The Wetʼsuwetʼen are a First Nation who live on the Bulkley River and around Burns Lake, Broman Lake, and François Lake in the northwestern Central Interior of British Columbia.
They speak Witsuwitʼen, a dialect of the Babine-Witsuwitʼen language which, like its sister language Carrier, is a member of the Athabaskan family.
Their oral history, called kungax, recounts that their ancestral village, Dizkle or Dzilke, once stood upstream from the Bulkley Canyon. This cluster of cedar houses on both sides of the river is said to have been abandoned because of an omen of impending disaster. The exact location of the village has been lost. The neighbouring Gitxsan people of the Hazelton area have a similar tale, though the village in their version is named Dimlahamid (Temlahan)
The endonym Wetʼsuwetʼen means "People of the Wa Dzun Kwuh River (Bulkley River)"
The Wet’suwet’en First Nation was formerly part of the Omineca Band. However, in 1984 the Omineca Band split into the Broman Lake and Nee-Tahi-Buhn bands. The Skin Tayi band later split off from Nee-Tahi-Buhn. Today, the Skin Tyee Band, Nee Tahi Buhn Band, Wet’suwet’en First Nation, Moricetown Band and Hagwilget Band make up the Wet’suwet’en Nation.
Like most First Nations here, Wet’suwet’en never signed treaties with the Canadian or provincial governments. Nevertheless, the latter took the land and leased forested acreage to logging companies. Today just 20% of British Columbia’s old-growth forests remain.
In 2020, after decades of activist pressure, the province identified about a quarter of the remaining old growth as at high risk for logging and recommended a pause while deciding their fate. Yet today, logging has been deferred in less than half of the high-risk area.
Another conflict with the settler state has been the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which seeks to transport liquefied natural gas from northeast BC to a terminal on the coast near the town of Kitimat.
The 670-kilometre (417-mile) pipeline will cut across traditional Wet’suwet’en lands that cover 22,000sq km across northern BC.
The hereditary chiefs, who under Wet’suwet’en law claim authority over those traditional territories, said they never gave their consent for the project to move forward. They have raised concerns about the pipeline’s potential effects on the land, water, and their community.
In late July, Amnesty International took the extraordinary step in naming Dsta’hyl Canada’s first ever designated prisoner of conscience, and now demanding his immediate and unconditional release.
“The Canadian state has unjustly criminalized and confined Chief Dsta’hyl for defending the land and rights of the Wet’suwet’en people,” Amnesty International’s Ana Piquer stated in a press release. “As a result, Canada joins the shameful list of countries where prisoners of conscience remain under house arrest or behind bars.”
In October 2021, Dsta’hyl was arrested and charged with criminal contempt after confiscating and decommissioning heavy equipment utilized by Coastal GasLink to construct its LNG pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. Dsta’hyl said he was enforcing Wet’suwet’en laws as the company did not have the free, prior and informed consent of hereditary chiefs to build the pipeline.
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gathered thoughts on Hunter x Hunter now that I'm no longer sick and decrepit
Really good. Nothing quite like it. Refreshing.To get my criticisms out of the way first, I'll make a list of them:
Criticism over. I am going to glaze the hell out of this now.
Chimera Ant is one of the best arcs in all of shōnen. Outstanding. I'm struggling to think of arcs that stand out as masterworks in their own right across manga like this and I'm flailing. Kino
The complete deconstruction of Gon’s mentality and character is really well-written and takes Gon from Goku/Luffy-archetype ADHD wunderkind to a refreshing “hey what, realistically, would happen if we made this teenager into a walking bomb. teenagers are a little fucked, are they not?”-take that adeptly toes the line to not regress into edgelord “what if Goku SNAPPED and KILLED EVERYONE” territory, nor regressing into the Sasuke archetype. I really really liked how it’s very clear that he’s lashing out and revenge-seeking in grief, so much so that he irrationally snaps at Killua for merely (not-so-)straight-manning him when he’s freaking out at Pitou, hurting Killua in the process in his anger. I’ve seen very harrowing fates/injuries/developments for characters across manga. Very few have made me feel the level of ‘oh no’ that Gon’s rapid-age Nen contract made me feel. It’s not even gruesome, the design is utterly comical, and yet the mere implications that it communicates—purely visually—leave a sinking feeling that “oh, Gon might be killing himself with this” in a way that words do not do justice.
The juxtaposition of the two gangs of four are great. It kinda falls off for me after Meruem and Pitou for comparison, but it’s a good bit. Meruem and Gon both learn at an absurdly rapid pace and have a nagging curiosity whilst being walking weapons, and Pitou and Killua are both cat assassins with undying loyalty towards their groups and callous indifference towards killing. Shaiapouf is too eccentric compared to Kurapika’s paladin-avenger nature to be a foil (they're more Hisoka-like, if anything) and I don’t see the parallel between Youpi and Leorio. Maybe unintended to draw the parallels, but the first two read well and the designs sort of communicate this idea.
I also love how it makes sure to highlight the devotion and care and curiosity of the Ants, and in the same breath highlight the brutality and callousness of the Hunters, only to swap those portrayals when you get too comfortable in seeing one side as such. It turns what otherwise would be a Heinlein's Starship Troopers ‘kill bugs glory to humanity’ plot into a genuine attempt to empathize with the beasts and deconstruct the institution of Hunters in the same breath, while maintaining a reason to still root for the hunters in the end. This arc is so well written that I literally barely give a shit about the cartoonishly-evil Kim Jong-Un expy, where I otherwise would be raising a pointed brow at it. I love the whole Komugi plot and I felt like shit (in a bittersweet way) when they chose to die together after Meruem is contracts the Rose's poison.
Aside from that—really good worldbuilding given a map that for two separate landmasses rotates Africa and calls it a day. Nen is fun but I’m still confused but that’s ok.
Alluka is handled in the best possible way that a character who does not look you in the eye and say “I am transgender” can be which is the clear demarcation of those who misgender her as actively uncaring. A step further in that the manga actively states that part of the reason those that misgender her do as such is because they view her like an object. Surprising depth considering the egregious transphobic moment in YuYu Hakusho. Actual growth on Togashi's end.
Love Killua. still don’t like Hisoka but he’s hot when he's not got his clown on. Killugon may not be intended but it is effectively-canon because I didn’t even know shit about this and I’m not usually a shipper outside of explicit romance and I could only-barely read their relationship in a strictly bros fashion. This is a narumitsu-esque situation for me in terms of intent and clear reading.
Medium-to-strong 9. This is the highest rating I am willing to personally give a work that I personally believe will not have an ending. I say this as a point of immense praise.
For what its worth, the shape of the new continent has now been retconned to not be the second africa
Boat arc
yea its going to at least take a while before HxH ends, after the Boat arc there is going to be a dark continent arc and finally the last arc is going to be about Gon according to togashi's plans. I think the last arc get wordy in part because togashi doesnt want to drawn more than necesary so his art doesnt degrade