurisdiction recognized.
- Most of Ontario is covered in “Crown land”.
- There is more than enough land to be shared.
- Indigenous Peoples including the Anishinabek have inherent roles and responsibilities to the land that has never been relinquished.
- Land was never ceded or surrendered.
- Language and culture is directly tied to the land.
- Often times Indigenous Peoples are met with police violence when attempting to utilize their traditional lands or protecting their lands.
Let’s Explore
1 Watch the Land Back Video
Download the fillable PDF with these discussion questions
Discuss the Following
- What are your thoughts after hearing the speakers in this video?
- How can education and awareness help to inform Canadian citizens about the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their lands? How can this prevent further incidents of police violence?
- How can citizen action help to support these efforts of “land back”?
2 Explore: Understanding Indigenous Rights
This resource is shared with permission by Jodie Williams.
Explore Understanding Indigenous Rights
Consider the Following
Are Indigenous Peoples being supported? If so, how? If not, why not?
3 Make Connections
Explore the following resources to learn about systemic racism in policing:
Reflect
Did anything surprise you? Why or why not?
How does this relate to the video Land Back?
How do these actions by various law enforcement violate the UNDRIP?
4 Take Action
Have students develop a solidarity action plan that promotes education, awareness and action on a land back movement.
Have students share their action plans with each other. This could be done as a class presentation or in small groups, rotating until everyone has heard each plan.