JUSTICE FOR THE INNU!
Stop Nato low-level flight testing over Nitassinan
In this 500th anniversary of the European "discovery" of America,
the ACT for Disarmament coalition of Canada appeals to all peace
movements to support the struggle of the Innu native peoples of
Nitassinan (Labrador, Canada) against the militarization and
destruction of their land.
A series will be held in support of the Innu in Toronto, Canada,
this April, co- sponsored by ACT for Disarmament and the Canadian
Environmental Defence Fund. We are appealing for statements of
support from peace movements around the world to be read out at a
demonstration on April 4. Any other actions your group can
undertake are also encouraged.
LOW-LEVEL FLYING
During World War II, a Canadian Forces Base was built at Goose
Bay, within Innu territory and near the Innu town of Sheshatshit.
In the 1980s, Nato countries began flight training there, and it
became a major site for "low- level flight" testing, in which
pilots practise avoiding enemy radar by flying as low as 100 feet
off the ground.
Planes from Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, taking off from
Goose Bay, fly over Innu hunting territories, screaming above the
heads of the Innu, burning the tops off trees, polluting the
water, frightening and weakening the animals, especially the
caribou that the Innu depend on for subsistence. There are now
about 8,000 flights a year conducted during the six months period,
commencing each April 1, that flights are allowed. The planes also
drop "dummy" bombs, huge chunks of metal, onto the land.
In 1988, the Canadian government lost its bid to have Nato build a
Tactical Fighter Weapons Training Centre, which would have
increased flights to 40,000 a year and added such features as the
use of live bombs and simulated nuclear bombs. The number of
flights, however, continues to increase, despite the removal of
any possible threat from the former Soviet Union and the
continuing investigations of the Federal Environmental Assessment
Review Office.
INNU PROTEST
The Innu have undertaken a campaign of mass non-violent civil
disobedience, occupying the Goose Bay base many times, blocking
the runways, being arrested in the hundreds. The Innu continue to
resist, and have asked for the help of non-native and overseas
peace and justice organizations.
THE INNU OF NITASSINAN
There are about 10,000 Innu (formerly known as Naskapi and
Montagnais) and they have lived in the area they call Nitassinan
(Our Land) for many thousands of years. (They should not be
confused with the Inuit of the coastal Arctic.) Non-native
settlers were rare in the area until very recently, and the Innu
have preserved much of their traditional way of life. They are the
last hunter-gatherer culture intact in Canada, and most children
still speak Innu-eimun as their first language, not English or
French.
The Innu have never given up title to their land, never signed a
treaty with the Canadian government, never ceded, in any way, any
part of Nitassinan. It has simply been taken from them.
The Innu still spend half of every year in the country, hunting
and teaching their children traditional ways. Unlike the
government-built towns, the country is free from alcoholism and
other problems caused by non-native colonization. But the country
is now threatened by militarization and by "development" of other
sorts: the Churchill Falls dam project, which is now proposed to
be expanded to flood even more of the Innu burial grounds and
hunting lands; logging of forests without the permission of the
rightful stewards of the land; and plans to construct a "skidoo
highway" that would cut directly through the range of one of the
caribou herds.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
In 1988, support from Canada and Europe, from runway occupations
in the Netherlands to petition drives in Hungary to demonstrations
in Toronto to blockades in Ottawa, were instrumental in stopping
Nato's plans to expand the Goose Bay base. Now the flights, and
other threats to the Innu land and culture, must be stopped too.
In 500 years of European occupation, too many indigenous cultures
have been reduced to the brink of extinction. Let's not let the
Innu be the next victims.
Possible actions include:
* statements of support for the Innu.
* collection of signatures on ACT for Disarmament's international
"Support the Innu!" petition. We hope to double the 50,000
signatures collected in a campaign starting this April.
* letters of protest to: Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, House of
Commons, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A6, Canada. Prime Minister Ruud
Lubbers, Plein 1813 #4 POB 20001, The Hague, Netherlands.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Adenauer Allee 139-141, 5300 Bonn,
Germany. Prime Minister John Major, 10 Downing Street, London,
England.
* letters of support to Innu Nation Office, Sheshatshit,
Nitassinan, via Newfoundland, Canada, A0P 1N0.
* organize support demonstrations against your government's
participation in war games on Innu land, or at Canadian embassies
and consulates.
* donate to the Innu Defence Fund, PO Box 119, Northwest River,
Nitassinan, via Newfoundland, Canada, A0P 1M0.
**More information is available from ACT for Disarmament, Innu
Support Working Committee, 736 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Canada,
M5S 2R4. Phone +1-416-531-6154, Fax 531-5850, E-mail web:act.