Kitchen Parties

Join Community Allies to help Grassroots Wet’suwet’en protect their traditional territory from pipeline development by hosting a Kitchen Party to help raise funds to support the Unist’ot’en Action Camp.

“In the face of unbridled industrial and economic expansion the grassroots Wet’suwet’en are calling out to like-minded individuals who are interested in helping us stop the oil and gas corridor from coming through our unceded and unsurrendered lands. I feel that everybody has the responsibility to protect what is left from the tyrants of greed and corruption.” Toghestiy, hereditary chief, Likht’samisyu Clan

For the past three years, grassroots Wet’suwet’en from the Unis’tot’en clan (along with members of the Gitimt’en and Likhts’amisyu clans) have held an annual action camp to raise awareness about and promote resistance to proposed pipeline developments through their unceded lands. Now as construction of the Pacific Trails pipeline attempts to move forward, the camp is rapidly transitioning into a full-time community. Vital support is needed in terms of food, materials, and people to sustain the camp through winter.

To help raise awareness and material support, you can join a national decentralized effort by hosting a Kitchen Party in your own home. All you need to do is call up ten or more friends, and instead of going out to a restaurant or bar, stay-in and host a potluck Kitchen Party in support of Grassroots Wet’suwet’en defending their territory.

What you do for your Kitchen Party is up to you, but here are a few suggestions:

a) watch Frank Lopez’s short documentary about the Unis’tot’en action campsand their struggles to resist the Enbridge and Pacific Trails pipelines, available in 2 parts at http://stoptheflows.tumblr.com/

b) Have a community member from the camp Skype or phone your Kitchen Party to give a brief update as to what is happening at the camp.

c) Discuss with your friends what sort of solidarity/fundraising/awareness raising activities you could do in your local area to support the camp.

d) With the money you saved from going out, have each guest make a small financial contribution ($10-20, or more!) to directly assist the camp. All proceeds will go towards helping build the camp and prepare it for winter.

e) Invite each guest to host their own Kitchen Party and continue to spread the message!

The Unis’tot’en camp stands directly in the path of the proposed pipelines. As long as it stands, no pipelines can be built. By supporting the camp, you are not only helping grassroots Wet’suwet’en assert their sovereign right to live on their unceded traditional territories, you are also helping to put a stop to the eco-cidal expansion of tar sands and shale gas projects through the creation of a so-called “energy corridor.”

For more information and to register your Kitchen Party today, contact:

unistotencamp(at)riseup.net

Background Information:

In early August, grassroots community members of the Wet’suwt’en first nation hosted an environmental action camp in the area known by its colonial name as northwest British Columbia, which is unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. The camp was held to raise support and awareness in the ongoing resistance to a planned ‘energy corridor’ that would see the Pacific Trails Pipeline (PTP) run 463 km from Summit Lake and the Horn River Basin, through Wet’suwet’en territory, all the way to the port town of Kitimat on the west coast. The ‘energy corridor’ which could end up being as much as three kilometres wide threatens to force its way through hundreds of kilometres of wetlands, waterways and forests, and farming and First Nations communities alike, carrying natural gas from fracking fields in eastern and northeastern BC.

The action camp was hosted by the Unis’tot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en. The Unis’tot’en or C’ihlts’ehkhyu (Big Frog Clan) is the oldest and most storied clan of the Wet’suwet’en, and its people the original descendants.

For more information on the camp, please visit https://unistotencamp.wordpress.com/

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