Autumn Greetings from the Yintah!
The leaves are falling and the first snow has already arrived. After a relatively cool summer and a wet September, we are hopeful for big snowfalls this winter to fill the snowpack on the mountains.
Summer Wrap Up
Our summer was hectic and productive! In August we had our Summer Work Party, which focused on tying up the loose ends of old projects and organizing the Healing Centre. We welcomed many returning supporters and new ones from all corners of the globe. So good to meet new friends and so good to embrace old ones.
The salmon run was a hardship this year. Climate change and water use by industry has the rivers at all time lows and high temperatures. Our precious salmon struggled and decisions were made to preserve them for next year. The state of the rivers makes us even more hopeful for a good snowpack this winter.
Though the waterways faced hardship, the Yintah gave us a bountiful cranberry, soapberry, haskap, saskatoon, raspberry, and huckleberry harvest all summer and we were able to fill our pantries to bursting. The garden planted and cared for by volunteers produced a luscious crop day after day.
Also in August, we had a week long Wilderness First Aid training put on by a generous and talented nurse and guide from Coast Wilderness Medical Training. All our students passed with flying colours, and Unist’ot’en Chief Geltiy was a star student! Having an Elder and Chief on our Medic team, serving up Grandma-level nurturing, is a blessing.
In September, three caring and proficient FNHA nurses from the Northern Region’s Harm Reduction and Substance Use division visited us overnight to deliver advanced Opiate Agonist Therapy training to our live-in support staff. This training is vital to the ongoing work of our Healing Camps. We are grateful for the generosity of the FNHA and their members. Please come back any time!
Yintah Documentary
The film about the Wet’suwet’en struggle for sovereignty, Yintah, continues to have sold out screenings of its full length version worldwide, is now available in an edited form on CBC , and will be released in another edited version on Canadian, US, and UK Netflix on October 18th. We encourage you to put on a screening in your city! Write an email to get in touch with the distribution team, and feel free to reach out to us for the most up-to-date information to give your audience.
How to Support
There are many ways to show up for us!
- Visit us at camp. Volunteers are welcome all year and needed for this winter!
- Send funds
- Offer rides to Houston from Vancouver
- Donate anything from our Wishlist or the funds to purchase them
- Donate Aeroplan points or other gift cards
- Put on a fundraiser or screening
- Offer your expertise at a distance or in person: lawyers, grant writers and researchers, archaeologists, map makers, anthropologists, cultural resource technicians and those trained in mapping cultural modifications, environmental scientists, and people experienced with Land Use Planning are all especially needed right now. Profs and academics, we need you!
For anything without a link in the list, please write to our volunteers via the contact page on our website.
Solidarity Statements
Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs have been opposing the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project, most recently with a checkpoint on their hereditary territory. Corporations and governments must respect the sovereignty of Indigenous Nations on their own lands, or expect ongoing resistance. Colonial oppression and capitalist extraction will not be allowed to trample over the lives of Indigenous peoples. We support our neighbours and wish them a smooth and successful road.
Our neighbours at Gidimt’en Access Point continue to fight a long running court battle, with their next dates Nov 4-8th in Smithers. We will continue to support them at court and in their fight against unreasonable charges for defending their sovereign territory.
The pain and suffering of the attacks on Gaza have gone on for a year now, and we watch with heavy hearts as war is waged and bombs fall on civilians in their homeland. We stand with Palestinian people in their quest for a peaceful existence. May we all have time to mourn and safe spaces to heal, and may we all realize that our struggles are connected.
We thank you for your ongoing support, look forward to seeing you soon, and wish you a cozy, peaceful, and decolonized Winter.
