(snow crunching)
- [Freda] How come you guys always come
and interrupt our prayers our eating?
You just seem to time it
- [Officer] Hey, good morning?
- [Freda] What's up?
- We have a complaint that there was a box
on the bridge.
- [Freda] Didn't see no box.
- Okay it's the box right there
that was painted black.
The young girl at 8:30 came this morning
and removed it.
- She just said it had kindling in there.
Maybe somebody forgot when we were
doing ceremony last night.
- Okay, 'cause we've got complaints
that there was lots of activity on the bridge last night.
- [Freda] Ceremony.
Look at the flags.
We did a water ceremony because they're trying to destroy
our water.
I'm just getting annoyed of their bullshit tactics.
They're trying to make us look bad
and send you guys all the time.
Every time they do stuff to us
takes you guys two hours to get here.
- So, you were blessing the water last night
on the bridge or--
- We were doing prayers for the water because it's
in danger right now,
because of this bs that's happening right now.
It's not just this.
They destroyed our traps,
destroyed our trap line.
Conservation wouldn't come till they were already cleared.
All of this adds up
and you gotta understand our frustration.
We've been here since time immemorial
before anybody came to these lands.
And you're law can bend the rules
to let somebody come and destroy our land
and they get you guys to help them.
If it was your house you'd feel the same
if the same vandals keep coming
and wrecking your shit
and nobody's doing anything?
I was here 10 years and it took
a long time to put this stuff up.
They're here one week and they wanna
destroy it all.
No word in injunction does it tell them
they can freaking ruin my stuff.
- [Freda] I'm pissed.
(steady chanting and drumming)
- [Camera Man] Freda can you clap one time in front of
your face?
(clap)
- [Camera Man] Thinking of what are some
of the challenges and also positive things
that have come out of the last year?
- Well in the last year...
it's been busy.
(drums and chanting)
Everybody needs to stand up not just
Indigenous people.
Everybody needs to stand up the political powers
that be that they need to change.
And quit making legislation and policies
to make us look like criminals
when we're just trying to protect what is ours.
It's not just this little court house,
the whole world is watching what Canada is doing.
What the province of BC is doing.
They haven't done their job.
They're skirting the responsibly
over to industry.
I know I'm doing the right thing.
(sawing)
(chains rattle)
It's good to see
some more Wet'suwet'en!
- Yeah (laughs).
- (laughing) Okay. - They were funding
capital up here. - There you go.
And they were building all of it.
Oh, boy.
That's sad.
(drill buzzing)
There's some bannock there
and some moose heart and chili on the stove.
Hey, I didn't even know you were here.
There's a plate if you like.
(snow crunching)
(In Wet’suwet’en language) Hello
(In Wet’suwet’en language) What are you doing?
I'm sorry, I don't understand.
(In Wet’suwet’en language) This is Gidim’ten territory.
- My name is Vic
and I'm with the Coastal GasLink project.
And the reason for Mr. Couture to be here
is to post the injunction that was granted
by the BC Supreme Court
to allow us access to do the work.
- Canadian courts do not have any jurisdiction
on Wet'suwet'en territories.
The Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs
have full jurisdiction.
We have for thousands of years.
Since time immemorial, we have never ceded
or surrendered any of that jurisdiction.
So, I'm not here to argue that point with you.
- So, we're going to post the injunction.
You're not going to allow us through to get
to the bridge with what access we have or what--
- I have nothing stopping you from
accessing the bridge.
On the other side of the bridge
it's a different territory.
This is Gidimt'en territory.
(helicopter whirring)
- You're trespassing on Wet'suwet'en land!
Stop!
(shouting)
You continue to
remove us forcibly from our lands
with your rifles,
with your semi-automatic weapons.
Nothing has changed in 150 years.
(chanting)
(protesters chanting)
- We're also keeping our eyes
on planned demonstrations across the country
all in support of anti-pipeline protesters
in British Columbia.
14 people were arrested
at the protest site late yesterday.
That sparked a stand of
solidarity across the country.
Rallies were staged in dozen of cities,
even some in the US,
in support of the anti-pipeline protestors.
Prime Minister Justice Trudeau could face heat
over the issues tonight.
He's in Kamloops, BC hosting a town hall.
Trudeau has made improved relations
with Indigenous people a core priority
of his government.
- You in the striped scarf.
Yes?
- Hello, my name is Tilly.
I come from the St'at'imc nation.
I wanna ask you,
what are you gonna do
to stop oppressing
and holding our people under...
your colonization.
When are you gonna give us our rights back?
When are you gonna start giving a shit
about who we are as people
and not seen as just for our land?
- I believe that the conflict that you're making it into,
out west, with helicopters flying overhead,
and paramilitary showing up with assault rifles
is appalling.
So I'm more or less here to tell you
that that's shameful.
- What you did to the Unis'ot'en,
that's a national disgrace.
January 7th was a national disgrace of Canada.
(drumming and chanting)
- It's inspiring to see the support world wide that we have
and it's not just our Indigenous people
that are standing up.
It's people all around the world
are concerned about the environment.
- [Freda] And concerned because they know
it impacts them no matter where they live.
(wood board rattling)
- So, yeah, with that injunction
and such low numbers out here,
all of the Wet'suwet'en chiefs,
because of what happened at 44
were afraid for us that we're still up here
at the camp.
