00:00:00.000For the Wild podcast is brought to you in part by the Calliopeia Foundation and listeners like you.
00:00:05.720Calliopeia supports projects interweaving spirituality, culture, and ecology.
00:00:11.160We are grateful for their support and the support of grassroots contributions from listeners.
00:00:16.020To learn more about the Calliopeia Foundation, visit calliopeia.org.
00:00:20.840To make a donation to For the Wild, visit forthewild.world slash donate or support us through Patreon.
00:00:30.000Hello and welcome to For the Wild podcast. I'm Ayanna Young. Today we are speaking with
00:00:36.720Siam Hamilton. I just feel a love for the next generation because I want them to become whatever
00:00:44.060they want to be and I want it to be a possibility outside of violence. Siam is a Stalo and Nuchanult0.95
00:00:53.900land offender and traditional knowledge holder born in occupied Hupchesa territory,0.95
00:00:59.100Port Alberni, British Columbia, to Mother Quetzal Tattle and Father Ron Hamilton.
00:01:05.320Their experience stems from time on the land, feast culture, and living traditional law and
00:01:10.840protocol. They are a qualified hand-poked tattoo artist, as well as a song holder.
00:01:17.420CM has been raised in political organization, land title, and grassroots activism since childhood,
00:01:23.740and now specializes in publicity, media production of environmental and land sovereignty movements.
00:01:31.300Siam does Indigenous Youth Solidarity organizing across Turtle Island
00:01:35.000with a focus on raising awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.
00:01:42.000They have plans to continue their learning through academic study
00:01:45.080with an end goal of disseminating all forms of settler colonialism
00:01:48.960in exchange for the survival of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people around the world.
00:01:53.740well siam thank you so much for joining me in conversation today and before we begin
00:02:02.620i'd like to invite you to introduce yourself further awesome thank you so much for having
00:02:09.180me today my name is siam hamilton i'm stalo and new channels and i'm indigenous youth from what's
00:02:17.300now known as canada and i work in environmental justice on the front lines of wild salmon
00:02:23.260protection, as well as trying to stop various forms of resource extraction on my homelands.
00:02:30.960The last time global attention was turned to Wet'suwet'en land offenders was back in January
00:02:36.460of 2020, when Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs served Coastal Gas Link in eviction notice,0.54
00:02:42.620once again reminding so-called Canada that they have absolutely no claim or authority to force
00:02:48.240the 670-kilometer pipeline that would transport fracked gas across unceded lands. In response,
00:02:56.060the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided camps and made multiple violent arrests. A month ago,
00:03:01.720charges against 200 land defenders were dropped, and CGL was ordered to stop pipeline construction
00:03:07.400near wetlands. But I also hear that RCMP officers continue to conduct armed patrols on
00:03:14.140Gidimeton Territory. To begin, can you share with us a current update on what is transpiring
00:03:20.980on Wet'suwet'en Territory in regards to coastal gas link?
00:03:26.700So as you mentioned before, the RCMP are still conducting armed patrols around the Wet'suwet'en
00:03:33.660Territory's many camps that are trying to stop construction. But amidst the pandemic,
00:03:43.140It is really important to remember that these transient workers should not be on Wet'suwet'en territory.0.97
00:03:49.240It's very dangerous and it puts a lot of these remote community members at higher risk of infection.
00:03:55.560And as remote Indigenous communities, they are already medically underserved and an outbreak could devastate a nation.
00:04:03.780It could wipe out entire cultural practices, entire language systems, entire governance systems, as well as some of the community members that are most at risk, like elders and children.
00:04:15.800Mm-hmm. Yeah. When COVID-19 first spread, we witnessed a temporary halting of transportation
00:04:24.000and consumption and production. And I think many of us may have conflated this halt with
00:04:29.940a meaningful pause or period of respite. But globally, we are seeing the very opposite.
