Chief Theresa Spence is ending her hunger strike after six weeks of consuming nothing but tea and fish broth.

Spence has been avoiding solid foods to protest the status of aboriginal rights in Canada. While the length of her food strike is impressive, and has posed a threat to her health, it doesn't even touch the length of time William Coleman has been on a hunger strike.

Ann Neumann wrote about Coleman's protest for Guernica magazine; he has been undertaking his hunger strike for over five years while a prisoner of the US jail system.

She joined Todd last Saturday to talk about why people go on hunger strikes, and whether they are effective forms of protest... and the terrible things Coleman experiences because the prison system refuses to let him die.

You can read Neumann's piece for Guernica here. 

Photo: Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, wearing a headdress, takes part in a drum ceremony before departing a Ottawa hotel to attend a ceremonial meeting at Rideau Hall with Gov. Gen. David Johnston in Ottawa, Friday January 11, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand