TIOTIAHKE (MONTREAL) – Kahsatstenhsera: Indigenous Resistance to Tar Sands Pipelines is a short documentary film and anti-pipeline movement resource co-produced by Amanda Lickers and subMedia.tv which is now available for free online at reclaimturtleisland.com. This short documentary was created to shed light on Indigenous resistance to the expanding project of industrial genocide known as the tar sands. Kahsatstenhera hopes to build awareness within an Indigenous context of the struggles against the Enbridge Line 9 and TransCanada Energy East pipelines while touching on the role of fracking in tar sands expansion.
Pipeline expansion projects are part of the continued land theft and genocide of Indigenous peoples. It is for this reason that that environmental justice movements must take leadership from grassroots and traditional Indigenous governance that are on the front lines of colonial-capitalist violence. The film communicates the importance of action in the face of environmental devastation and ongoing colonization.
The Line 9 Pipeline is a 38 year old pipeline owned and operated by Enbridge Pipelines Inc. There has been widespread opposition to Enbridge’s attempt to reverse the flow of the pipeline to carry Tar Sands bitumen from Alberta to the east. The pipeline puts over 17 First Nations communities at direct risk in the event of a pipeline rupture, and is slotted to bring tar sands diluted bitumen as far east as Montreal, on occupied Haudenosaunee territory.
Energy East Pipeline – is a natural gas pipeline owned and operated by TransCanada that will require the reversal and conversion of the current pipeline to transport Tar Sands diluted bitumen. Stretching as far as occupied Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik territories in Saint John, New Brunswick, the bitumen will then be processed at the already existing Irving refinery. Requiring the construction of several new pump stations, including a “marine facility” and hundreds of kilometres of new pipeline, the Energy East project, 4500km in total – much larger than the Keystone XL pipeline.
Featuring the voices and perspectives of Dene, Wolastiqiyik, Mi’kmaq, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Wet’suwet’en land defenders, this documentary not only educates the public on the issues being faced by pipeline construction and expansion, but showcases Indigenous resistance and provides an anti-colonial lens for understanding environmental destruction. Online resource launched with the film are designed to connect grassroots Indigenous land defenders together and to help support collective assertion of Indigenous sovereignty.
For more information contact Amanda Lickers 705-957-7468 or email reclaimturtleisland@gmail.com.
