Thunder Beach Resident welcomes Indigenous Encampment on Property
Two weeks after being arrested for Mischief for occupying private property on Nottawaga Beach in Tiny Township, Anishinaabe Land Defender Johnny Hawk of Gchimnissing Anishinabek (Beausoleil First Nation) has set up a fourth encampment, this time on Private Property in Thunder Beach.
Press Release from Anishnabek.com
TINY TOWNSHIP, AUG 9, 2021 – Johnny Hawk was arrested July 25, 2021 after a week of occupying beach space on what is allegedly private property. Hawk believes the charges are an act of discrimination and breaches of international law in regards to his “inherit Indigenous Rights” to what he claims as “Unsurrendered Lands that Tiny Township Occupies.”
“The area I set up on shows on the Simcoe County and Tiny Township Online maps that I was not on Private Property. I have a right to access water to which I have been denied, and part of my conditions on my release also is to not to make noise after 8pm in Tiny Township, a result of me drumming ceremony songs” said Hawk.
Hawk is currently consulting with Constitutional and Human Rights Lawyers and organizing in his community to hold the OPP and Tiny Township accountable. Since June 21, Hawk has set up two tipis in Thunder Beach, Balm Beach and Tiny Beaches on what he says is unceeded, unsurrendered Anishinabe Territory.
Hawke has support of the local communities who he has organized with through a Facebook Group called Beach Rights to advocate to for all peoples right to access water.
“I’ve met Johnny through Beach Rights and when he set up his first camp at the dock in Thunder Beach and I have been a big supporter of his initiative” said Veronique Lacroix, a fourth Generation Resident of Thunder Beach of French and Metis descent.
“I’ve allowed Johnny to use my property and set up his tipi as a space to gain the attention of the Federal Minister of Crown and Indigenous Relations, Carlyn Bennett who has a cottage in Thunder Beach and who has to drive past my house.” says Lacroix
Hawk says he strategically established his camps in Thunder Beach to gain Minister Bennett’s attention.
“Her cottage is on lands misappropriated by the Crown from the Chippewa’s of Lake Huron and Simcoe of which Tiny Township occupies 50,000 acres. I was arrested unlawfully for exercising my rights while Bennett gets to enjoy her privilege on stolen lands. She needs to address these matters and this long standing grievance. My community submitted a claim in 1990 regarding these lands but was rejected by Canada. Everyone has a Human Right to access Water” said Hawk.
Thunder Beach is located on the Southern Shores of Georgian Bay neighboring Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, 175 km north of Toronto, Ontario.
For more information about this matter, contact Johnny Hawk at 705-528-2825, email ojibwayrebel@gmail.com
