LARC in post-screening panel: Yintah

Nokwanda Sihlali from the Land and Accountability Research Centre (LARC) attended a screening of the film Yintah on the 22nd of June 2025. Yintah is a powerful documentary that follows the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and community members in British Columbia, Canada, as they defend their unceded territory against the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The film traces their legal battles, land defence actions, and the broader political struggles against settler-colonial resource extraction. During the screening, LARC emphasised the striking parallels between Yintah and ongoing land justice struggles in South Africa. In particular, the LARC highlighted the film’s portrayal of Indigenous governance systems, the assertion of customary land rights, and the defence of sacred land devoid of state recognition, drawing strong connections to the experiences of communities resisting mining and land dispossession in the former bantustans of South Africa. LARC notes that Yintah offers an important international lens through which to understand how customary land rights and environmental issues intersect in Indigenous struggles globally, reinforcing the importance of legal recognition and meaningful consultation processes