Unist'ot'en camp

RCMP, Let Journalists Witness Unist'tot'en Camp

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/14/opinion/rcmp-let-journalists...

"...'Lethal overwatch is required.' Is this reconciliation?

'These people threaten the very foundations Canada rests upon.' - RCMP media spokesman, 1995, Gustafsen Lake. Despite their relentless propaganda of support for Indigenous rights, BC NDP governments in particular seem quite prone to these might-makes-right  Gestapo-style collaborations with the RCMP on behalf of big business resource interests."

No, Those Who Defend The Wet'suwet'en Territory Are Not Criminals

https://twitter.com/shiripasternak/status/1217557447428190208

"My [Globe & Mail] article on the invention of Wet'suwet'en [as] criminals through injunctions and the wilful misreading of their victory at the Supreme Court in 1997 when hereditary authority was recognized..."

Here is a very thoughtful piece about how our current brand of colonialism is pitting family members against each other. The same thing is happening with the treaty process locally where I live. Some people want to sign a treaty and cede rights especially since they see they can't be enforced anyways because at least you get the cash. Other people in the same nation  see the whole process as designed to extinguish indigenous title to the land after having fought for two generations to prove those rights existed in Canadian law.

To the outside world it seems that the war is the Wet’suwet’en vs. the pipeline. Or Wet’suwet’en vs. Canada. Or Wet’suwet’en vs. the RCMP. And to a certain extent it is. But our biggest war right now is the Wet’suwet’en vs. the Wet’suwet’en. We all take so much pride in the work our ancestors did on the land and in the courts to fight for our right to be Wet’suwet’en people on Wet’suwet’en land today but we can’t agree on how to exercise those rights so we end up compromising them by undermining each other. Is it our fault? No. We’re unlearning how to hate ourselves after generations of colonial attempts at shredding our cultural identities into scattered fragments. But is it our responsibility to come back together as one nation?

The question reminds me of something my great grandfather once said. His name was Johnny David. He held the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief name Mikhlikhlekh and was one of the plaintiffs in the Delgamuukw case. His testimony described Anuk Nu’at’en and helped to prove that our nation has stewarded our territory for thousands of years and have a right to continue doing so. He lived past the age of 115 and in his final years he would often say to those who are hereditary chiefs today “Ye’ janet so’ c’io be ghun le,” or “Son, look after my responsibilities.”

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/kzvmqv/the-real-war-facing-the-wetsuw...

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-who-speaks-for-the-wetsuweten-people-making-sense-of-the-coastal/