On Friday, May 10, Sleydo’, Jennifer, and Shaylynn came to speak at the UBC encampment in solidarity with Palestine, and to make the links between the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty on Turtle Island and Palestinian liberation. We wanted to share some of the lessons we learned from them with anyone who couldn’t be there:
Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham) is a Wing Chief of Cas Yikh, a house group of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and has been engaged with her sister, Jennifer, in the fight against Coastal GasLink (CGL) and all pipelines on Wet’suwet’en territory, for the last thirteen years. Jennifer Wickham is one of the co-producers of the Yintah Film, making its debut screenings across Turtle Island throughout this summer. Shaylynn Sampson is Gitxsan with Wet’suwet’en family ties, and has been supporting Wet’suwet’en for over four years. But as Sleydo’ expressed, “We haven’t been fighting for ten years. We’ve been fighting over one hundred and fifty years, ever since contact with our people, and other Indigenous people in so-called Canada have been fighting for a hell of a lot longer than that.”
First of all, Sleydo’, Jennifer, and Shaylynn all expressed that as people living on Turtle Island, we must understand fundamentally that all of this land we are on is sovereign Indigenous land, and we must act like it is in every day of our lives.
We all work together
Sleydo’ spoke first, and began with celebrating the interconnectedness of all people’s struggles and fights for liberation. “We all work together, we’re like one brain.” She expressed how Palestine organizing reminds her of Wet’suwet’en organizing. “People in the world didn’t know what was going on, and then all of a sudden, because of the years of hard work of a lot of people, it just spread like wildfire, and now everyone’s talking about it, and everyone’s getting involved.”
“We know all of these struggles are connected, and I that it’s scary as hell for them that Indigenous people, and all people in so-called Canada, and around the world are recognizing the genocide that is happening in Gaza. We have this blood memory in us, this living memory, of the genocide that is happening to our people. You know, we’re not new to mass graves of people, and mass graves of children. That happened to our people. We’re in a different stage now of the genocide, but the genocide has not stopped for Indigenous people in so-called Canada.”
Sleydo’ also made the connections between the oppression of Indigenous people at home and the western-backed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through KKR, a global investment firm investing in the Coastal GasLink pipeline. “KKR actually has a whole branch of their company run by David Petraeus who was the leading General in Afghanistan and Iraq: a man with all this experience committing genocide. This is somebody who literally wrote the handbook on counterinsurgency. There is an actual handbook. It is used to suppress Indigenous resistance.”
Sleydo’ also expressed the need for us to learn how the state has responded and attempted to quell Wet’suwet’en resistance because “the police have taken us Wet’suwet’en as an example of how to take the air out of any uprising.”
“We’re making movement, we’re gaining ground. The reason for the state oppression is because we are all a threat to them. That’s one of the biggest things I can share, is that we’re making progress. And that it’s never impossible. Never have I thought we were going to lose. That thought never crossed my mind. And it still hasn’t,” Sleydo said.
On the state of the CGL pipeline, Sleydo reiterated the wins made by Wet’suwet’en resistance, “it has cost them an extra $11 billion and an extra three years of construction, but there’s still no oil running through those pipelines, and there never will be. The more effective that you are, the more repression you face. So you have to know and prepare for this as a long game.”
The same systems oppress all of us
Sleydo’ also discussed how Palestinian solidarity groups are being suppressed and harassed by the same system as are oppressing Wet’suwet’en, the police and state security forces. “Community Industry Response Group (CIRG) have been criminalizing us since day one. Now called the Critical Response Unit (CRU), they’re coming to Free Palestine rallies.”
Molly described the 24/7 surveillance her family and her people have faced from the police. “My children literally couldn’t have a birthday party for years without security guards surveilling us.” She recounted security guards following them, driving after them, and how if her family had to pull off on the side of the road to go to the bathroom, security guards would come after them and tell them they are not allowed to stop on this land.
Sleydo’ expressed the importance of a diversity of tactics, and the importance of analyzing and learning from other movements such as Oka, the Black Panthers, and many more. She also emphasized how crucial it is to organize outside of government systems:
“We know that pleading with the government doesn’t work. We know the capitalist and colonial system we’re up against. That system does not have humanity. So we have to force them because they’re not going to do it on their own. That’s what we’ve learned. We don’t care if people call us criminals or terrorists, because we know that we’re Wet’suwet’en women upholding Wet’suwet’en law on our Wet’suwet’en land. You don’t need anyone’s permission. You don’t need the state’s permission, you don’t need permission from these multi-billion-dollar capitalist projects, and you don’t need the university’s permission. We don’t ask for permission except our Hereditary Chiefs and our Nation members.”
Sleydo finished by emphasizing the power of Land Back, “everything always comes back to power and land. Land is the perceived jurisdiction of the state. It is where they exert their power and what they want. That’s the power the Canadian government wants to hold onto and that’s the power we can take away from them. ”
Hit them where it hurts
Shaylynn Sampson spoke next on how a big part of solidarity work is being willing to work through conflict in our communities. “We must have a willingness to build communities of care when people fall. When this happens, how do we lift each other up?”
She also emphasized the need for different forms of activism adding that organizing needs to “hit them where it hurts.” If the government and their billionaire funders are being impacted financially, they are forced to listen.
Finally, Shaylynn expresses her solidarity with the UBC encampment. “I love spaces like this because it brings the frontline right to their back door.” She finished her speech by reminding all organizers, “after four years of working on the Yintah, the one thing I learned is to never trust the cops.”
Cancel Canada
Jennifer Wickham, the final speaker, concluded the talk by praising the incredible work of the student encampments. “I am humbled and inspired by the collective action of students all over Turtle Island. And one thing that’s very important for me is putting our story out there to show other people what is possible. So many people have died in Gaza trying to get the story out there to us where we can do something. There’s no choice but to stand up and fight back, there’s no choice but to follow our laws as Indigenous people.”
Jennifer encouraged everyone to go out and see the Yintah film. You can find the next viewings of the Yintah film on their website, www.YintahFilm.com.
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