This Changes Everything

“Indigenous Rights and the Power of Keeping Our Word” (Pages 367-370)

Klein recalls a 2004 meeting she attended with two First Nation leaders and senior representatives of one of the world’s major credit rating agencies in New York. Arthur Manuel, former Neskonlith chief and a leader on Indigenous land rights, had requested the meeting as part of his bid to challenge governments that were not respecting Indigenous land rights. He realized the only way to influence them was to hit them with the threat of financial costs. So, he was challenging Canada’s AAA credit rating (granted by the agency) because Canada had huge outstanding and unacknowledged debts to First Nation peoples from taking and exploiting lands without consent since 1846.

Many First Nations tribes had filed lawsuits against Canada to this effect, and in the meeting, Manuel shared these with the agency. The agency responded that as the First Nations had no power to enforce their rights or collect these debts, Canada’s credit rating would remain unaffected, regardless of the rights or wrongs of the matter.

At the time, Indigenous peoples did not have powerful forces behind them in these land-right struggles, but since the rise of Blockadia-style resistance, that has changed: “an army of sorts is beginning to coalesce around the fight to turn Indigenous land rights into hard economic realities” (370).

“The Last Line of Defence” (Pages 370-377)

Indigenous peoples are playing a central role in the recent rise of anti-fossil fuel resistance. Their land and treaty rights have proven a major barrier for the extractive industries in many of Blockadia’s key struggles. In turn, this is leading non-Indigenous people to see these rights as a crucial tool in preventing ecological crises. They are also starting to better understand and value Indigenous ways of life, especially their respectful relationship with nature.

Klein tells of the situation in British Columbia. The Canadian constitution has protections for Indigenous peoples’ lands and their right to self-govern and continue their way of life. In 1999, the Mi’kmaq people won a case in the Supreme Court arguing that their land rights cover not only those lands explicitly given as reserves but their shared rights to land not covered under any treaty—millions of acres of land claimed and used by the state. By right, Indigenous people can freely hunt and fish on these lands, but they can’t do that if this land is being made toxic by extractive industries.

After the 1999 victory, Indigenous people started exercising their right to fish and hunt on these lands. However, the government did little to protect that right, and there was a backlash from non-Indigenous farmers and fishermen, which spilled into conflict and riots in 2000. Indigenous people’s equipment was destroyed, and some people were beaten.

Klein points out that in 2013, the situation is radically different. Those same Mi’kmaq people who were caught up in fights with non-Indigenous people are now leading, along with other First Nations, the fight against fracking and have explicitly invited the non-Indigenous community to join them in a shared struggle. The cause has united a diverse group of people and helped build shared respect and understanding, in opposition to the fossil fuel companies.

Klein points to similar struggles led by Indigenous peoples and the issue of land rights in the Pacific Northwest, around the Keystone Pipeline, and in Alaska, where the Inuit people played the leading role in stopping Shell’s drilling activity in the Arctic. In Western Australia, along the Amazon, and in the Andean cloud forests of Columbia, similar stories are repeating themselves, with Indigenous people at the center of the Blockadia movement. With this, the Indigenous rights movement has gained strength globally.

“Might vs. Rights” (Pages 377-380)

Despite growing recognition of Indigenous rights, there’s a big gap between what governments say and what they do. Companies, backed by the state, still push ahead with extractive projects, and Indigenous resistance is met with legal, political, and physical force. Klein says, “The reason industry can get away with this has little to do with what’s legal and everything to do with raw power” (378). Isolated and often poor, Indigenous communities lack the money and power to take on the combined force of government, wealthy companies, and teams of lawyers.

Klein describes how she was struck by the extremes of this David-and-Goliath struggle when she met some of the activists from the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, who were taking the Canadian government to court over the model of oil extraction in the Alberta tar sands. These are some of the most marginalized people taking on some of the wealthiest and most powerful forces on the planet. For Klein, they are the brave and imperiled frontline of the struggle against climate change and the fight to save our planet, and they deserve much wider support.

“Honour the Treatise” (Pages 380-384)

What’s changed is that recently, non-Indigenous people are seeing the power and political potential of these land rights struggles to protect us all from environmental disasters. Awareness is on the rise, and more people are offering their support. With that, the scope of these local struggles is growing, opening up grounds for a new understanding and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who find themselves similarly marginalized by a government that puts the interests of fossil fuel companies first.

The legal wording of these historical treatises, enshrined in the Canadian Constitution, is such that they safeguard the rights of future generations to live off the land. This is a powerful legal and moral tool against the industries that are encroaching on and damaging that land. What’s needed, Klein argues, is for people to get behind that legal and moral right.

When the Canadian government pushed ahead with legislation that made it easier for extractive industries to expand without proper regulations or consulting impacted communities in 2012, Indigenous groups launched Idle No More, a national protest movement. Idle No More took the movement to a national level and attracted mass support. The business world has not been blind to this, and Canada is no longer topping the list of the best mining jurisdictions for investment. The uncertainty created by land rights issues is seen as a disincentive for investors.

More and more Canadians, Klein argues, are seeing that defending First Nations’ rights is our best chance of saving whole territories from pollution and destruction, and they are becoming allies of the movement.

In 2014, the famous Canadian country and rock musician Neil Young threw his weight behind the movement after visiting the Alberta tar sands. He started a high-profile tour called “Honour the Treatise,” with all proceeds donated to First Nations legal struggles against extraction industries in the area.

“The Moral Imperative of Economic Alternatives” (Pages 384-387)

There are complex reasons why more First Nations communities aren’t taking on the huge challenge of fighting the fossil fuel companies and asserting their territorial rights. The odds are stacked against them, and many Indigenous communities are poor, lacking even basic services. In some places, unemployment is high and morale is low. For some, ensuring their own interests is top priority.

That’s why when fossil fuel companies arrive with the promise of money and jobs in areas where there seem to be few other options, some Indigenous peoples are inclined to take a different path to the struggle described above. This has led to bitter divides between those who see the extractive industries as the best of a series of bad options and those who are determined to struggle against them. Greenland is an example where Indigenous people have decided to allow drilling and mining in exchange for the wealth they believe will secure their independence.

Klein asks whether we are asking too much of Indigenous peoples in asking them to be the frontline in a global struggle, against the full might of pro-corporate governments and fossil fuel companies. She suggests non-Indigenous involvement must go beyond raising money and offering moral support: “we have to become the treaty and land sharing partners that our ancestors failed to be” (387). This means working together to provide healthcare, education, and job opportunities that don’t jeopardize traditional ways of life. This, she argues, will empower more Indigenous people to say no to fossil fuel expansion, join the struggle, and assert their land rights.