Show of solidarity with Wet’suwet’en

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This article was published 28/02/2020 (2085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon streets were closed for some time Thursday night as approximately 60 people walked in support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation hereditary chiefs.

Public gatherings such as this have cropped up across the nation in recent days in support of the British Columbia-based hereditary chiefs who oppose the construction of a pipeline through their traditional lands. 

While elected chiefs have supported the pipeline’s construction, some hereditary chiefs have not been on the same page. They speak for unceded land, not reservation land. The Indian Act created the electoral system at Indigenous communities, along with reservations.

Some protesters elsewhere have taken to blockading rail lines, but Thursday’s demonstrators opted for a more peaceful approach that centred on boosting public awareness.

Asked why they were participating in an act of solidarity with people thousands of kilometres away, people overwhelmingly responded with a very strong response: the Earth.

Darryll Brown, from Canupawakpa First Nation, was on site to drum. Drumming is his job. It’s about land, and it’s about protection of land. And he believes Canadians don’t understand what’s happening.

“It’s about respect,” he said. “In the day to day, that’s all we have. … If I have to live here for the rest of my life with my kids, do I want my water wrecked?”

One other participant, who is non-Indigenous and did not want her name used, simply said: “I’m in support of all our futures.”

Marshall Morrisseau is a leader in Brandon, taking active care to the streets by way of the Bear Clan. He said people often don’t quite understand that the wider problem is also their problem.

“It’s more than a pipeline going through territory,”  he said, adding that mining camps engender violence against Indigenous women. 

“This pipeline is also against the traditional way of life. It also diminishes our rights. It goes to show that if you stand up for what you believe in, your rights, your entitlement to the land. … The government, through the RCMP, can get you off that land and remove you from it.”

He said it’s important to remember the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs went out of their way to propose alternatives.

“For me, personally, why I do this is my ancestors have been doing this for over 500 years. We’re doing what we were taught and what we have to do. We’re going to continue to stand up for what’s right. Out most powerful weapon against atrocity is organization,” Morrisseau said.

“I’ll say it, the government fears Indigenous organization. We know our truths.”

University professor Kelly Saunders has Indigenous children via her Métis husband. She said it’s time to think more broadly about reconciliation.

“We need to have those meaningful conversations now,” she said, adding that her children are demoralized by the current step back.

Is reconciliation dead? Saunders hopes not.

“Otherwise, we lose all hope in this country.”

Another participant in the walk, a confessed alcoholic now reformed, said he needs to speak out, as a former 10-year employee in the oil industry.

Clinton Nabess says when he quit drinking, he started to realize the damage and destruction he participated in.

“I felt guilty, I felt awful,” he said. “It made me feel sick, so I stopped.”

He sees the whole system as being damaging.

“We are literally killing the planet.”

After the walk wrapped up at Princess Park with round dance, children and adults spoke out about the importance of protecting our Earth.

Some had small children in tow, like Darian Kennedy.

He wants his child, who drummed throughout the walk, to have a fair life.

» mletourneau@brandonsun.com

» Michele LeTourneau covers indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism.