Rage Against the Machine speaks out against Indigenous violence

With concerts and music festivals in full swing once against, Rage Against the Machine uses the stage to highlight the injustices against Indigenous peoples in Canada.

While performing at this year’s Bluesfest last Friday in Ottawa, the American rap-rock band presented statistics on the violence experienced by members of Indigenous communities across the country.

“An Indigenous person in Canada is more than 10 times more likely to be shot by a police officer than a white person,” read a screen behind the group during the broadcast, citing analysis conducted by CTV News.

The group also brought to light statistics regarding missing and murdered Indigenous women at the annual music festival in Ottawa.

“In Canada, Indigenous women and girls are 16 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than white women,” viewers read at another point in the show.

Violence against Indigenous women is a long-standing problem in Canada, and advocates are calling on the federal government to do more to prevent their deaths. A 2019 report following a national inquiry said the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada constituted “genocide”.

Other phrases were also displayed behind the band as they performed, including « Settler colonialism is murder » and « Land Back ».

The politically outspoken group recently used its US broadcasts to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, removing the constitutional right to abortion.

“Forced birth in a country where black birth attendants experience two to three times the maternal mortality of white birth attendants,” the screen read for several seconds at a concert in Wisconsin on July 9. The group cited a statistic from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Their performance in Ottawa was one of the band’s first shows after more than a decade. The four-member band also performed in Quebec City on Saturday night and will continue their « Public Service Announcement » tour with dates in Hamilton, Ontario. and Toronto this week.

With files from CNN.