00:04:37.020Here in the so-called United States, the Trump administration has used this pandemic as an
00:04:42.080excuse to roll back serious regulatory measures relating to logging, development, pipeline safety,
00:04:48.080and even the disposal of radioactive waste. And in so-called Canada, corporate exceptionalism
00:04:54.420not only reigns supreme, but it appears that the pandemic is being used as an excuse to actually
00:05:00.440pursue development full force. In preparation for this interview, I came across a quote from
00:05:06.140Alberta's Minister of Energy, Sonia Savage, who said, quote, now is a great time to be building
00:05:12.440a pipeline because you can't have more than 15 people. Let's get it built, end quote.
00:05:19.740And so before we talk more about the COVID-related risks specific to pipeline development or
00:05:26.500what this means for land defenders and strategy, I'm wondering if you can share with us the actions
00:05:32.280the Canadian government has taken when it comes to development projects over the past couple of
00:05:36.680months? I think the most prominent choices that they've made is to move transient workers from
00:05:44.280around the country and notably around the world quite quickly and without detection from people
00:05:51.200who would usually be relied on as watchdogs for resource extraction corporate movement.
00:05:56.780They've relied upon people's fear of and legitimate fear and concern for their own health as a way to move swiftly and continue construction that has been directly opposed by the nation.
00:06:13.400We've seen trucking companies being hired.
00:06:17.460We've seen non-essential service workers moving themselves through the territory.
00:06:23.380And we have this uprising of Indigenous youth who don't want to be at the forefront of environmental protection during a pandemic because we do know that our health is at immediate risk when we also make the choice to move and keep our eyes on construction.0.85
00:06:42.180But that's been a really big portion of the last few months amidst the pandemic is that a lot of young people who maybe would be advised by their families and community members and friends to be staying inside and to be practicing social distancing, but are now having to find new and creative measures to keep a watchful eye on construction and on resource extraction industries that are taking advantage of our inability.
00:07:12.180to be in cities gathering and standing in direct opposition of these companies and
00:07:19.100creating solidarity rallies and marches and nonviolent direct actions in opposition of the
00:07:26.800work. I'd like to now focus on why development is so dangerous during a global pandemic.
00:07:35.640While LNG Canada has supposedly sent half of its workforce home and BC Hydro claims to be
00:07:42.100scaling back to essential workers only. The nature of this work and how workers are housed in man
00:07:48.700camps creates conditions ripe for the spread of viruses amongst vulnerable communities,
00:07:53.480both demographically and geographically. So why are man camps hotbeds for the spread of COVID
00:08:00.440and how is RCMP aiding in its spread? Well, the state and the RCMP are protecting this private
00:08:08.560industry and they're aiding and abetting unwelcome guests on Wet'suwet'en land and speaking
00:08:17.040specifically about man camps we know that they are hotbeds for violence against women and children
00:08:23.960but also that same violence that we see against women and children is also the same violence that0.94
00:08:30.880I think that they show towards each other and so living as transient workers in enclosed spaces
00:08:37.260for long periods of time and being unjustly treated by these companies that are paying them
00:08:42.940not enough money or there is really no right amount of money for the work that they're doing
00:08:48.620but their health and their safety is also at risk and I actually constantly think about that because
00:08:55.280I know that when we do frontline land defense how scary it can be but I also I do consider the
00:09:01.000the workers and the resource extraction participants their health and safety also
00:09:07.340comes to mind i know that man camp it's those tiny little portable units that are housed in
00:09:12.820remote areas in land that they are not welcome in it's not a safe place they don't have proper
00:09:19.760and adequate access to um showering facilities bathroom facilities and then first and foremost
00:09:32.760Thank you for speaking so compassionately for the workers.
