Final

Part 1

WHO: the wet’suwet’en people/leaders

WHAT: A pipeline is being built/is built that leaks sediments into their water supply 

WHERE: their land

WHY: 

• GasLink: it decreases oil cost and allows for faster/more efficient processing and export

• Wet’suwet’en people/leaders: It violates their traditional land and does not comply with the UN indigenous rights policy. The pipeline leaks sediments into their water supply. Specifically the Kwa River.

The wet’suwet’en pipeline is a conflict with many sides. It all centers around the Coastal GasLink pipeline. A 670 km long pipeline that transports Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) from Dawson Creek, BC to a processing plant in Kitimat, BC. For TC Energy, the creators of the pipeline, the pipeline decreases the cost and increases the efficiency of transporting the LNG. But the indigenous communities, specifically the wet’suwet’en people that the pipeline crosses through don’t see it that way. For them, the pipeline causes mass environmental damage to their ancestral land and leaks toxic sediments into the Kwa river, their primary and sacred water supply. When the pipeline originally started construction in January 2019, it had the approval of the Canadian government and several elected tribal chiefs. However, these chiefs derive their authority under the Indian act and only maintain authority over a small portion of the wet’suwet’en people’s land. However, TC Energy did not get the consent nor permission from the wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. Under wet’suwet’en law which was affirmed into Canadian law under a 1997 supreme court case, these chiefs hold the final authority over the wet’suwet’en land. This violation of their sovereignty caused mass protests by the wet’suwet’en people as a pipeline was now being built over their land and tainting their water supply despite their lack of consent.

“Chanting the Waters” by Craig Santos Perez is a poem of corporate greed, the value of water and how it’s being abused at this very moment. It’s a message that water is life and it shouldn’t be used, abused or tainted for monetary gain. It’s a simply written story which can be timeless or tied down to the modern day depending on your interpretation. It shares tales of wars fought over water and oil and highlights the human tendency to fight for control and power of resources. It also highlights how water is a basic right and under the UN law, is a basic human right. It also highlights how corporations exploit water for profit, often at the expense of communities and ecosystems such as the wet’suwet’en people. The poem also shows us how water can hold cultural and spiritual significance to its dependents and how the violation of this water can be viewed as a direct attack on their ancestors. Chanting the Waters ties together corporate greed, environmental racism, colonial exploitation, the tainting of water supplies and how important it is that we stop allowing corporations to ruin our most precious resource - water.

Day 2

Both “Chanting the Waters” and the voices in the wet’suwet’en conflict contain voices fighting for water rights and against injustice in regards to water supplies. There are several direct quotes in Chanting the Waters which talk about the damage occurring to our water supplies and how we need to fight for the water’s rights. My favorites would be “becuz corporations steal, privatize, dam, & bottle our waters” & “becuz pesticides, chemicals, oil, weapons, & waste poison our waters”. This ties directly into the wet’suwet’en conflict as both critique corporate exploitation and its devastating impact on our water and ecosystems. The major topics in Chanting the Waters are corporate greed, environmental racism, colonial exploitation and the tainting of water supplies. All of which tie directly into the problems that the wet’suwet’en people and specifically the hereditary council are actively fighting for. In conclusion, water as life and sovereignty are both major themes for both Chanting the Water and the wet’suwet’en pipeline conflict.
One fascinating part of Chanting the Water are the new perspectives that it brings in. We now get the voice of Craig Perez, his Hawian wife, and a more global view on the issues of water rights and access. While the wet’suwet’en conflict is a very serious set of issues, it’s localized. Chanting the Water gives a global view of the issue of water exploitation and how it’s being abused on the global stage. It shows us the criticality of water for every human, not just the indigenous ones. The poem also shares how even though water covers the majority of the world is covered in water, only 3% is able to healthily consumed and still, a large portion of this resource which is deemed to be a basic human need by the United Nations is exploited by mega corps and subsequently poisoned by weapons, pesticides, oil and waste. 

Both Chanting the Waters and the Wet’suwet’en conflict highlight the fight for water rights and against injustices threatening water supplies, with the poem’s lines like “becuz corporations steal, privatize, dam, & bottle our waters” and “becuz pesticides, chemicals, oil, weapons, & waste poison our waters” directly critiquing corporate exploitation and its harm to ecosystems—issues central to the Wet’suwet’en struggle against the Coastal GasLink pipeline. While the Wet’suwet’en conflict focuses on localized resistance to protect the Wedzin Kwa River, Chanting the Waters broadens the perspective, offering a global view of water exploitation through voices like Craig Perez and his Hawaiian wife, emphasizing how only 3% of the world’s water is freshwater and how this vital resource is poisoned and privatized worldwide. Together, they reveal how access to clean water is a battleground for sovereignty, intersecting with capitalism, colonialism, and climate collapse, and underscore that protecting water is inseparable from defending Indigenous and individual rights, as both stories expose how corporate greed and colonialism threaten ecosystems and the foundations of life and justice for all.