Oscar Leon travels to the rural Andean community of Buenos Aires to meet rural campesinos and indigenous citizens defending their land against multinational mining companies. The clash over land and resources goes to the heart of the conflict that paralyzed Ecuador's society in the summer of 2022 and challenged the presidency of billionaire neoliberal banker Guillermo Lasso.
Rhonda Martin, host of the Got Something to Say Podcast on Real People's Media speaks with Mi'kmaq fisherman Cody Caplin about facing criminalization for exercising his rights in Eel River Bar First Nation.
The sun is breaking through the rolling clouds that have brought heaps of rain to northern B.C. over several days in mid-July. Molly Wickham, also known by her Wet’suwet’en name of Sleydo’, stops in the rural town of Houston on the way to visit her mother in Smithers with her husband, Cody, and three children. She unloads her two-year-old daughter, Winïh, from her car seat in the truck. Winïh totters to catch up with her older sister Lily, 6, and brother, Liam, 11, as they race to frolic at a playground.
With her husband attending to the children, Wickham, dressed in a “Wet’suwet’en Strong” black hoodie and jeans, sits down at a picnic table nearby. She is part of the Gidimt’en Clan and her family live on its territory.
“You know, I never, ever want to take it for granted,” she says, referring to raising her children out on the yintah (Wet’suwet’en territory), about a two-hour drive up a mountainous road west of Houston, where the family has lived since Liam was a baby.
“I’m so in awe of them and so grateful for the way that they get to live. And so bewildered by how much they know.” She pauses and tucks a strand of her brown hair behind her ear.
“Just by living out there, by living on the land they know, and they understand more than I feel like I ever could because I didn’t grow up like that. It wasn’t instilled in me from childhood — I didn’t know the land, I didn’t learn that until I was in my thirties.”
Wickham’s mother, June, was taken from her birth parents as a baby and adopted into a non-Indigenous family as part of what is known as the Sixties Scoop. Her mother, despite being displaced from her Indigenous culture and traditions, taught Wickham and her older sister Jennifer to be proud of their Indigenous identity. But it wasn’t until Wickham was in university that she began the journey of reconnecting to her roots. She was far away from home, in Victoria, and planning to become a lawyer when she decided to take an Indigenous governance degree program. That course, and the revelations that came with learning about her Indigenous culture, led her to move to her home territory on the yintah.
Since then, Wickham and her Haida husband have devoted their lives to the reclamation of Indigenous knowledge, governance, law, and living on the land. But this way of life has come at a cost. (more...)
“Follow colonial laws or go to jail”
1492 Landback Lane
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
In Haudenosaunee territory, dozens are fighting against housing development eating away at their land near Toronto.
Police have arrested at least 32 people (including two journalists), protesters were fired on with rubber bullets but the struggle continues. pic.twitter.com/eNEY9hkIIB
Permanent injunction granted today against the land defenders at 1492 LandBack Lane. Police could conceivably move in and start arresting people at the housing development between Six Nations and Caledonia. pic.twitter.com/GkRbJDmyix
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
Cops blocking access to Six Nations, may be moving on 1492 camp outside Caledonia. Standby pic.twitter.com/wP0gj1tlSh
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
Police locked down back door to 1492 Landback Lane camp but also seal off sections of Six Nations from the outside. @JorgeBarrera and others reporting a rubber bullet was fired at a land defender pic.twitter.com/lnK1HcvD9u
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
Plumes of black smoke over the back entrance of Landback Lane camp. Likely tires being burnt by land defenders. They did this during previous police raids.
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
Police have sealed off parts of Six Nations but land defenders tell me they were pushed back from the main camp. Foxgate developers obtained a permanent injunction against the camp earlier today.
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
Tires now on fire at blockade pic.twitter.com/ujZUzjg9zs
— Jorge Barrera (@JorgeBarrera) October 22, 2020
Since the police have block every way to the land defenders at Six Line/Hwy 6, I’ve abandoned the car in the suburbs and am hoofing it pic.twitter.com/N8LaMZhheZ
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
“If the police try again, the hydro poles are coming down.” A member of Six Nations said that after police fired rubber bullets at protesters. pic.twitter.com/YfPAYx4VAe
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
Things are quiet for now. Just filed a story for @ricochet_en, should be up soon. Phone dying. ✌️ pic.twitter.com/O7MH6ZHi1m
— Christopher Curtis (@titocurtis) October 22, 2020
