Git luuhl’hetxwit Media

Taking a stand.

In recent years and for some years past, a typical problem for First Nations has been logging companies and mining industries intruding into our territory and extracting resources, backed by government. These industries try to bend the rules whenever possible. One aspect of this is inadequate or no consultation with any actual hereditary chiefs and landholders.

The fact that we don’t necessarily reside on our territories year-round is seen by outsiders as a lack of use of our lands. In fact, using our land lightly is essential to the survival of the resources we utilize.

The logging companies win a lot of battles with small indigenous groups due to a biased government-backed court system. Houses are too small and lack adequate cash resources to afford lawyers and expensive legal battles to fight back against rich corporations. This is a significant bias in the Canadian legal system.

In 2018 members of wilps Ts’iibasaa were protecting our land from logging when a company won an injunction to remove us. We refused to obey the injunction and several of us were given heavy fines. We are once again protecting our land in a non-aggressive way. We are here to claim our traditional aboriginal rights and title, guaranteed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Delgamuukxw decision. We are here to stay. Our land is not for sale.

(quoted from their website)