Looking back angrily

>> Alanis Obomsawin returns to Oka with Rocks at Whiskey Trench

by MATTHEW HAYS

The incident proved unforgettable for anyone who lived in the Montreal area during the long, hot 1990 summer of the Oka crisis. After the native blockade led to fears the Canadian army might move into the Kahnawake Mohawk community, a convoy of 75 cars was set up to carry native elders and children across the Mercier Bridge to safety.

But things didn't go as planned. When the cars reached the end of the bridge, a group of angry whites hurled rocks, bricks and anything else they could find at the convoy. A number of elders and children were injured, but the physical scars were matched by a sense of trauma Kahnawake residents say may never disappear.

For NFB filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, the incident represented the final subject of her four-film documentary series on the Oka Crisis, the most famous being Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance.

For Obomsawin, part of the reason for making Rocks at Whiskey Trench was her sense of urgency around making sure the story was recorded for historical purposes. "I felt very bad that a lot of people had died since the experience" she says. "These are the reasons I did these four documentaries, to really examine those aspects of what life was at the time. It's for other generations to have an idea of what happened."

The film includes emotional testimony from many of those who drove through the shower of rocks that August day, as well as from those who felt the sting of racism in the attack. The film even has comment from a sports celebrity, Olympic gold medallist Alwyn Morris, who is native and a Kahnawake resident. "The fact that it happened here, in this country, suggests some very deep problems," Morris tells the camera while clearly distraught. "How long will it take for the wounds to heal? I don't know. Maybe not in my lifetime."

Ten years after the fiasco that was the Oka Crisis, does Obomsawin feel any good came from it whatsoever? "Previous to that date, all the reserves suffered from these problems. Some municipality would need some land and that would be it. You just never heard about it. So it really opened everybody's eyes and ears." :

Rocks at Whiskey Trench opens Friday, Sept. 29 at Ex-Centris with French subtitles