Cinecenta – University of Victoria
Student Union Bldg, 3800 Finnerty Rd B134, Victoria, British Columbia, V8P 5C2
The POLIS Project on Ecological Governance and the Centre for Global Studies at UVic present a free screening of
Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again (Lyana Patrick | 2025 | 90 min)
Nechako is a story of survival 70 years in the making, beginning in the early 1950s in northwestern BC when the Kenney Dam was built to power an aluminum smelter. This for-profit megaproject diverted 70% of the Nechako River into an artificial reservoir, flooding lands, displacing wildlife 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 compose up to 90% of their diet.
Fast forward to the present day, as the Nations wage a potentially precedent-setting legal battle against Rio Tinto Alcan, the global mining conglomerate responsible for the dam. Amidst large-scale environmental destruction and despite the will of powerful institutions, this crucial documentary is a chronicle of hope and resistance against all odds. With Nechako, Stellat’en filmmaker Lyana Patrick follows the people fighting to restore a river and a way of life.
With filmmaker Lyana Patrick in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.
When she’s not making films, Dr. Patrick is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU. She is a former member of the Board of Directors at Michael Smith Health Research BC and currently sits on the Indigenous health research review panel. Lyana’s research builds on robust research partnerships to better understand how Indigenous peoples counter widespread anti-Indigenous racism by asserting self-determination. Key to this work is the mobilization of land-based, Indigenous knowledge to transform relationships between Indigenous peoples and industry/health service agencies.
“Nechako is more than a story of the past—its compelling narrative allows the audience to listen, witness, and act.”
– Ashley Kim, Stir Magazine
“The story of the Kenney Dam is one of resistance and restoration, of the intimate connections between the health of the land and the health of the people. What the Nechako Nations are seeking is a role in the stewardship of our lands and waters, something denied to us for generations.”
– Lyana Patrick, filmmaker
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1092268270
Co-presented by CIFAL-Victoria (International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders), Watershed Watch Salmon Society and Environmental Law Centre, UVic