Is the Crown at War With Us?

Synopsis

In the summer of 2000, a fleet of commercial and federal fishery boats descended on the town of Burnt Church, New Brunswick to stop Mi’kmaq lobster fishers from setting their traps. Lobster fishing is a long-standing Mi’kmaq practice, central to both culture and livelihood, and protected through treaty rights. In spite of this, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans set out to restrict Indigenous fishing in the name of conservation—all the while supporting non-Indigenous lobster fishers. Is the Crown at War with Us? chronicles this conflict as it unfolds, highlighting the physical, emotional, and structural violences perpetuated against Mi’kmaq peoples in the process. Filmmaker Alanis Obamsawin, often hailed as the grandmother of Indigenous cinema in Canada, tells this story through a Mi’kmaq lens, elevating the experiences of local fishermen and their families as they defend their fishing rights. Her film situates their experiences within a broader history of Canadian settler colonialism and reveals the impossibilities of seeking justice within fundamentally unjust systems.

Director Bio

A member of the Abenaki Nation, Alanis Obomsawin is an activist filmmaker and producer, who came to cinema from performance and storytelling. Her groundbreaking work amplifies Indigenous voices and sheds light on pressing issues, from environmental justice to cultural preservation. Hired by the National Film Board of Canada as a consultant in 1967, she has created an extraordinary body of work—50 films and counting—including landmark documentaries like Incident at Restigouche (1984) and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993). Often hailed as the grandmother of Indigenous cinema in Canada, Alanis has received numerous international honours, and her work was showcased in 2008 and 2025 retrospectives at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Distribution

National Film Board of Canada
Full film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cry2tyoD1pA

 

I come from a culture of storytelling, and I’m used to listening to people speak. For me, every human story, every life matters.