Two defenders of indigenous lands attached themselves to equipment at a fossil fuel pumping station in British Columbia on Saturday, vowing to continue resisting a government-owned pipeline that is damaging the climate, the environment and First Nations people whose lands not given over crosses.
“We never provide and will never provide our collective, prior and informed consent – the minimum international standard – for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project.”
—Tiny House Warriors
The pipeline protesters – self-described on social media as “accomplices” to the Braided Warriors and Tiny House Warriors – locked themselves on a crane at the Trans Mountain Corporation’s Blue River pumping station.
The Trans Mountain Pipeline – owned by the Canadian government through the subsidiary Trans Mountain Corporation – transports crude oil from Alberta’s tar sands to the coast of British Columbia. It is widely considered the dirtiest oil in the world.
In addition to damage to the climate and the environment, the pipeline has serious social costs. According to First Nations advocates, this has profaned the sacred indigenous land, and temporary workers housed in men’s camps are often perpetrators of crimes against indigenous women, girls and people with two spirits. Murders, rapes, human trafficking and other crimes abound, contributing to the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and people with two spirits (MMIWG2S).
Two accomplices of Tiny House Warriors and Braided Warriors are attached to equipment at the TMX pumping station in non-ceded Secwepemc territory. pic.twitter.com/n41nkjVmHr
– Braided Warriors (@BraidedWarriors) April 3, 2021
Secwepemc land defenders strategically built small houses along the 518 km (321 mile) gas pipeline route “to enforce Secwepemc law and jurisdiction and block access to this pipeline”.
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“We never provide and will never provide our collective, prior and informed consent – the minimum international standard – to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project,” says the Tiny House Warriors website. “The Tiny House Warrior movement is the beginning of the restoration of villages and the assertion of our authority over our unassigned territories.”
Kanahus Manuel, a terrestrial defender of Secwepemc and warrior of the Tiny House, said The Sparrow Project—A nonprofit grassroots news agency focused on amplifying stories of struggles for social, economic, racial and environmental justice – that Trans Mountain “lacks Secwepemc consent and fails to recognize the Secwepemc title, land rights and indigenous jurisdiction will only result in more conflict, direct actions, blockades and occupations of indigenous lands, which will increase the risks and economic uncertainties for Trans Mountain and its construction deadlines. “
The Braided Warriors, an indigenous organization that promotes First Nations rights and sovereignty in the territories of Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam, said on its Instagram page that “we are in solidarity with the Secwepemc people in their struggle to prevent foreign invasion their lands and protect their lands, waters, animals and peoples. “
“It is our role to be accomplices to defenders of indigenous lands and to put ourselves in line to prevent the continued colonization of indigenous territories and peoples.”
—Braided Warriors
“It is our role to be accomplices to defenders of indigenous lands and to put ourselves in line to prevent the continued colonization of indigenous territories and peoples,” said Braided Warriors. “This pipeline will affect all of us and all future generations, but first of all it will impact nations and peoples along this route, including the people of Secwepemc.”
“Today we are on Secwepemc land that has not been ceded, not ceded and occupied illegally to show that we will not stop until the pipeline is closed and the land is returned to the legitimate titleholders,” they added.