What was Oka?

Oka in Australian Indigenous history refers to the 1990 Oka Crisis in Quebec, Canada, rather than to an Australian event. However, the Oka Crisis (an armed standoff between Mohawk protesters and Canadian police and military forces over a proposed golf course expansion on Kanienkehaka sacred ground) had international influence on Indigenous rights movements worldwide, including in Australia.

The Oka Crisis ran from 11 July to 26 September 1990 at Kanesatake near Oka in Quebec, Canada. Mohawk people set up barricades to prevent the expansion of a golf course and the development of luxury housing onto land that included a Mohawk cemetery and sacred ground. The Surete du Quebec (Quebec provincial police) attempted to dismantle the barricades on 11 July 1990, leading to a 78-day armed standoff and the eventual deployment of the Canadian Armed Forces. One Quebec police officer was killed during the initial confrontation. The standoff ended peacefully in late September with the Mohawk people leaving their positions. The Canadian government subsequently purchased the disputed land and the golf course expansion did not proceed.

Oka had international influence on Indigenous rights movements. The events were widely reported in Australian media and were closely followed by Aboriginal activists. The parallels to Australian frontier conflict, dispossession, and the ongoing struggle for land rights were obvious to Indigenous Australian leaders. The 1990 to 1992 period was particularly intense in Australian Indigenous politics, with the Mabo case approaching the High Court (Mabo v Queensland (No 2) was decided 3 June 1992, two years after the Oka Crisis), the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation established in 1991, and various land rights and frontier history debates running through Australian public life.

International Indigenous rights connections have continued to shape Australian Indigenous politics. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007, was endorsed by Australia in 2009 after initial Rudd government opposition. The Working Group on Indigenous Populations operating in the UN system since 1982 included Australian Aboriginal representatives. The First Nations Voice concept underpinning the 2017 Uluru Statement and the 2023 referendum drew on international Indigenous rights frameworks, including UN principles and the Sami parliaments in Scandinavia, the Maori parliamentary seats in New Zealand, and the constitutional Indigenous recognition in countries including Canada (where Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act explicitly recognises Aboriginal and treaty rights), Bolivia, Ecuador, and Norway. International Indigenous solidarity remains a feature of contemporary Indigenous Australian politics, with Indigenous-led exchanges with First Nations Canadians, Maori in New Zealand, Pacific Islander peoples, and Indigenous peoples across the Americas continuing to inform Australian advocacy and thinking.