Ice Tray Investigates:

The Wet'suwet'en Protests

Introduction

Welcome Listeners!

Ice Tray Investigates is hosted by Sawyer Neske and Seth Buikema and is an investigative spin off of the WMCN late night show Ice Tray. The goal of this show is to showcase the struggle of the Wet'suwet'en people against the construction of the Costal GasLink Pipeline across their land and their water.

An overview of the Wet'suwet'en protests

Canada was struck with mass demonstrations in support of the opposition to a multibillion dollar pipeline deal in northern British Columbia. Most notably the construction of blockades on train-tracks that stopped train travel for millions of Canadians.

This pipeline seeks to transport liquid natural gas from the north of BC to a coastal town called Kitimat. It would cut across traditional Wet'suwet'en lands. The Wet'suwet'en nation is located in north-central British Columbia, situated on the Bulkley River and near the François, Burns, and Fraser Lakes, about 12 hours north west of Vancouver.

Guiding Questions

Should corporate media coverage of indigenous rights protests be trusted?

Throughout our research we were presented with new media sources on the daily because of the ongoing nature of our topic. Our primary sources for this topic came prominently from mainstream news media companies and Twitter. We instantly recognized the bias within the large articles being published by Canadian News sources.

Do the opinions of the Hereditary Chiefs represent the opinions of the community?

The hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en nation approve of the line going through their land, siting the fact that it will strengthen their economy and bring money to the people. On the other side, the greater community opposes the pipeline, believing that it will bring with it man camps and increased danger to natural resources.

Episodes

episode one

Episode one centered around giving context to the situation, and initial responses to the protests. These protests were spurred on by the arrest of multiple Wet'suwet'en tribal members at the Unist'ot'en Camp, an outpost built as a healing center and as a place to block workers from building the pipeline, although an injunction had been filed to allow the pipeline to be built. Soon after, protests sprang up around Canada, most notably in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, where the only link between Eastern Ontario and the rest of Canadian National railroad was blockaded by solidarity protesters.

episode two

In episode two, we explore the legal background behind the situation, social media discourse, and representation amongst the Wet'suwet'en. We talked about the court case Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, which established the Wet'suwet'en as a people with right to their land, as they never signed any formal treaties. On social media, the protests faced a lot of backlash from conservative Canadians who value the economic output of the Canadian oil and gas industry over their fellow citizens well being. Representation amongst the Wet'suwet'en was also a big issue, the will of the people was not well represented by the hereditary chiefs.

Reflection & Research

Most of our research was conducted online via media outlets and social media. This topic was hard to find published research on as the events were unfolding as we were putting the podcast together. When researching we kept in mind a lot of biases that mainstream media have towards indigenous communities as well as economic biases. We got a mix of representation, as a lot of mainstream media sources spoke to leaders in the community more often than protesters. With all that in mind, we tried to balance out our sources to best represent the situation.

Hosts!

Seth Buikema

I'm Seth, a first year from outside of Chicago, Illinois. I play rugby, Sawyer and I host a radio show together, and love backpacking.

Over the course of this project I learned a lot both about indigenous protections, and about audio production. A lot of people brand the treatment of first nations people in Canada as their skeleton in the closet, and that has translated into institutional racism throughout the country. This is an important manifestation of that phenomenon.

Sawyer Neske

Hey! I'm Sawyer and I'm from St. Paul, MN. I enjoy design, biking and art. I play frisbee and host a radio show with Seth.

During the creation of the project and over the course of this class I learned a lot about indigenous water rights and podcast production. More specifically I learned about how interwoven theses issues we discussed in class are with everyday water rights. I also was surprised and interested in the connections between international governments and tribal governments.

Works Cited

Barrera, Jorge. “Movement Sweeping Country with Blockades Will Shift Focus to Ottawa, Says Secwepemc Chief | CBC News.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, February 25, 2020. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/blockades-focus-ottawa-judy-wilson-1.5474526.

Cousins, Ben. “Wet'suwet'en: What's the Difference between the Elected Band Council and Hereditary Chiefs?” CTVNews. CTV News, February 14, 2020. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/wet-suwet-en-what-s-the- difference-between-the-elected-band-council-and-hereditary-chiefs-1.4811453.

“Delgamuukw v British Columbia.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, March 30, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delgamuukw_v_British_Columbia.

Kelster-D'Amours, Jillian. “Understanding the Wet'suwet'en Struggle in Canada.” Canada News | Al Jazeera, March 1, 2020. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/understanding-wet-struggle-canada- 200301200921070.html.

“Wet'suwet'en Supporter Toolkit 2020.” Unist'ot'en. Accessed April 29, 2020. http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit2020/.

Acknowledgements

Tam Perlman, thank you for showing us the ropes in Audacity and with your general guidance with the project

Dr. Cass Adair, thank you for the amazing presentation on building podcasts and the resources you presented to us!

Our classmates, thank you for the amazing discussion and feedback you provided us!

Kiri, thank you so much for directing the class and guiding the conversation so well throughout the semester.

And, thanks to you for listening!

More Resources

Unist'ot'en Camp - Webpage of the Unist'ot'en Camp, where the first protests occurred.

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