Inside the Witsuwit'en nation's fight to defend their lands against fossil-fuel companies | CBC Documentaries LoadedInside the Witsuwit'en nation's fight to defend their lands against fossil-fuel companies
The documentary Yintah follows two Witsuwit’en leaders over more than a decade. The cameras captured the destruction of the land and archeological sites, violent police raids and arrests at blockades.Inside the Witsuwit'en nation’s fight to defend their lands against fossil-fuel companiesTrailer | The documentary Yintah follows Witsuwit'en leaders for a decade as they fight to protect their lands from fossil-fuel companies. Watch now on CBC Gem.
The film follows Tsakë ze' Howilhkat Freda Huson, Tsakë ze' Sleydo' Molly Wickham and their fellow land defenders over a decade, as they reoccupy their traditional territory and galvanize their nation against several of the world's largest fossil-fuel companies.is about an anti-colonial resurgence — a fierce and ongoing battle for Indigenous and human rights.
The hereditary chiefs' jurisdiction over the territory is supported by a 1997 Supreme Court of Canada decision. When a lower court effectively sidesteps this ruling, granting oil and gas companies access to Witsuwit'en land, the nation's leaders put their bodies on the line, building barricades to keep the corporations out.
Tsakë ze' Sleydo' Molly Wickham, a Witsuwit’en wing chief, is photographed on Nov. 12, 2021, during the Coyote Camp blockade on traditional Gidimt'en territory. A Witsuwit’en supporter and a private security contractor look on as Likhts'amisyu Hereditary Chief Dsta'hyl disables heavy machinery at a Coastal GasLink pipeline work site on Lihkts'amisyu territory near the Clore River on Oct. 27, 2021.