Social 20

Isherwood

Learning about the Oka Crisis:

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Name: ____________
On a July day in 1990, a confrontation propelled Native issues in Kanehsatake and
the village of Oka, Quebec, into the international spotlight. Director Alanis
Obomsawin spent 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-of
between the Mohawks, the Quebec police and the Canadian army. This powerful
documentary takes you right into the action of an age-old Aboriginal struggle. The
result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades.
Instructions: Answer the following questions as you view the
documentary. Please use complete sentences.
1) Why did a proposed expansion of a golf course next to the municipality of Oka stir opposition n the
Mohawk community of Kanehsatake?

2) Who were the stakeholders involved in the crisis?

3) Could things have been handled any differently to avoid confrontation? Explain.

4) What themes were clearly stated in the messages of the Aboriginal leaders during the rally of July
28, 1990?

https://www.nfb.ca/film/kanehsatake_270_years_of_resistance/

Social 20

Isherwood

5) Why did the Oka Crisis evoke a nationwide response in 1990?

6) What contending nationalist loyalties divided the stakeholders of the Oka crisis?

7) How did the crisis eventually end? Did

the ending show a reconciliation of these
contending nationalist loyalties? Why
or why not?

Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1f/Oka_stare_down.jpg

8) What was the impact of the crisis on the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the federal
government in Canada?

https://www.nfb.ca/film/kanehsatake_270_years_of_resistance/