Building a home for Darlene Necan in Ontario, Canada. Photo from Facebook

A Native woman is facing thousands of dollars in fines for building a home on her family's ancestral land in Ontario, Canada.

With the help of volunteers, Darlene Necan started putting up the structure where her family's home once stood. But the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says she is violating the Public Lands Act and now she faces a fine of at least $10,000.

"I still keep going with this fight no matter how awful it makes me feel for trying to house myself and help people," Necan told CBC News.

Word of the charges prompted No More Silence, Muskrat Magazine, Idle No More Toronto, the Anti-Colonial Committee of the Law Union of Ontario and CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group to organize a fundraiser for Necan. More than 200 people attended the event on Saturday night, CBC reported.

Necan is Ojibwe from the Saugeen First Nation. The reserve isn't far from the site where she was building the home but she said she hasn't been able to find housing there.

Get the Story:
200 attend Toronto benefit for Darlene Necan (CBC 11/9)
Homeless woman fined for building her own home (CBC 11/7)