Pipelines and resource extraction

Click photo to enlarge

Today’s blog post considers the context for Alootook Ipellie’s political cartoons from the 1970s on pipelines and resource extraction. Ipellie was truly a visionary with this artwork as it is hard to believe that these drawings are not contemporary. In this blog post we will explore how Ipellie’s work was relevant both to his time and to today’s current events.

Pipeline construction in Canada began in the 1860s, with inter-provincial pipelines starting in the mid-20th century, and expanding in the 1970s. The first environmental concerns around their construction started after oil spills along the Trans Mountain pipeline in Jasper National Park and Merritt, B.C. raised alarm within the communities affected by the spill, including Indigenous communities. The earliest protests to stop the expansion of oil pipelines arose as a result of the environmental implications of the spills and led to talks about the issue throughout Canada. Despite these environmental concerns, the federal government approved the extension of the Inter-provincial pipeline system from Sarnia, Ontario to Montreal. Immediately after the approval, Ontario farmers resisted its construction.

The construction of major inter-provincial pipelines was not only debated in B.C. and Ontario during the 1970s. In the North, the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline proposal was opposed by Indigenous communities of the region. They cited environmental damages that could compromise their water and hunting lands, therefore putting their survival in jeopardy. Other environmental conservation groups joined the Indigenous protests, arguing that the pipelines were constructed in lands where the Indigenous peoples relied on the wildlife, in addition to the implications the pipeline would have for the unresolved land claims that existed in the territories. These are concerns to which Alootook Ipellie’s cartoons Northern Gas Pipeline (1977) and Northern Oil Fields (1978) respond.

Ipellie’s cartoons also have connotations in today’s political climate as objections to the expansion of pipeline construction and hydroelectric dams have grown. Three of the most recent protests include the North Dakota Standing Rock, Manitoba hydroelectric dam protest in Winnipeg, and the Wet’suwet’en protests. All of these demonstrations grapple with issues closely related to the concerns that Ipellie’s raises in his art.

The construction of the now infamous Dakota Access Pipeline gained international attention thanks to protests conducted by the local Native American people of Standing Rock, who were supported by other Indigenous peoples and environmental groups. Concerns around the pipeline began when the U.S Army Corps of Engineers accepted the proposal for its construction on Native land. Youth from Standing Rock Sioux set up a water protectors’ camp on their land in 2016. Ipellie’s cartoon addresses a similar issue as we see Indigenous people guard the door to the northern oil fields. Standing Rock Sioux argued that the Dakota Access Pipeline violates Article II of the Fort Laramie Treaty, which guarantees them use and occupation of reservation lands surrounding the proposed location of the pipeline. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe leaders passed a resolution stating that "the Dakota Access Pipeline poses a serious risk to the very survival of our Tribe and ... would destroy valuable cultural resources.” Hundreds of arrests happened during these protests as well as violent clashes with the police.

Last fall, Manitoba Indigenous leader and activists protested the impact of hydroelectric development on Indigenous lands. Following a discussion at the University of Winnipeg about the expansion and the limitations of hydroelectric power, the group protested the fact that not enough is being done to protect Indigenous communities from the negative impacts of the expansion of this industry. Dams that Manitoba Hydro is proposing to construct are often on sacred and disputed lands, and they would disrupt the animals and water access for many of the northern communities that depend on hunting and fishing for survival.

The most recent and ongoing demonstration is the Wet’suwet’en protest. Although the Coastal Gas Link pipeline that would run through the traditional Wet’suwet’en territory was approved by the nation’s elected band council, it is opposed by the hereditary chiefs. As with other pipeline opposition, the hereditary chiefs and supporting environmental groups cite the great damage the pipeline would cause to the ecosystems and the land the clan depends on for their survival.

Click photo to enlarge.

It is not hard to place Ipellie’s criticism of governments and energy corporations over the construction of pipelines on Indigenous lands in this context. During the 1970s, Nunavummiut leaders united to advocate for Inuit political autonomy, asserting the right to a comprehensive land claim and the establishment of a separate Nunavut territory. All across the continent Indigenous peoples have asserted their independence and continued to fight for their right to their traditional lands. These actions have been another strategy to ensure protection of their territories from invasive and detrimental resource extraction projects such as pipelines and hydro dams. In today’s political climate, Ipellie continues to be seen as an innovative artist; his political cartoons defend Indigenous rights and criticize the governments and corporations that violate the sacred land for profit.

Post author: Magnolia Valles Duran

Sources: 

Sandra Dyck, Heather Igloliorte and Christine Lalonde, Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border, exhibition section panel, 2018. 

Office of the Wet'suwet'en. Accessed March 28, 2020.

“The Wet'suwet'en and B.C.'s Gas-Pipeline Battle: A Guide to the Story so Far,” The Globe and Mail, January 8, 2019. Accessed March 28, 2020.

Sean Kheraj, “The complicated history of building pipelines in Canada,” May 30, 2018. The Conversation. Accessed March 28, 2020.

Naaman Sturrup, “One Last Look at Alootook,” The Uniter, March 5, 2020. Accessed March 28, 2020.

Caroline Rosenthal, “Locations of North in Canadian Literature and Culture,” Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien. Accessed March 28, 2020.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, “Climate Change in the Arctic,” Inuktitut, Issue 102 (January 2007). Accessed March 28, 2020.

Images: Alootook Ipellie, Northern Oil Fields (1978), ink on paper, Collection of Richard F. Brush Gallery at St. Lawrence University. Photo: Karen Asher.

Alootook Ipellie, Northern Gas Pipeline (1977), ink on paper, Collection of Richard F. Brush Gallery at St. Lawrence University. Photo: Karen Asher.