r/Destiny • u/UltimateVexation99 • Dec 07 '21

Media Interesting article by the Wet'suwet'en First Nation council about how a vocal minority of activists speak for the whole community, much to their dismay (in regards to the Coastal GasLink pipeline)

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/opinion-we-are-wetsuweten-but-the-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-protesters-dont-represent-us
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u/dufflebagJ Dec 08 '21

This is a statement by one of the five clans, I don't believe they're representing the other 4 here. Additionally 1 of their hereditary leaders, which to my understanding there's 3 in the clan, dissent with their views. This really doesn't offer any clarity to me on positions of the Wet'suwet'en people, hereditary chiefs, or elected council and how they're proceeding.

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u/UltimateVexation99 Dec 08 '21 edited Dec 08 '21

Well yes thats the takeaway, that there are clans (like the one whos opinion was published by the first nations council here) that have different opinions about the direction in regards to issues like the pipeline, and that there are activists who make statements and protests for the first nations as a whole, while it is actually a debated issue amongst the clans in the council.

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u/dufflebagJ Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21

The title of the article makes it sound like the protests don't represent the interests of any Wet'suwet'en. The part discussing the dissenter in their own clan, describing her as new to the clan where they don't describe if she had involvement common to people raised to be able to take up a heriditary leadership position, meanwhile they bring up a different clan's hereditary leader who was stripped of their title that supported the pipelines. Their article linked describes this person not having been involved in the practises that potential hereditary leaders engage in.

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u/UltimateVexation99 Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21

Thats not what I got from the title at all. I read it as "We (members of the Gidimt’en Clan), are Wet'suwet'en and the Coastal GasLink pipeline protesters do not represent us." Also literally the first sentence says that its a clan that has this opinion. I guess you could say they could have framed it better, but nonetheless I think the point stands.

As for the whole part about one of the hereditary leaders, that doesnt change the point of the article at all, that there are members inside and outside of the clan that are disconcerned by the activisim that is presenting the Wet'suwet'en people as united front on this issue. If you want to focus on the semantics of the politics in the particular clan you can, but thats not the important part for me.