Join Us On Friday, November 28, At 7 pm For a Film Screening of Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again
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Nechako is a story of survival 70 years in the making. The saga begins in the early 1950s in northwestern British Columbia, when the Kenney Dam was built to power an aluminum smelter. The for-profit project diverted 70 percent of the Nechako River into an artificial reservoir, flooding lands, displacing wildlife, destroying ecosystems and severely impacting the lives of local Stellat’en and Saik’uz Nations. The dam decimated salmon runs, which are vital to the Nations’ way of life and provide a food source that composes up to 90 percent of their diet.
What followed were decades of resistance, including legal actions against the Canadian federal and provincial governments and Alcan (later Rio Tinto Alcan, a subsidiary of the global mining conglomerate), beginning in the 1980s. Indigenous Elders had to prove not only that they held a right to the lands and waters they’d coexisted with for centuries, but that their people had existed there at all. Fast forward to the present day, as the Nations wage a potentially precedent-setting legal battle against Rio Tinto Alcan.
This crucial documentary follows the people fighting to restore a river and a way of life: Nations going up against industry, community leaders advocating for their people, Elders documenting their histories, and First Nations members living off the land, monitoring and protecting lands and waters, and sharing vital survival skills. It also weaves in the journey of director and Indigenous scholar Lyana Patrick (A Place to Belong, The Train Station), as she reconnects with her Stellat’en First Nation community and lands.
Nechako is a chronicle of hope and resistance against all odds, amidst large-scale environmental destruction and despite the will of powerful institutions. It is also a call to action as the world reckons with waves of climate crises. The film asks what survival looks like when it serves everyone, and urges viewers to consider those already fighting for our collective future.
