By Petre MarinNovember 29, 2008
A Kanienkeha (Mohawk) militant, intellectual and professor at the University of Victoria, Taiaiake Alfred was invited to McMaster University because he is widely acknowledged as among the most renowned scholars in indigenous studies on the continent. But Taiaiake is not a typical academic nor was he here to give an academic talk as he made clear right away. Speaking at Convocation Hall surrounded by portraits of bearded upper class white men, the wealthy elite of McMaster's past, Taiaiake, a former US marine had this to say: “In the marines we have a saying. 'The enemy is in front of us, behind us, on our left and on our right. We have the SOBs right where we want them.” The scene captured perfectly the situation of all rebels today: within and against the system that exploits and oppresses us.
Taiaiake is first and foremost a Mohawk warrior or militant. His revolutionary goal is the decolonization of his people and the achievement of cultural, political and economic autonomy for all indigenous people on the continent. The message of his lecture, like his written work, was thus mostly intended for the indigenous people who made up a good portion of the audience. (He later spoke on the Six Nations reserve near Caledonia).
The heart of his message was that decolonization cannot be achieved by working through the legal-institutional process set up by the Canadian government for dealing with the demands of indigenous people. According to Taiaiake, this system, which includes “Aboriginal” rights defined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the land negotiations process, is in fact only the latest form of colonization.
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