00:09:37.580I think that's a story that's left untold throughout these narratives regarding man
00:09:44.280camps and these resource extractive industries and thinking about these transient workers,
00:09:51.300like you're saying, who are brought from their communities and their homes and their
00:09:55.840culture to a place that's isolated where they're unwanted and they don't have access a lot of times
00:10:02.140to showers, bathrooms, all of these things. I don't think many people go that far to think
00:10:07.720psychologically what they have to go through in order to destroy land that isn't theirs,
00:10:13.780that they know people are fighting against them. I'm sure that... Yeah, please.
00:10:20.520I think that it's really important to acknowledge that a company that promotes violence and is dependent on violence to operate, like a resource extraction company, as Coastal GasLink is, also promotes the violence.
00:10:35.900They promote it within their workforce.
00:10:40.880For that system to work, they need violence within their own ranks.
00:10:44.700And so I think it is my responsibility to share and think constantly about the workers, as well as like my community and my family and my friends and the people that look like me and think like me to also keep them in mind, because I don't think that people are always necessarily fully willing participants in resource extraction.
00:11:05.980I think that it has been offered as one of the only ways forward and under capitalism, under colonialism.
00:11:14.700Well, you've pointed out that indigenous sovereignty and survival is unequivocally
00:11:19.640dependent upon preventing any further resource extraction. And I'm thinking about this in
00:11:25.340context to land defense during COVID-19, where we're being presented with this choice between
00:11:31.180protecting the land or protecting community, but it's one and the same. And by the time listeners
00:11:37.960hear this episode, things may have changed, but I think we can use this moment as an example because
00:11:44.120corporate fascists will continue to exploit future pandemics or moments of crisis, so we must learn
00:11:51.420how to work through them. And I'm wondering, what does land defense look like amidst pandemic in
00:11:57.000terms of community safety, as well as the risks when it comes to the lack of public awareness or
00:12:02.340attention to development? I mean, we're no strangers to creative resistance as Indigenous
00:12:09.620people, as poor people, as impoverished people, as people who have been marginalized. Creativity
00:12:16.000is probably at the very forefront of the work that we do always, regardless of global pandemics.
00:12:23.340I'm always going to be thinking about my health. I'm always going to be thinking about creative
00:12:28.560ways to keep the cops away from me. I'm always going to be thinking about how to ensure my family
00:12:34.280is safe when they are in remote areas and when they're unreachable through cell phones and
00:12:40.580are out of GPS location. So I think right now, some of the forefront of what creative activism
00:12:48.920looks like is people protesting from vehicle brigades and socially distant marches that are
00:12:57.760happening, arm lengths away from each other. Those are all incredibly important for us to utilize,
00:13:05.040but I think on the groundwork and reminding ourselves that our people were dying before
00:13:10.280this pandemic started, and we will continue to die after the pandemic is over. And COVID,
00:13:16.320as much as it is a disease that we can tangibly hold and see and know that it is affecting us
00:13:22.740numbers-wise and the government is creating these statistical analysis, we know that we've been
00:13:29.800facing this same extinction for hundreds of years. This is no different to me than smallpox.
00:13:36.480This is no different to me than resource extraction, taking women and children from my0.67
00:13:43.020communities. This is no different from drug and alcohol abuse within my homelands because people
00:13:50.080are so sick and having such a hard time coping with the trauma of what has happened to our land
00:13:56.580I think that creative resistance is when we just stand up and we just keep doing the work that we
00:14:03.080can do because we know that this is not going to stop I hear you that this current pandemic
00:14:11.920is really just connected to so many other pandemics and genocides and apocalypses for
00:14:21.760indigenous folks. And I was looking at a book the other day, I was with my mom and I live
00:14:28.860in the Redwoods and there was this old logging book. And it was like, I don't remember the name
00:14:35.220of it, but it was definitely a type of white man's ego boost about old growth logging. It was
00:14:41.060sickening. It was like the glory days and showing just the extensive devastation of these lands of
00:14:51.420Northern California and Oregon and Washington during the big old growth logging boom. And as
00:14:56.960I was looking at this and I was looking at these white dudes looking so proud of themselves as they0.98
00:15:02.480just completely decimated these forests and gosh, the creeks and these temporary railroads and0.90
00:15:10.980all the infrastructure that was created for this this really short period of time and where my mind0.95
00:15:17.840went was what must the indigenous people like how how could they have even witnessed something like
00:15:27.180this to their land and still continued on i do find myself wondering a lot about uh how non-indigenous
00:15:35.440people also feel, because I know there are a lot of people that ally themselves with
00:15:40.220Indigenous sovereignty and environmental movements, whether that's Black, whether
00:15:58.400And I know what it looks like in my community.
