Rage Against the Machine calls for Indigenous 'land back' at Canadian show

With concerts and music festivals in full swing once again, Rage Against the Machine is using the stage to highlight injustices against Indigenous people in Canada.

While performing at this year’s Bluesfest last Friday in Ottawa, the U.S. rap-rock band displayed statistics on the violence experienced by Indigenous community members across the country.

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

The band also highlighted statistics involving 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 to disappear than white women are,” concert-goers were able to read at another point during the show.

Violence against Indigenous women has been a longstanding issue in Canada, with advocates calling on the federal government to do more to prevent their deaths. A report published in 2019 as a result of a national inquiry said the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada amounts to a “genocide.”

Other phrases were also displayed behind the band as they played, including “Settler-colonialism is murder,” and “Land Back.”

The politically outspoken group recently used its shows in the United States 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-givers experience maternal mortality two to three times higher than that of white birth-givers,” the screen read for several seconds during a concert in Wisconsin on July 9. The band cited a statistic from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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