Dene representatives and members from several First Nations held a rally against the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT)'s "Devil-ution" initiative, denouncing it as intended extinguishment.

The GNWT describes their "Devolution" initiative: "Devolution is a transfer of public lands and resources from Canada to the GNWT.  The authority of Aboriginal governments over their own settlement lands is, or will be, set out in land claims and self-government agreements."

Jonas Antoine explained the Dene opposition to "Devil-ution" at the rally: "We are Dene, and being Dene means standing on your own land. You go walk in the trees, you go hunt and fish, whatever you want. You don't want that removed from you. If you take that away from a Dene, you are no longer Dene. It's called extinguishment and this frowned on throughout the world and this is what's happening to us today..."

Opposition and resistance continue...

The video was produced by the Dehcho First Nation. The camera and editing was done by Patrick Scott. This brief text intro was written up by this Media Coop member, in order to give an extremely short snippet of context for those of us who have never previously heard of the NWT government's "Devil-ution" initiative or the resistance to it. - Sandra