Coop média de Montréal

Journalisme indépendant

More independent news:
Do you want free independent news delivered weekly? sign up now
Can you support independent journalists with $5? donate today!

Idle No More in Egypt

Patricia Stein, a Lakota from North Dakota, on hunger strike in solidarity with Chief Theresa Spence, and participating in #IdleNoMore from Cairo

by Lillian Boctor

Patricia Stein @PygmySioux with #IdleNoMore poster in front of the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt
Patricia Stein @PygmySioux with #IdleNoMore poster in front of the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt
 Aحmad H. عggour @Psypherize with #IdleNoMore poster in front of the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt
Aحmad H. عggour @Psypherize with #IdleNoMore poster in front of the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt

Patricia Stein @PygmySioux is a Lakota from North Dakota who is living in Cairo, Egypt. On December 21, 2012, as part of the Idle No More (#IdleNoMore) movement, she went with her Egyptian friend Ahmed عggour @Psypherize and stood in front of the Canadian Embassy in Cairo with Idle No More signs. Idle No More is a movement that began in Saskatchewan and is spreading throughout Canada, and internationally, to demand Native sovereignty and First Nations peoples' right to their land and resources, and to protest the Conservative government's omnibus Bill C-45, a megabill that severly weakens Canada's environmnetal protections and changes the process for designating lands in the Indian Act, among many other measures that would negatively affect First Nations in Canada. Patricia Stein is currently on a hunger strike in solidarity with Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence. Chief Spence has said she is willing to die for her and her peoples' cause and maintains she will stay on her hunger strike until Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor-General David Johnston meet with Native leaders to create a new relationship based on respect and aboriginals' right to self-determination.

I spoke with Patrica Stein on December 21, 2012, before and after she went to the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, about her solidarity with Idle No More from Cairo, her experience as a Native woman in Egypt, where many people believe that indigenous people from the Americas no longer exist, and parallels with the Egyptian Revolution.

 

Socialize:
Want more grassroots coverage?
Join the Media Co-op today.
240 words
bar baz

The site for the Montreal local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.