Ten years ago Canada witnessed one of the most disturbing incidents in its history—the armed occupation at Oka. After Oka came Ipperwash and Burnt Church. Yet relatively little has been written on the Aboriginal resistance movements and very little has changed in Canada for Aboriginal people. The goal of this book is to help amend these conditions.

Part One focuses on the experiences of participants, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, in the Temagami blockades in 1988-1989 as well as to a lesser degree in Oka in 1990. In Part Two, themes of resistance are reviewed in their historical context and examples from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are analyzed to develop those themes. Part Three analyzes contemporary aspects of resistance, including resistance in the justice system, the courts and Aboriginal title, education, language, and literature.

If we are to avoid a repetition of these events, we need to know more about them, about Aboriginal people, and about their relationships with non-Aboriginal people. Blockades and Resistance evokes strong memories of the Temagami and Oka blockades, but also provides us with realistic views and practical applications. It is essential reading for all Canadians who seek to understand the causes of these blockades and the deep roots of Aboriginal peoples’ resistance movements in Canada.

Bruce W. Hodgins is professor emeritus of history, Trent University, and recipient of the Canadian Historical Association’s Clio Award for the North, 2000.

Ute Lischke teaches German and film studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is co-editor of Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations (WLUP, 2005).

David T. McNab teaches Native Studies at the School of Arts and Letters in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies at York University, Toronto, and is a public historian who has worked for more than a quarter century on Aboriginal land and treaty rights issues in Canada. He is co-editor of Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations (WLUP, 2005) and editor of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory (WLUP, 1998) for Nin.Da.Waab.Jig. He is also author of Circles of Time: Aboriginal Land Rights and Resistance in Ontario (WLUP, 1999).

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Ute Lischke teaches German literature, film studies and cultural perspectives at Wilfrid Laurier University where she is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies. Lischke is the author of Lily Braun, 1865-1916 German Writer, Feminist, Socialist (2000). Her most recent books, edited with David T. McNab, include Blockades and Resistance: Studies in Actions of Peace and the Temagami Blockades of 1988-89 (2003), Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and their Representations (2005), and The Long Journey of a Forgotten People: M?tis Identities and Family Histories, (2007) all with WLU Press.

David T. McNab is a M?tis historian who has worked for three decades on Aboriginal land and treaty rights issues in Canada. McNab teaches in the School of Arts and Letters in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies at York University in Toronto where he is Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies. He has also been a claims advisor for Nin.Da.Waab.Jig., Walpole Island Heritage Center, Bkejwanong First Nations since 1992. In addition to more than seventy articles, McNab has published Earth, Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory (editor) (1998) and Circles of Time: Aboriginal Land Rights and Resistance in Ontario (1999) as well as the co-edited (with Ute Lischke) Blockades and Resistance: Studies in Actions of Peace and the Temagami Blockades of 1988-89 (2003), Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and their Representations (2005), The Long Journey of a Forgotten People: M?tis Identities and Family Histories, (2007) all with WLU Press.

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David T. McNab is a M?tis historian who has worked for three decades on Aboriginal land and treaty rights issues in Canada. McNab teaches in the School of Arts and Letters in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies at York University in Toronto where he is Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies. He has also been a claims advisor for Nin.Da.Waab.Jig., Walpole Island Heritage Center, Bkejwanong First Nations since 1992. In addition to more than seventy articles, McNab has published Earth, Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory (editor) (1998) and Circles of Time: Aboriginal Land Rights and Resistance in Ontario (1999) as well as the co-edited (with Ute Lischke) Blockades and Resistance: Studies in Actions of Peace and the Temagami Blockades of 1988-89 (2003), Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and their Representations (2005), and The Long Journey of a Forgotten People: M?tis Identities and Family Histories, (2007) all with WLU Press.

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