#cglofftheyintah

[zolamtl]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

From the Facebook page Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidimt'en Territory January 7, 2021:

January 7th, 2019—raid day at Gidimt’en checkpoint

The headlines said “14 people were arrested” that day. But we aren’t just numbers. We are mothers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, Indigenous people and white settlers—standing side by side in defense of the yintah. It was more than just raid day—our people had seen it before and we saw it again a little more than a year later.

It was the start of something. It was the start of truth telling, like how RCMP show up with the intention to shoot us. It was a rude awakening for our elders and community who were horrified at what played out that day. It was an awakening for many Indigenous people who’d ever felt powerless within the colonial system and stood up to militarized police because it was the right thing to do and we all knew it. It was the right thing to do because our law requires land defense and thousands of people from coast to coast stood up with us, outraged at the injustice.

It was a test of bravery—not that you weren’t scared, because you had to have been, but because people stood there anyway, in the face of the state…down the barrels of guns. Guns that would never be pointed at ‘white protesters’ but always brought to Indigenous conflict zones.

It wasn’t a day about Coastal GasLink and the fact that they don’t care about Wet’suwet’en governance or destroying Wedzin Kwa. It was about Wet’suwet’en governance and how our people always went to war when someone tried to invade our lands. Some people forgot about that---that we are a warring people. But the ones coming up behind us have not forgotten and the people there that day, with ancestors surrounding us, remembered. They stood bravely for freedom, even though it cost them theirs. Many people joined us in recognition that this isn’t just a Wet’suwet’en struggle, this is a struggle for all sovereign Indigenous nations and for all life—the water, the non-human relatives, the land, and the air.

It was just the beginning of two years of conflict and more raids and a resistance that has grown from coast to coast and around the world. The movement is built upon sacrifice. Some people made their sacrifice and moved on. Some people never left. Two years later, we’ve reoccupied more land, supported other front lines, built alliances with other strong nations and moved our struggle for liberation and freedom forward so that our children and grandchildren will know their yintah as intimately as we do.

Snecalyegh to all those who sacrificed, who still do, and who remember January 7th and remain empowered by it.

Love, Sleydo’

#WetsuwetenStrong

#CGLoffTheYintah

#RCMPofftheYintah

#NoTrespass

#Wedzinkwa

#CoasttoCoast

#RespectIndigenousSovereignty