Sovereignty and Resistance

This theme offers film excerpts on land claims, management of natural resources, ancestral rights and recovery of Aboriginal cultural artefacts. It also presents images showing the resistance of Aboriginal peoples to repression by non-Aboriginal culture.

Excerpts

Dancing Around the Table, Part One

Our Nationhood

Riel Country

Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole

Dancing Around the Table, Part One

1987, Director: Bulbulian, Maurice

excerpt 2 5 min 29 s

Description
Questions

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Description A discussion transpires between Prime Minister Trudeau and James Gosnell, chief of the Nisga’a Tribal Council, concerning Aboriginal territorial rights. British Columbian Aboriginal leader Bill Wilson states that in order to understand what Aboriginals want, it is necessary to stop interpreting their demands from the perspective of claims made by the dominant society.

Questions 1. At the constitutional talks of 1983 what does chairman and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau state is the Canadian government’s position with regards to the Aboriginal Peoples assertion of their sovereignty within Canada?

2. What position on sovereignty does Bill Wilson articulate on behalf of all First Nations, Inuit and Métis people? How is it different from the government’s position?

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About This Film

Short Description

The Trudeau government pledged to hold constitutional conferences on the issue of Aboriginal rights following the repatriation of the Constitution. The conferences that took place between 1983 and 1985 soon turned into little more than pretexts for cultivating the art of going around in circles.