Wet’suwet’en chiefs visit New York City
Wet’suwet’en chiefs Woos and Na’moks are home safe from their diplomatic mission to New York City – and the support team is taking a well-deserved rest.
The chiefs travelled thousands of kilometres to confront KKR, the Wall Street private equity fund that owns 65 per cent of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Billionaire founder Henry Kravis and his wife use cultural institutions like the Museum of Modern Art to burnish their reputation. Meanwhile they profit from human rights abuses and environmental destruction on Wet’suwet’en territory and around the world.
So the chiefs visited MoMA to encourage the museum to cut ties with the Kravis family. Throughout the trip they met with ambassadors, activists and celebrities to help share their story with the world.
On Sunday Woos and Na’moks joined Indigenous leaders at the head of a 75,000 person march to the United Nations headquarters, behind a banner reading “KKR off Wet’suwet’en Land”.
Then on Monday they visited KKR headquarters to deliver a letter to Henry Kravis and his corporate cronies, inviting them to begin discussions on how to remedy the damage to waterways, wildlife and Wet’suwet’en culture.
Finally the chiefs met with pension fund managers at the New York City comptroller’s office, which has huge sums invested with KKR. Together with Black leaders from KKR-affected communities in Louisiana and Texas, the Wet’suwet’en made a powerful case to divest.
It’s the next chapter in the campaign to stop Coastal GasLink and uphold the sovereignty of the Wet’suwet’en clans. Thank you to all the grassroots donors who chipped in to get the chiefs safely to New York and back.
Thank you for these pictures! So heartening to see how the Wet’suwet’en people are standing firm and pushing back for all of us, and for what rightly belongs to them!
Does my battered heart good to witness these Elders getting their voices heard in the territory of the oppressors. Their courage and determination are an inspiration…LET’S KEEP SPEAKING LOUD!!!
Yes, Mary Anne, and acting louder!
True Canadian Heroes! With the Fascist Anschluß clouding our skies we need many more such demonstrations of David vs Goliath.
i applaud the Chiefs for their determination, while understanding that it is a continuation of the generations long struggle against white colonial imperialist aggression; crimes committed against the true protectors of this land include every kind of coercion, oppression, intimidation and abuse imaginable. How you (Native Nations, Wet’suwet’en, Unist’ot’en etc) have continued the struggle to protect your territories is epic and hard to comprehend for this old anglo-saxon. As Freeman noted above, true Canadian Heroes, true Earth heroes. Limlimt, limlimt, limlimt. in peace and love, mg