Yesterday I wrote again that we have to understand who we are. What does that mean? It means we must remember, and help others remember the focus of our lives should be to love Mother Earth and each other.
- We believe the purpose of our lives is to care for Mother Earth and each other
- We stand for All Our Relations. There is no “other”
- It is not right to try to divert us from our Spiritual source and center
- It is not right to concentrate wealth and at the same time force millions to live in poverty and despair
- Hunger, sickness, homelessness of anyone is wrong
- It is not right to destroy the land, water and air to extract fossil fuels
- It is not right to transport fossil fuels in pipelines that will always leak, nor by rail, nor by trucks
- We stand for peace. There is no “just” war
- It is never right to take the life of any of our fellow persons. Not in war, nor capital punishment, nor mass or school shooting, police actions, personal conflict
- It s not right to imprison
- The land, air and water cannot be “owned”
- Indigenous peoples who have always loved Mother Earth must give consent, and the ability to deny those who might hurt Her
We have to re-establish our identity. We have to understand who we are and where we fit in the natural order of the world, because our oppressor deals in illusions.
John Trudell
Everywhere people ask, “what can we do?”
Arkan Lushwala
The question, what can we do, is the second question.
The first question is “what can we be?”
Because what you can do is a consequence of who you are.
Once you know what you can be, you know what you can do.
Stay in the prayer.
Nahko Bear
We stand with you.
For all our relations.
I recently became aware of a people who show us what we can be, and have been doing so forever, the Wet’suwet’en people. One year ago, On Monday, January 7, 2019, armed police, some dressed in camouflage fatigues, broke down homemade barriers at a checkpoint on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and arrested 14 land defenders. Late in the day this year, January 4th, 2020, the Wet’suwet’en House Chiefs representing all 5 clans oversaw the successful eviction of Coastal Gaslink (CGL) employees from Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en territories.
January 7, 2020
http://unistoten.camp/wetsuweten-hereditary-chiefs-no-access-without-consent/: No Access Without Consent
Late in the day January 4th, 2020 the Wet’suwet’en House Chiefs representing all 5 clans oversaw the successful eviction of Coastal Gaslink (CGL) employees from Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en territories. An eviction letter was provided to security at Site 9A and the eviction was done peacefully. The eviction letter clearly stated that workers were not to return to the territory without the consent of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.
Coastal GasLink workers have not been permitted to access the territory to continue work since the eviction. As far as we know, CGL intends to commit trespass on Wet’suwet’en lands and continue construction. They will likely rely on RCMP violence to force their way into our territories once more.
Coastal Gaslink has framed their eviction from our territories as an “Unist’ot’en Action,” but this action was taken collectively, in accordance with ‘Anuk nu’at’en, our laws, and on behalf of all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en nation.
There will be no access to Gidimt’en and Dark House territories without the free, prior, and informed consent of the hereditary chiefs.
Today marks the one year anniversary of a heavily militarized raid on Wet’suwet’en territory at the Gidimt’en checkpoint where Wet’suwet’en people and their guests were forcibly removed by the RCMP tactical teams, including snipers authorized to use lethal force. (see below)
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has called upon Canada to immediately halt the construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline until Wet’suwet’en people grant our free, prior, and informed consent to the project. The committee urges Canada to withdraw RCMP from our territories and to prohibit the use of force and lethal weapons against our people.
The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs demand the following:
- That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.
- That the UNDRIP and our right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
- That the RCMP and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimiation’s (CERD) request.
- That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by CGL respect our laws and our governance system, and refrain from using any force to access our lands or remove our people.
RCMP Arrest 14 Wet’Suwet’en Land Defenders on Indigenous Land, January 7, 2019 (last year)
As The Real News reported last month, the Wet’suwet’en Indigenous people of Northern British Columbia and Canada have established checkpoints on their land to prevent pipeline company TransCanada from building a gas pipeline across their territory. The Wet’suwet’en people have never signed treaties with Canada or otherwise ceded their lands, a fact confirmed by Canada’s own Supreme Court in 1997 in a landmark decision known as Delgamuukw. Several days ago, members of the Aboriginal police liaison of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police met with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and indicated the specially trained tactical forces would be deployed to forcibly remove Wet’suwet’en people from sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory.
Outrage In Canada After Militarized RCMP Arrest 14 Wet’Suwet’en Land Defenders on Sovereign Indigenous Land, DIMITRI LASCARIS, The Real News Network, January 13,2019
On Monday, January 7, indeed, armed police, some dressed in camouflage fatigues, broke down homemade barriers at a checkpoint on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and arrested 14 land defenders. Following the arrests, and as reported by APTN News, hereditary Wet’suwet’en leaders pledged to keep fighting. Chief Madeek, Hereditary Leader of the Gitdumden Clan, declared that “We may have lost this battle, but not the war.” Upon learning of the arrests, civil society organizations from across Canada called for a series of cross-country series of protests in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people, and for the purpose of denouncing the Trudeau government’s heavy-handed tactics on the sovereign land of the Wet’suwet’en. Over 50 such protests took place across Canada on January 8.
Quakers, social justice and revolution 