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Description

The longest run­ning block­ade in Cana­di­an his­to­ry still con­tin­ues today in Ontario. In Decem­ber 2002 mem­bers of the Grassy Nar­rows First Nation blocked a log­ging road to impede the move­ment of tim­ber indus­try trucks and equip­ment with­in their tra­di­tion­al ter­ri­to­ry. The sto­ry of the block­ade is a sto­ry of con­ver­gences and rela­tion­ship. There has been a growth among the peo­ple of Grassy Nar­rows about their own iden­ti­ty and that of their rela­tion­ship as a com­mu­ni­ty to the dom­i­nant cul­ture and to oth­er Indige­nous Nations and peoples. 

In Strong Hearts, Native Lands, Anna J. Wil­low demon­strates that Indige­nous people’s deci­sions to take envi­ron­men­tal­ly pro­tec­tive action can­not be under­stood apart from polit­i­cal or cul­tur­al con­cerns. By recount­ing how and why one Anishi­naabe com­mu­ni­ty was able to take a stand against the indus­tri­al log­ging that threat­ens their land-based sub­sis­tence and way of life, Wil­low offers a more com­plex ​and more con­struc­tive” under­stand­ing of human-envi­ron­ment relationships.