March 4 Justice is a call for change, and that’s exactly what the walkers behind the operation want. Their goal? Abolishing the Indian Act.

Leo Baskatawang drags a copy of the Indian Act tied around his waist as he makes his way through another town on his way to Ottawa, accompanied by his companions and supporters. He raises his staff each time a driver encouragingly honks their horn in support of March 4 Justice.

“My thoughts on the Indian Act are that it’s an archaic piece of legislation that needs to go,” says Baskatawang, a graduate student at University of Manitoba, a veteran, and a socio-political activist.

Baskatawang is from Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation, just west of Thunder Bay. He has walked from Vancouver to Thunder Bay with several supporters. Their goal is to make it to Ottawa.

“Basically, it’s designed to eventually get rid of our people, it dictates what our identity is, and how we’re supposed to live our lives,” says Baskatawang of the Indian Act.

He believes that a piece of legislation written about First Nations needed to be written by First Nations.

“It has to be abolished,” says Baskatawang. “Obviously you can’t just get rid of it completely – there’s going to be a transition period – but the fact that it’s called the Indian Act shows how archaic and outdated its principles are.”

Ashley Bottle, another walker with March 4 Justice, says that the Indian Act has “taken away everything from our people.”

Bottle says the self-governing system was quite different back in pre-contact days.

“Our people used to agree upon this one person to lead them, and they used to have clan systems,” says Bottle. “My thoughts are that in order to come to bringing those things back, we need to start practicing our own way of governing ourselves.”

He says that the reserve land system was ‘like a land prison.’

According to Maple Leaf Web, a ‘non-partisan Canadian political education’ site, the Indian Act began as the Royal Proclamation of 1763 – an attempt at cohabitation between the colonial settlers and First Nations people.

The process involved forced relocation to reserve lands, as well as forced education in the form of residential schools.

“Central to the Royal Proclamation was the separation of Aboriginal lands from those forming parts of the North American colonies,” the site reads. “The Royal Proclamation recognized a duty on the part of the Crown to act as a protector of Aboriginal peoples in their relations with colonial society.”

The passing of the Indian Act in 1876 meant the Crown was no longer a trustee of First Nations people, acting in their best interest, but a detached third party. With the passing of the Indian Act, the Canadian colonies took control from the British Crown over First Nation lands and customs.

The March 4 Justice is not the only public criticism the Indian Act has received, as CBC’s 8th Fire – a documentary focusing on reconciliation between First Nations and non-First Nations – took a stab at the Act during its highly-acclaimed television series earlier this year.

In a scene where a First Nations man is speaking to a group of people, a man in a suit wearing a mask approaches him and slams his head three times on a podium.

The man then drags him to the ground and tapes a copy of the Indian Act around the Aboriginal man’s head with red tape.

Red tape is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as ‘official routine or procedure marked by excessive complexity which results in delay or inaction.’

Professor John Borrows is an Anishinabe man who teaches law at the University of Victoria Law School. In May of 2008, he wrote a research paper titled, ‘Seven Generations, Seven Teachings: Ending the Indian Act.’

“Consider for a moment the difference between being an Indian or Anishinabe,” says Borrows. “An Indian is a creation of the European imagination and is legally inscribed on us by federal government.”

Borrows says there were no Indians in Canada prior to European arrival, and that Indians only exist in contemporary terms if “we let the federal government take control of our identity.”
He notes that six generations have passed since the Indian Act was passed as legislation.

“The seventh generation is now rising to take their place in this procession. These young people possess the potential to make this change and receive great healing power,” says Borrows.

In the opening line of his research paper he writes: “if the Indian Act is going to be eliminated in a way that benefits First Nations people, goodness must lie at the root of such change.”

Baskatawang said the challenges the March 4 Justice walkers have faced in getting this far have taken a toll on them physically, spiritually, and mentally.

“Sometimes you have doubts,” says Baskatawang. “You hear criticism about what you’re doing, so it’s just something to reflect on.”

Baskatawang remarks that the amount of positive reinforcement he receives from communities seems to offset the doubt and create a balance of good and bad.

He thinks the biggest obstacle is getting the word out there.

“Getting people motivated enough to help create change (is important), because this isn’t something we can do by ourselves,” says Baskatawang.

He and his fellow marchers use popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and gopetition.com to post daily pictures, video blogs and relevant news articles.

Baskatawang says that the closer the walkers get to Ottawa, the more support they receive.

He says the catalyst behind the march was a crown meeting last January between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo, where they discussed what needed to be done to improve social problems in First Nations communities.
Baskatawang calls the meeting, and the inaction that followed it, just another example of how the “government manages to shirk their responsibilities.”

“I felt a need as an academic scholar to do something about it, and try to raise awareness about (the Indian Act) and hopefully try and get it changed,” says Baskatawang.

Bottle says that he’s noticed that they’ve received a lot of support from women.

He recalled sitting in a supporter’s kitchen, and she told him that through marching to Ottawa, he was giving something back to women that they had lost through the Indian Act.

“She’s talking about the clan system and the women being the ones to lead to community and make the decisions,” says Bottle. “The mens’ role was to protect that.”

Bottle said his intentions in going to Ottawa were to “wake Harper up.”

“He’s working for the people and he represents the people – he’s got to abide by our treaties and everything that was agreed upon – no more manipulating our people.”"