March 29, 2024

Frieda Husson: 'You can't take any land from us'

Frieda Husson: ‘You can’t take any land from us’


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Starting from: 09/29/2021 11:01 AM

Frieda Husson fights the land grab from the indigenous people of Canada. As a leader and Witsuyen, she was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize – and started a national solidarity movement.

Written by Peter Mukey, ARD-Studio New York

Frida Husson is only 1.5m tall but she is a combative: The 57-year-old has been known across the country at the latest since she stood up to Canadian police officers in February last year and was taken away.

Huson is the so-called Aboriginal genetic chief of Wet’suwet’en in northwestern Canada, in the province of British Columbia. And their protest is directed against the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline, which is supposed to run through the Wetsoweten area:

“We’re sending a message to the territory and the government in Ottawa. They can’t take more Aboriginal land from us,” she told reporters at the time. “We are protesting peacefully, we are not aggressive, we don’t want to hurt anyone. But we want them to take us seriously, and we want to protect this country for our children and grandchildren.”

Howihkat (Freda Huson) is the genetic primate of the aboriginal Wetsutin in northwestern Canada.

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nationwide protests began

But the police removed the blockade of Frieda Huson and her colleagues – and the result was protests across Canada. Supporters – including many climate activists – have blocked train routes across the country for several days. Local protest became a national movement with which many expressed solidarity – and Aborigines in Canada were heard:

We don’t have much land left anyway. They’ve already taken a lot from us. We use what we have left: we hunt and pick berries and teach our children our culture.

“Healing Center” instead of boarding schools

In 2019, she traveled to the United Nations in New York to draw attention to the pipeline’s construction and the consequences for her community of origin. In a private forum, she also raised serious allegations against the Canadian government: “They want to expel us from our land. It is part of a genocide. They want to deprive us of our rights to our land. But we depend on the land,” she told the United Nations.

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Recently, the fate of Canada’s so-called First Nations has returned to the spotlight. In the past few months, more than 1,000 graves have been found near former boarding schools for Aboriginal children.

About 150,000 children of Native Americans and mixed couples were separated from their families between 1874 and 1990 and sent to private boarding schools to force them to adjust to the white majority community.

“You will protect this land”

Hassoun established them Unist’ot’en ​​Healing Center a few years ago in particular – on a mountain slope on their land: “The Canadian state has done everything in its power to expel Indians from our children’s boarding schools,” she said. The goal of the center at that time. “At our healing center we want to give them back the Indians so we can be strong people again.”

The children must have a connection with the state again: “Spiritually, culturally and psychologically. Then no one can expel them from their homeland. They will protect this country for future generations.”