Frustrated with paltry support in Alberta, representatives of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation have travelled to the U.K. to describe the impact of tarsands operations in their region.

With financial support from U.K. rights organization People and Planet, Crystal Lameman-Cardinal and Chance McPherson spent the week of November 9 to 15 speaking to the British public and government.

Lameman-Cardinal says the negative environmental effects of industry activities around her home are obvious, but gaining media attention or non-aboriginal public support in Alberta is nearly impossible. She finds attitudes are different outside Canada.

“The response here (in the U.K.) is just amazing... They’re willing to talk for us and these are non-aboriginal people. That’s not something that we’re very used to.”

People and Planet media co-ordinator Liam Barrington-Bush says it’s difficult to attract media attention to issues First Nations are dealing with in regards to the oilsands, despite the energy they put into engaging the public.

“It’s a challenging thing that the story has to be us going over there, or them coming over here for the media to have an interest in it. But the issues are so big that that’s a price that we’re willing to pay in order to get these stories out there,” he says.

The trip is well-timed, as the British government chose to oppose EU attempts to ban tarsands oil imports. Barrington-Bush says the U.K.’s decision can be credited to intensive lobbying from Canada.

The 900-strong Beaver Lake Cree Nation is currently seeking a Supreme Court ruling that tarsands extraction infringes on their treaty land use rights, so the industry’s more than 17,000 related permits are therefore illegal.