I avoid too many quotations and media from other sources in these blog posts. But there are stories that need to be told by those most affected, those doing the work for truth and justice. The stories here are by and about the Wet’suwet’en peoples who have been working for years to protect their lands in British Columbia from the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Who continue to face harassment and arrest by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
This is a clear example of the struggle for LANDBACK. “Many did not return and those who survived have fought for our right to all that we had been robbed of – land, language, culture, pride.“
I wrote this case study to give an example of the implementation of the ideas related to LANDBACK. This is a link to the PDF version of the LANDBACK case study, Wet’suwet’en and Quakers.
A healing center has been built. And in the last few days the newest addition of homes in Lhudis Bin yintah is now set up at the drill pad site near Wedzin Kwa. (Video below).
We Fight for Our Children
Wedzin Kwa belongs to our children.
For over 50 years, Wet’suwet’en children were taken from the land, from their families, and from Wedzin Kwa to attend residential schools. These “schools” were not to empower us, but to take the Indian, to take the Wet’suwet’en, out of the child. Many did not return and those who survived have fought for our right to all that we had been robbed of – land, language, culture, pride. Today, we continue to face state violence from governments and industry who still want our land to themselves. Their plans to eradicate us however, have failed and we are still here!
Every day we remember. We carry that pain, that strength, and we work to rebuild our pride, to rebuild our nations and reconnect with our lands.
On September 30th, we came together in a day of remembrance to honour the children, to remind ourselves that we will never give up/be defeated.
Many did not return and those who survived have fought for our right to all that we had been robbed of – land, language, culture, pride.
“I’ve always said there are two types of people on Sept. 30,” said Métis NDP MP Blake Desjarlais. “Those who’ve been robbed of their children, their culture, their language, and those who’ve been robbed of the truth. Sometimes you’re both.
“We can’t truly have reconciliation until we have that truth,” he said.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation coincides with Orange Shirt Day, which honours the story of Phyllis Webstad, a young girl whose new orange shirt was stripped from her on her first day at St. Joseph’s Residential School in 1973. On Sept. 30, 2013, Webstad spoke publicly about her experience, and Orange Shirt Day was born.
The federal statutory holiday was established after ground-penetrating radar uncovered the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, confirming what Indigenous people have known for decades.
“The amount of pain in the Indigenous community is massive, we’re only scratching the surface,” said Desjarlais, the newly elected MP for Edmonton-Greisbach and the first two-spirit person to sit in the House of Commons.
We can’t truly have reconciliation until we have that truth By Natasha Bulowski, National Observer, October 4th, 2021
LANDBACK Friends 
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.