In 1974, First Nations youth occupied a park for six weeks in Kenora, Ont. I’m still in awe of their fight 38%
By CBC News0%
6/2/2026, 6:51:42 PM
Keywords: Canada, Kenora, North America, First Nations People, Anishinaabe People, Veterans, Violence
BS Summary: This article contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Anecdotal, and Biased Writer Voice, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 14.7% saturation with 193 hits. Analysis detected 1,921 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,309 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 43.9% and a BS Rank of 38% (13,289 of 21,198 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 62.70% of the article peer group.
Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising tells the little known story of how, in 1974, Anishinaabe youth staged one of the first Land Back occupations in Canadian history in Kenora, Ont.
Demanding better living conditions and access to land, they occupied Anicinabe Park for nearly six weeks, joined by First Nations from across North America, including members of the American Indian Movement.
The group also demanded that Anicinabe Park be returned to the First Nations in the area.
Below, advocate Tania Cameron reflects on the historic occupation.
(As told to Jordan Huffman, a co-producer on the film.
This piece has been edited for length and clarity.)
My name is Tania Cameron.
I’m a member of Niisaachewan Anishinaabe Nation, which is about 15 kilometres north of Kenora, Ont.
While I was born and raised in Winnipeg, my family moved to Niisaachewan in 1993, and I’ve been living and working in the region ever since.
I’m not related by any means to the young people that were in the park, but I have visited with seniors who were there and have since gone on to their next journey, and I’m just so proud of the rich history that we have here.
I first learned about the occupation when I started working as a community worker in 1996.
The Kenora Chiefs Advisory was hosting regular community worker meetings, just to go through how we were going to shape our program and the struggles that we had within our First Nation.
But we also talked about accessing services in Kenora, and it sort of got to a venting stage, where we talked about some of the issues we had within businesses or with health care services.
Then the facilitator said, “You know what?
There were young people back in the ’70s that actually stood up and occupied Anicinabe Park.”
That was the first I had heard about it.
People around the table — all from different First Nations — started saying, “Yeah, my aunt was there,” or “My parents were there,” and it just captured my attention.
Back then, I couldn’t jump on the internet, but I was told to go and look at the Kenora library.
I learned about a report put out by Grand Council Treaty #3 called “While People Sleep: Sudden Deaths in Kenora.”
I was encouraged to go look at old headlines from the ’70s and even the ’60s.
And every now and then, I’d go access the racist book Bended Elbow [a booklet published in 1975 by local resident Eleanor Jacobson in response to the occupation].
It’s not on the shelves; you have to make a request to look at it.
And you can’t take it out.
You’ve just got to read it.
A disturbing trend of exclusion and violence
Anicinabe Park was a meeting place.
The First Nations that are south of Kenora would paddle up, go to Anicinabe Park camp, go into town to do their businesses, come back and then paddle to their community the next day.
That was the norm.
That was the thing to do.
Get your supplies, do your shopping, go to your appointments or whatever it may be.
Then go back.
They weren’t welcome in the community.
They weren’t given rooms to rent.
They were even instances of not being able to access food at a restaurant.
Plus, there was the violence in the streets.
If you tried to stay in town, you risked getting beaten up or thrown in the lake — or you risked getting killed.
Back then, investigations weren’t conducted properly in my opinion.
It’s a gross, disturbing history.
Joseph Seymour was a young person who took part in the occupation in the park — he and his brother went.
And when I spoke with him, he told me that he was tired of the violence.
He was tired of the things that he saw in downtown Kenora.
He said, “I had a greater chance of dying than I did of seeing the age of 30, so I decided I’m gonna go.”
As young people, they were willing to accept that death may be a result of taking a stand on the injustices that they were experiencing and the theft of that land, that Anishinaabe parkland.
That just spoke so much to me.
WATCH | Years of injustice led to an uprising:
In 1959, the federal government sold the park to the City of Kenora.
But the leadership of my community, Niisaachewan, as well as Washagamis Bay and Wauzhushk Onigum, are working together to get that land back.
There’s always been a controversy about how that land was acquired and how it ended up in the hands of Kenora.
The city has heard the history of that park.
They know the history of that park.
They know that all around them — the paths that they walk on, the shorelines they enjoy — at one point, was Anishinaabe land.
The three communities were one community.
And they finally just acknowledged that in recent years on the city website.
So if they want to talk about reconciliation, and building a good living and working relationship for local First Nations, let’s start with action.
I’ve said it publicly: Give that land back to the First Nations.
‘Let’s remember the 1974 occupation’
In 2014, for the 40th anniversary of the occupation, I went to go speak to the elders of the day to say, “Is it OK that I organize an event?
Will I have your blessing?
Will you help me?”
And there were a few people that just said, “Definitely.
Let’s do it.”
We ran it on zero budget with no official sponsors — it was just a grassroots thing that came together.
Eventually, some organizations did sponsor the tent that we needed at the park and people volunteered their graphic artist skills, and it was very well attended.
We had people come from across Canada who used to go to the park when they were young.
It was a very beautiful event.
Still, I think about when I talked to the veterans — the young people that were in that park — about why they were there, what struggles they faced: the unemployment, getting refused service.
While you can’t really do that blatantly today, the businesses can still make you feel very unwelcome or make accusations.
There’s so many things of that day that still play out.
It’s sad that, 50 years later, not a lot has changed.
Racism still exists in this community.
It may not be as strong as it once was, but certainly the undertones are still here.
But I am proud of the advocacy.
I’m proud that we are on the map in terms of what went down in 1974, and that the fight continues.
That a few of us are still one, standing out and saying, “Let’s remember the 1974 occupation.”
It made my heart feel good when I saw that some of the veterans in Kenora brought their kids and their grandkids to see Red Power Rising.
That history needs to be shared.
And I hope that as a young person sitting there, when they hear what their family went through during that time, that they will be given the boldness to step up in whatever capacity that may be.
This is what I tell my own kids, too: I hope you will always stand up for yourself, for your treaty rights, for your rights to live and walk on this earth, in this country, in the city.
And when your rights are infringed, I hope that you would be empowered to say, “Hold on, stop right now.
That’s wrong.”
Watch Ni-Nadaamaadiz: Red Power Rising on CBC Gem and the CBC Docs YouTube channel.
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