Guests on the Yintah by Dan Zenga
Unpacking Guests on the Yintah
Guests on the Yintah is a meditation on lessons learned from Indigenous land defenders. It is a love song for the earth and for the water that sustains us.
​​
Read more about the origin of the song here.
​​
I developed this page to share some of the resources that have informed my learning and the song lyrics. You can listen to the song (link above), read the lyrics and find links to resources below.
Please support Wet’suwet’en land defenders by buying the song through https://wetsuwetenhibicin.bandcamp.com/.
GUESTS ON THE YINTAH
Lyrics:
There's a path from the healing lodge to the Feast Hall
Wet'suwet'en lead the way; they carry the weight
Guests circle the Spirit Fire, eyes lift with the smoke
Hearts open to learn from the land
​
If you arrive in uniform, badges and boots
Carrying barrels for bullets and pipelines
You criminalize land defenders
Normalize state violence
Resources for the first verse:
The healing lodge is at Unist’ot’en, roughly 20 km from Gidim’ten, where the Feast Hall is being built. Read more about the Healing Lodge HERE and the Feast Hall HERE.
The RCMP, and the more specialized force called the Community Industry Response Group (CIRG), is a constant presence on Wet’suwet’en territory and while I was there would enter the cabin site at Gidimt’en 2-3 times a day to inspect what we were doing. The Wet’suwet’en are suing the RCMP for this constant harassment. Read more about this HERE.
The RCMP raided Gidimt’en on 29th March 2023. Because this is the most recent raid I included a few recent resources below:
​
​
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Mr. José Francisco Calí-Tzay, had an official visit to Canada from 1-10 March 2023. In his preliminary observation and recommendations from the visit (available HERE), he writes:
​
“I am also concerned about the ongoing militarization of Indigenous lands and the criminalization of Indigenous human rights defenders resisting the Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink pipelines in British Columbia. I urge the Government of Canada to end these violations and to adopt adequate measures to guarantee Indigenous Peoples’ right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent, and their rights to lands, territories and resources” (see pg 9 of report linked above).
Land defenders are criminalized around the world. I have had the incredible opportunities to meet land defenders in Canada, in Wet’suwet’en, and in South Africa, in Xolobeni, where land defenders have been assassinated and many continue to receive death threats for their efforts to protect their land. See the resources below as examples of the criminalization of land defenders in global context:
-
You may be able to find this excellent resource on land and environmental defenders in your local library: Environmental Defenders: Deadly Struggles for Life and Territory, edited by Mary Menton and Phillippe Le Billon.
.
Chorus:
If you come close, the Matriarch will tell you clearly:
"Get off the Yintah, this is our home on the Yintah
The Wedzin Kwa on the Yintah has millennia on you"
"Get off the Yintah, this is our home on the Yintah
Gidimt'en Yintah has millennia on you"
Resources for the chorus:
This is likely one of the most important resources on this site. In this video you will learn about Wet’suwet’en Yintah and Culture, as well as the history of the struggle in the courts beginning with the landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision Delgamuukw v. British Columbia. Listen to Chief Na’Moks here.
In the video below you will see Auntie Janet (the Matriarch referenced in the song) confronting the RCMP during one of their raids:
Second verse:
The courts spend decades writing a rule book on settler expansion
They allege to preserve the honour of the crown, but you can't honour our relations when you force law down.
Law comes from the land, it’s woven through with Wet’suwet’en stories
Traditions, across generations, carried forward in love
​
Resources for the second verse:
Here is a good overview of the legal issues at stake in Wet’suwet’en: Wet'suwet'en Crisis: Whose Rule of Law? by Katie Hyslop.
​
John Borrows has long been a teacher and inspiration for me. I encourage you to look into his many books, writing, and lectures. John Borrows provides a commentary on the Delgamuukw v. British Columbia Supreme Court judgement that is applicable to the Wet'suwet'en struggle HERE.
​
My use of the idea of ‘weaving’ in this song is informed and inspired by teachings on ‘braiding’ legal orders as discussed in this report published by the Centre for International Governance Innovation: Braiding Legal Orders. One resource associated with Braiding Legal Orders is particularly relevant here. It's called "How UNDRIP Recognizes the Sacred Relationship with Nibi (Water)" by Aimée Craft.
​
-
Just a note about this resource above: I find it insightful here because it illustrates the relationships between Indigenous, Canadian, and International legal concepts and authorities. In the Wet’suwet’en struggle, the right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), as protected in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, has been an important assertion. UNDRIP and FPIC are discussed in the report above.
I have learned a tremendous amount from writing by Aaron Mills. The Indigenous Law Association at McGill published a series on Aaron Mill’s idea of ‘Rooted Constitutionalism’. In this collection of articles you will find perspectives on Anishinaabe (Aaron Mills), Nêhiyaw (Darcy Lindberg), Métis (Kerry Sloan), and Mi’kmaw (Sákéj Henderson and Jane McMillan) constitutionalisms. ​
Third verse:
We hold this space to let all of our relations expand.
We hold this space with love for the land.
​
​
Resources for the third verse:
What are ‘all our relations’? This interview with John Borrows and Lindsey Borrows is a great place to start:
​
What does it mean to love the land? There is a beautiful and engaging chapter by James Tully called ‘Reconciliation Here on Earth’. It from the book titled “Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings”. In this chapter James Tully writes about reconciliation with more-than-human living beings (plants, animals, ecosystems and the living earth as a whole). This chapter informs my reflection on ‘holding space’ to let ‘all our relations expand’.
There's a path from the Healing Lodge to the Feast Hall
For me, thinking about that route from the healing center at Unistot’en to the Feast Hall at Gidimt’en is a powerful realization of the journey from healing after centuries of trauma and dispossession to building new centers of Indigenous governance, ceremony, and celebration. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have worked on the site at the Feast Hall for even a short time.
​
Dan Zenga
​
About
Dan Zenga is a researcher, writer, and singer-songwriter who pens honest and hopeful indie folk. For ‘Guests on the Yintah’ he partnered with Juno-nominated producer Drew Brown who brought characteristic power and depth to the recording. Dan releases music under the name Chasing Futures.