“"We never gave up our land. We never lost it in war. We never signed it away in treaty. It is still ours," said Dimdiigibuu in her Gitanmaax community.” This quote embodies the premise of the article “25 years after the Delgamuukw case, the fight for land is more contentious than ever” by Angela Sterritt. Throughout the history of Canada, Indigenous peoples have been removed from the lands that once sustained them and were forced to undesirable lands. The article furthers the argument by saying, “the Crown controls 89 per cent of land in Canada. The rest is primarily privately owned. Indian reserves account for 0.2 per cent of Canada's land mass, but under the Indian Act, First Nations peoples cannot own title to the land on their reserves. The Crown maintains legal authority on those lands.”

This fight for Indigenous lands being returned to their people is often referred to as the movement “Land Back.” Jesse Wente, Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts explains, “Land Back is really about the decision-making power. It’s about self-determination for our Peoples here that should include some access to the territories and resources in a more equitable fashion, and for us to have control over how that actually looks.”

The fight for land and the statement of remaining resilient despite all the hardships Indigenous people face is furthered in the poem “i am graffiti” by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Simpson’s poem focuses on the government stealing the land and attempts to erase the Indigenous culture and way of life. The Gitxsan and the Wet'suwet'en Indigneous communities represented in the article can be referred to the “graffiti” that Simpson emphasizes in her poem. Despite all measures the government took to steal resources and land from the Indigenous peoples, they remain enduring and adapt to the adversities. Such as graffiti, Indigenous peoples cannot simply be erased.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/delgamuukw-25-years-later-1.6646687