They didn't want any of us to get hurt,
so out of fear they made their decision
to get us to...
stand back.
We made a decision that it was too demoralizing
that we weren't gonna take down those gates.
If they wanted them down they had to do it.
This is my peoples land,
way before the settlers came here.
And you think you have a right
to come on our land and destroy it.
It's not right.
My people have history here.
The partners that have signed,
they have no history here
and I hope you can go home and sleep tonight.
(drumming and singing)
We started coming back here in 2009
and we wanted to put a cabin here
and realized that we safely can drink this water.
So this became our prime point on
where we wanted to spend more of our time.
(water splashing)
This is the proposed corridor
for multiple pipelines and we decided
to move out here because we realized
we couldn't protect our territories from afar.
We're two hours away and because they kept on
trying to come in.
Who are you?
My name's Rod.
- I'm-- - Where you from?
- I'm with Chevron representing the
Pacific Trail Pipeline project.
We're here today because we'd like to do work
on the territory.
We're requesting access to the territory here today,
so that Wet'suwet'en people can work
and see the benefits of our project.
- We've already said "no" to these projects
and that no pipelines would come on our territory.
We only have two territories left
out of all our territories,
because of other people occupying our lands
and agriculture municipalities.
All we have is two areas and this is one of 'em.
We hunt, we fish, we trap.
This is our critical infrastructure.
- So what you're telling us is
that you will not allow us access onto the territory.
We understand that, we thank you for your time here today.
We've brought you an offering.
We've left some water and some tobacco.
- [Freda] No, thanks.
We've got clean water right there.
That's what we drink and that's pollution.
That plastic, that adds to the land fill.
The fifth meeting of the 18th session
of the permanent forum on Indigenous issues
is called to order.
(gavel pounding)
- I am Freda Huson of
the Unis'ot'en Wet'suwet'en people of Canada.
I am here today to express concerns
for human rights violations happening to my people.
This year a pipeline company forced a court
injunction on us.
And if we stop them from entering
our territory because they don't have consent
we face arrests.
We have not been able to hunt or gather
our traditional foods.
The company has security and police force
keeping us from exercising our Indigenous rights.
Elders, women, and healing center clients
have been threatened with arrests
for accessing our own territory.
The pipeline company is violating
Wet'suwet'en law, trespassing on our territory,
and starting to destroy the land.
They have already destroyed the heritage site.
After bulldozing part of the forest,
we searched through the piles of dirts
for evidence of my people.
We found artifacts.
The Archeology branch of the government
and police assistance came in
and took the artifacts,
and then released news bulletins claiming
the artifacts were not from original place.
They are trying to erase us from our own land.
All these acts that continue are the acts of genocide.
I am here today to make UN aware
of our continuous genocide happening in Canada.
And to demand that our Indigenous rights and laws
are respected.
(crowd applauding)
- We're wondering why our own people
weren't standing up besides us
and the more and more we realize
that a lot of my family that are standing up,
all the females in my family.
We've done a lot of healings in our lives,
we've gone through the same trauma
as everybody us in our reservations.
That's the reason why we're able to stand up
and stand up against what we know is wrong.
So that's what we identified,
that other people aren't able to stand up,
because they're still stuck in their trauma and oppression.
And everything that comes with being oppressed
and living in a system that discriminates against you.
So, when my niece started going to school
for clinical psychology,
her long term vision was to see
a healing center on the land,
so that we could start healing our people.
It took her four years to build the three phases
of our healing center,
which has a commercial kitchen,
dining hall was built in the first phase.
Then, a rec room upstairs and food storage.
And then, the second phase included a board room,
laundry room, an office, and two counseling spaces.
And the third floor was an art room slash workshop room.
So that was the second phase that was put in
and then the third phase was sleeping quarters.
So, this is the fourth year of work camp
and it's pretty much done with just small minor things.
(water rushing)
Now, the long term goal is to add more cabins,
because for the healing center,
we require our whole territory,
all of Talbits Kwa,
to make this program successful.
This is a new cabin being constructed
by one of another significant site for our people.
This is the second one we're building
to reoccupy another part of the territory.
It's beautiful scenery,
tons and tons of medicine in this area.
My dad always told me that
the only way we're not gonna lose all our
traditional territories is we have to reoccupy them.
It's pretty much what settler people have done.
They've occupied our territories
and now they call those municipalities
and act like they own it
even though it's still Wet'suwet'en lands.
He said we needed to reoccupy and behave like we own it,
because we do own it.
We're behaving like we own these lands
and we don't need nobody's permission to put up our cabins.
We don't need nobody's permission to be here.
We only go by our own Wet'suwet'en laws.
What do you think is gonna happen
in the future on this land?
- The future I see is more and more of our people
living in cabins all over this territory.
More of our people getting thoroughly immersed
in their culture.
Becoming independent and harvesting their own food,
their own medicine so they can take care of themselves
and their families.
More and more other clans doing the same
of what we're doing on their territories.
The future I see is there will be no pipelines through here.
The future I see there will be no man camp here.
What are you afraid of?
- That's a trick question, because I don't fear anything.
singing and drumming “All Clans Cis Cin”