The Eastern Door: the Mohawk newspaper which “educates the outside”

Two years after the Oka crisis, the Mohawk (Kanien’Kehà: Ka) Kenneth Deer leaves his administrative position in his community to launch what was essential: a newspaper. Today, 33 years later, Kahnawà: Ke can always count on theEastern Door To rigor the news in the community with rigor.

We needed a platform in the community on which people could count, which would be made up of information by the community and for the communitytells the one who managed the dissemination of the information when he was coordinator of the Mohawk Nation Office During events in Kanesatake

The Kahnawà community: Ke had no newspaper at the time of the Oka crisis. Information therefore came from consumer media, some of which covered this event in a sometimes Inaccurate or sensationaldeplores the founder of theEastern Door.

I felt like everything we had to do was tell the truth. What is so difficult in there? he launches.

For 57 days, during the summer of 1990, members of Kanesatake and Kahnawà: Ke stood up to Quebec and Federal’s police following mobilizations against the expansion of a golf course by the city of Oka on the lands of Kanesatake, including an ancestral cemetery.

The tension was just as lively on the southern bank of the St. Lawrence, where the Kanien’Kehà: Ka de Kahnawà: Ke blocked the Honoré-Mercier bridge.

We defended the lands of Kanesatake, we were not terroristsinsists the 77 -year -old man.

Kenneth Deerwhich was already very involved in the community, then brought together several of his friends to find a way of putting the Aboriginal voices from the front. We had no money, we had to start from scratch, nothinghe says. It took them two years to manage to print the first issue of theEastern Door In 1992.

We made the newspaper in my dining roomhe says. The employees of the newspaper, or rather the volunteers, because only the printer was paid at the time, knew how to write, but ignored how to be journalists, underlines Mr. Deer, who confides that he himself was novice in the matter. I was not reading the newspapers before.

But even once the newspaper launched, Mr. Deer was not at the end of his sorrows. He had to face discrimination and resentment, consequences of the Oka crisis and the representation of the Aboriginal people in the conflict.

There were companies around us who did not want to buy advertising in our newspaperhe says. But those who bought it have won the loyalty of community people.

Despite everything, less than a year later, 1000 copies were sold in Kahnawà: Ke, a community which, in 1992, had 1,500 households, explains Mr. Deer. Almost everyone read the newspaperhe says with pride.

The newspaper, from the outside

Public relations work of Kenneth Deer on behalf of the Mohawk Nation Office During the Oka crisis was His baptism of fire information, explains Thomas Deerwho has worked with him for the past 30 years. [Kenneth Deer] had to disseminate information, because it could prevent the army from attacking us.

[Kenneth] probably recognized that it was necessary to make sustained efforts to publicize our version of history. Not only so that people in the community know what’s going on, but also so that people from the outside be able to have our point of view

Kenneth Deer add that it was not only the members of the community who read theEastern Door, But also people who live outside Kahnawà: Ke. The government read our newspaper and bed again! exclaims its founder.

The weekly has also done great good to the community, Leaving a newspaper was just the next step the community neededsummary Kenneth Deer.

Small media, big challenges

L’Eastern Door has since changed hands, but has retained its information and rigorous vocation. In 2008, another Mohawk, Steve Bonspiel, bought it from Kenneth Deer.

If, now, 1000 copies are printed every week, the weekly Kahnawà: Ke can also count on its website to inform people. Nearly 33,000 people consulted him in the last month.

As before, theEastern Door mainly focuses on the coverage of community news, which represents 70 % of the content. According to Steve Bonspiel, a media like his has a mission that the consumer media did not: that of protect the community and promote it.

We are fighting for our language, our future, our territory. We are fighting for the same things as the others, but in a different way.

According to him, consumer media often linger political or negative subjects. These are important things, but what about the gathering for the LGBTQ community and courses to become an ambulance? he lists as examples.

The close proximity to the community which the small media benefit like theEastern Door Also comes with its share of challenges, which Mr. Bonspiel sees closely when he covers the meetings of the band council, or rather when he tries to do so.

For 11 years, it has been excluded from these meetings, for several reasons, including that of not being from the community of Kahnawà: Ke, or even on the pretext that the meeting was private, he relates.

The advice would like theEastern Door Do not exist, because thus, we would not bring back the things that the advice does, but that will not happen. So, they must try to find other ways of controlling usexplains the one who is not about to let go of the song.

Even today, they do not accept me in community meetingshe says, with a touch of discouragement in his voice. The Kahnawà band council: Ke did not follow up on requests for indigenous space interviews.

A small team rolls theEastern Door. Steve Bonspiel is aware of having a small budget, he therefore multiplies initiatives to find funds. But one thing is certain for him: as long as he is the owner, The newspaper will continue.