Yintah

The clans from the Wet’suwet’en territory in Canada are struggling to control their ancestral land, while the government and fossil fuel companies plan to build a pipeline across it. Two brave female Indigenous leaders spearhead the resistance, but the standoff gradually becomes more and more tense and violent.

The Wet’suwet’en territory in the western part of Canada is inhabited by five different clans across 22.000 km2. It is ‘unceded’ territory: it was never signed away by the Indigenous people who lived there before the Europeans colonised North America. The chiefs of the five clans are the only ones who can decide what is allowed and not on these territories. So when fossil fuel companies, in tandem with the Canadian government, set their sights on the enormous oil and natural gas reserves there, they first have to go through the Wet’suwet’en people.

Yintah (‘land’) follows this battle over a 10-year period. Leading the defence of their land, their forests and their water are Freda Huson and Molly Wickham. Scarred by the horrific history of abuse and oppression of Indigenous people in Canada, Freda and Molly tirelessly confront oil workers, government representatives and the police. It is an uneven battle, but the Wet’suwet’en are not planning on giving up. A raw, urgent and breathtakingly beautiful experience.