Secwepemc Indigenous Women Vow To Shut Down Kinder Morgan Man Camps Amidst National MMIW Inquiry

In the midst of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, violence against Indigenous women continues to be facilitated by Federal and British Columbia Governments.

Kinder Morgan is applying for a 1000-worker Blue River Campsite on 16 hectares of Secwepemc lands in the south-central interior of British Columbia. Man camps provide temporary housing to thousands of mostly non-Indigenous male workers in the resource sector. Reports show direct correlations between these encampments and violence against women.

Today the Secwepemc Women's Warrior Society and the Tiny House Warriors issued a Women's Declaration Against Kinder Morgan Man Camps.

The Declaration states, "We have never provided and will never provide our collective free, prior and informed consent - the minimal international standard - to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Project or the Kinder Morgan Man Camps."

Representatives of the Secwepemc Nation will deliver the Women's Declaration to Kinder Morgan CEO Ian Anderson on November 30 in Vancouver at a planned demonstration against the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Secwepemc women warrior Kanahus Manuel states, "The common thread here is Indigenous consent. We do not consent to Kinder Morgan building pipelines or man camps on our Unceded territory where we hold Title. We stand together against any and all threats to our peoples, our women, our two-spirits, our children, our lands, the wildlife, the salmon, the waterways."

Fifty prominent Indigenous women and organizations are supporting the Declaration including Idle No More, Indigenous Environmental Network, Families of Sisters in Spirit, No More Silence, Native Youth Sexual Health Network, Greenpeace, and Mi'kmaq Warrior Society.