[A series of ten images that contain black text that is sourced from @lilearthgirl on Instagram, on a pale orange background:
A GUIDE TO WHAT’S HAPPENING TO THE WET’SUWET’EN PEOPLE
The Canadian government is infringing on the rights of Indigenous peoples and forcibly removing them off their lands, prioritising profit from a natural gas pipeline over people, and the planet. Mainstream media isn’t covering it, so here’s what’s happening, and why you should give a f*ck, and what you can do.
WHO ARE THE WET’SUWET’EN PEOPLE?
· First Nations People living in Northern British Columbia aka “Canada”
· They own a territory of 22,000 square kilometres
· This territory is “unceded”, as in, it is not covered by any treaty
· The Wet’suwet’en people have lived on and governed said lands under their laws for generations
· BUT the Canadian federal government wants access to their territory to build the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project, running through Wet’suwet’en territory
· This pipeline will allow the transportation of natural gas to be exported
· It cuts through unceded land.
· The land it cuts through is also culturally and ecologically sensitive.
· The Wet’suwet’en people suggested an alternative route that would avoid this, but it’s more costly, hence it was rejected.
· Natural gas is still a fossil fuel.
· Methane leaks from the natural gas production process. Methane is 120x more powerful than CO2 when it first enters the atmosphere.
· The process also could contaminate groundwater supplies, cause air pollution, and cause explosions.
DID THEY CONSENT TO THIS?
· The company in charge “consulted” with “relevant” authorities. They spoke to the band councils, who have control over small parts of the territory, but not all. The hereditary chiefs have greater say. And guess what? The hereditary chiefs didn’t agree to this.
· It’s not that there’s disunity within the community, but rather that the company didn’t consult all parties, and the federal & provincial governments & corporations always try to undermine whatever operating system is saying no.
· + Agreements were signed under duress. Lack of choice is not consent.
· + It is a recognized right for the Indigenous peoples to withdraw consent whenever they want, and we are supposed to respect their wishes.
· + Band leaders, though elected by the communities they are part of, do not represent a traditional form of government, unlike hereditary chiefs. The reason why they exist is because the federal government thought the way communities were governing themselves was “backwards”.
· On February 6, the RCMP (Canadian police) started clearing land defenders from the Wet’suwet’en territory, claiming to “uphold a provincial court order”
· This “court order” is the expanded court injunction granted to Coastal GasLink by the B.C. Supreme Court to allow the RCMP to access UNCEDED land and FORCIBLY remove anyone in their way
· Which they did. THIS IS A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER THE CANADIAN CONSTITUTION AND THE UN.
· They also arrested Matriarchs while they were holding a ceremony to call on their ancestors and to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (which the government has been neglecting) (for a long time)
· They also set up a media exclusion zone
· Aka they literally stopped the media from covering this. As in, restricting MEDIA FREEDOM.
· NOTE: The Wet’suwet’en people are PROTECTORS. NOT protestors. @bomgiizhik writes: “they are not protesting or engaging in activism. The media, governments, and police use this terminology on purpose to minimise the fact that Nations are saying NO to development under their enherent [sic] responsibility ro [sic] protect lands and waters. They reduce legit Nationhood positions to mainstream Canada as activism to stunt support. In other words: Propaganda.”
THE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE SO FAR
· Canadian transport minister is concerned about the economic consequences and safety issues from the blockades/solidarity protests all across the country
· PM Justin Trudeau said: “We recognise the important democratic right—and we will always defend it—of peaceful protest. This is an important part of our democracy in Canada. But,” and here’s the kicker, “we are also a country of the rule of law, and we need to make sure those laws are respected.”
· On Monday, 25 Indigenous and settler youth occupied the office of Carolyn Bennett, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, who said “I do not have the power to do anything”
The following steps have been adapted from an Instagram post by @seedingsovereignty and the Wet’suwet’en Supporter Toolkit 2020.
· PHYSICAL: register to be a volunteer
· But if you’re not anywhere near Canada, or if you are unable to volunteer, you can still do a lot
· FUNDRAISE/DONATE to the Unist’ot’en 2020 Legal Fund and the Gidimt’en Strong fundraiser
· EDUCATE. Make sure that everyone keeps their eyes on the Unist’ot’en and Wet’suwet’en
· Form a supporter group in your local community, brainstorm what you can do. Protest, occupy government offices, the offices of those financing this project. Pressure the Canadian government through writing and calling them. Or messaging them on social media.
FOLLOW, WITNESS, AMPLIFY:
@seedingsovereignty, @gidimten_checkpoint, @pam_palmater, @smogelgem, @climatejusticeto, @cricket.guest
Indigenous rights violations is easily one of the biggest reasons why this matters.
Nyangala Zolho writes: “From Chief Deskaheh of the Cayuga who attempted to speak at the League of Nations in 1923 to the Mapuche flag being raised during Chile’s protests in October 2019—indigenous people today continue to call for rights many of us would assume twenty-first century citizens are assigned from birth.
From Polynesia to the Americas, indigenous peoples—no homogenous group—share a common struggle for rights in and over their traditional lands, often under legal jurisdictions that deny their very existence. Like all movements of oppressed peoples, there is a story of physical occupation, socio-political marginalisation and cultural discrimination over generations.”
These systems of oppression need to stop.
Indigenous peoples are environmental stewards. Despite comprising less than 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous people protect a whopping 80% of our global biodiversity. Scientists and conservations have recognised their abilities to protecting biodiversity better than corporations and governments can.
But it’s about much more than that. Anne Spice, a Tlingit land defender, anti-colonial organiser and scholar, and neighbour to the Wet’suwet’en people, writes:
“It is about creating a space of healing, and re-connecting Indigenous people to the land and our other-than-human relations. It is about re-establishing our responsibilities to live in good relation to the land, and animals, and water.
It is about strengthening our collective ability to survive, and thrive, in balance with the “natural world,” which does not exist separate from us. For these reasons, characterizations of the Wet’suwet’en struggle as an “environmental” conflict are false. They fail to account for the interconnection between our Indigenous communities and the non-human communities we care for.”
YOUR SILENCE FUELS COLOIAL VIOLENCE.
IF YOUR ENVIRONMENTALISM ISN’T INTERSECTIONAL, IF IT ISN’T ANTICOLONIAL, ANTIOPPRESSIVE, ANTIRACIST, IT AIN’T ENVIRONMENTALISM. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ARE SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES. WHAT RCMP AND THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT ARE DOING NOW IS CRIMINAL. DON’T BE SILENT NOW. IF YOU WERE WILLING TO FLOOD YOUR FEED WITH WHAT HAPPENED IN THE AMAZON, IN AUSTRALIA, THEN YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS TOO.]
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