The Peace Village in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was a peace camp set up by Indigenous activists in front of the provincial Legislative Building in 1990. Established on 1 September 1990, the temporary encampment was to remain indefinitely in anticipation of a peaceful resolution to the Oka Crisis.
The goal of the Peace Village was to show support for the Mohawks of Kanesatake and Kahnawake protesting near Oka Quebec and to call for a peaceful resolution in the armed standoff between them and the Canadian Armed Forces and Sûreté du Québec. Further goals of the Winnipeg Peace Village, were bringing attention to indigenous issues such as land claims, and to model a community of indigenous and non-indigenous people living together peacefully and cooperatively.
It was reported that on September 10 1990, ‘Australian rock band Midnight Oil’s lead singer Peter Garrett and band toured the Peace Village while in Winnipeg for a concert and was welcomed by the AMC with a traditional song and dance and presented him with a native blanket. He spoke saying, “Midnight Oil is a band that doesn’t take lightly the ceremony just presented. We happen to believe that the first stage in mending the planet is the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples.” ‘
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2 Responses
And it would seem that in the 30 odd years since then, we haven’t come that far.
This may sound flippant, but your comment made me think of when the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report came out, then Premier Gary Filmon assured everyone that it would not be collecting dust on a shelf. It prompted a Native commentator to remark that it was probably true because the previous Aboriginal Justice Inquiry report had taken up all the shelf space. But we have a Native Premier now and I wish him success in serving all Manitobans.