The origins of Guests on the Yintah

In the Spring of 2022, I spent a few weeks at Gidimt'en checkpoint and the build site of the Feast Hall at Lamprey Creek to support the Wet'suwet'en in their struggle against Coastal GasLink and the RCMP. I went as a member of Community Peacemaker Teams, a group that provides nonviolent accompaniment in conflict areas around the world. 

One evening, Auntie Janet Williams, the Matriarch referenced in the song, heard me singing and asked me to write a song about the Wedzin Kwa on the Yintah (the sacred river flowing through the territory). From that conversation and my experiences as a guest, I wrote Guests on the Yintah. This song is dedicated to Auntie Janet and Uncle Lawrence, who was also a constant and supportive presence standing up to the multiple raids by the RCMP that I witnessed while there. It is also dedicated to all of the Wet’suwet’en land defenders who I met and those who I didn’t meet, and land defenders around the world who are the targets of state-backed colonial violence for their commitment to protecting their land from the devastation caused by extractive industries.

Guests on the Yintah is a political anthem and a love song. The song is part reporting from the Wet’suwet’en struggle, part legal critique of the settler state, part meditation on the lessons that can be learned from Indigenous land defenders, and part land acknowledgement. It is a reflection and call to action on reconciling with settler histories and the earth during a climate crisis. It is also a constant and renewable personal reminder of my relationships and accountabilities.