A group of Kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) went to federal court against McGill University, the Ville de Montréal, the Quebec Government, and Stantec, on Jan. 14. The group is seeking an order to halt construction of the New Vic Project until a Mohawk-led investigation into potential unmarked graves on the previous Royal Victoria Hospital site is conducted. The kahnistensera suspect that there may be unmarked graves of Indigenous children on the site, after it came to light that Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron experimented on a number of victims in the 1950s and 60s at the Allan Memorial Institute, which was then a part of Royal Victoria Hospital.
Here, the Kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera explain the Kaia’nere:kowa, the law they are upholding against the canadian colonial law.
March 1st, 2022
The respondents lawyers and prothonotary are trying to strike us out if we do not take on a lawyer. The people and the Great Peace does not allow us to be represented by one of their colleagues. Only we can speak for the people.
Also, they want only one of the women to speak rather than each one us, the four signers. The people may also select another speaker if they so wish. We speak on behalf of the people. Not for ourselves.
We are having a hearing on march 24 on these two issues. We have to get beyond their protocol swamp so we can move onto the substance. We have used the constitution act of canada 1982 sections 35 and 52, which in effect wipes out all their laws, as our Indigenous laws supercede every one of their laws.
The Kaia’nere:kowa comes from time immemorial. They admit that by acknowledging that this area in question and the rest of canada are unceded Indigenous land since time immemorial. The Kaia’nere:kowa, the great law, does not acknowledge any other law. Our law, Indigenous law, is the supreme law of turtle island. Since time immemorial we cannot sell or convey our land as it belongs to the unborn children and we are the caretakers of the soil forever. Our position as the kahnistensera, the mothers, is based on these and other wampums and tradition.
WAMPUM 14. The Kaia’nere:kowa, the Great Peace, cannot be changed as it is based on nature. The Great Peace cannot be changed, only interpreted, as it is based on the natural world. The Great Peace.
WAMPUM 26.The cause of peace shall not die if you remember creation. The Great Peace.
WAMPUM 30. The Great Peace shall follow no other rules but the rules of the natural world. The Great Peace.
WAMPUM 42. The kahnistensera are the title holders. Trespassers to turtle island not being members of a clan have no right to own any land. The Great Peace.
WAMPUM 44. The women are the progenitors of the soil and the land belongs to the coming generations. The Great Peace.
WAMPUM 55. Erring chiefs shall be deposed by the kahnistensera, the clan mothers. The Great Peace.
WAMPUM 7. Five arrows are bound together into one head, body and mind for the future generations. The Great Peace.
THE GOOD MESSAGE, THE POWER AND THE PEACE: Here on this planet we all have the same mother and the same source of energy, which makes us brothers and sisters, to survive and co-exist. The power is in the mind which is the source energy of creation and makes us creator beings. The peace is the Kaia’nere:kowa, the Great Peace, which starts when the women take their place in the consensual decision making process.