00:16:01.320I know the boil water advisories. I know what poison land looks like. I know about orcas dying. I know about wild salmon disappearing. I know about rivers and streams being infected by poison that's created when people mine.
00:16:21.940I know about the harm from when women and girls go missing I know about air pollution creating
00:16:30.360toxic environments that are hard to breathe in but I don't know what it looks like and it feels
00:16:36.540like when you don't have the same connection to the land because when I see resource extraction
00:16:42.840when I see pollution it feels like somebody's hurting my family relatives that are hundreds
00:16:50.060and hundreds of thousands of years in the making are being disrespected. But I wonder what it's
00:16:57.200like for the people who are newer to this land, whether they were stolen from their homelands
00:17:03.280and brought, whether they migrated here out of necessity for their lives and their family's
00:17:09.020lives, or whether they came here as settlers unknowingly participating in genocide or knowingly.
00:17:16.320I always wonder what those people are going through. And I want to ask questions and I want to have a better understanding, range of understanding so that I can better ally myself with those people when they are ready to stand with me so that we can protect the land together because we are all here now.
00:17:33.880And I think it really is important to approach this work from as unified a place as possible so that we can all work together.
00:17:40.840yeah i don't know exactly you know not that i think you're asking me that question but
00:17:49.660what i think of is the disconnection is so strong with so many settlers the connection to
00:18:00.420the earth and to land and to trust and consent has been beaten out of people for so long that
00:18:07.240maybe many settlers aren't consciously hurting when they see the land being destroyed. But I do
00:18:15.280think that there is a subconscious illness that works within the body. And I think that's why
00:18:21.720we're seeing so much disease and depression and just overall sickness in people, whether that's
00:18:30.620because it's a physical sickness that's coming from the pollution, but it's also a spiritual
00:18:34.880sickness and I don't think anybody can run from it I think that there are things that can
00:18:39.520distract us from that pain that that enormous pain of being separated from the earth
00:18:48.320from connection yeah I would imagine that it's a spectrum for settlers and yeah it's really
00:18:55.620interesting to hear that line of deep questioning that you're going through and I will be sitting
00:19:00.980in that question with you for probably the rest of my life. And I'm sure our listeners will be
00:19:08.340as well. So thank you so much for bringing that up. Do you think that that question gets answered
00:19:13.080a little bit though, when you and I talk or like when people who maybe don't share the same
00:19:19.720connection I have with the land still respond and then participate with us in environmental
00:19:25.260protection efforts, when they ally themselves on the front lines or when they bring frontline
00:19:30.940workers meals or when they care for the community in so many different capacities? Do you think
00:19:37.720that that question of connection kind of becomes solved and that there is connection being built?
00:19:44.040Absolutely. I think it's like an internal homecoming back to maybe some people call it
00:19:50.400spirit or you know it's hard for me to put like the the name on it or the word but absolutely I
00:19:57.600think there's so much healing when settlers decide to ally with indigenous folks with the land
00:20:07.500because there's just no way that people are not hurting like I said whether subconsciously or
00:20:16.080I don't think it's actually possible to live in this world and to not be affected by the constant raping and pillaging of the land and the people.
00:20:26.920And so I absolutely think that when we're talking about this question and people decide to show up, and that could be little by little.
00:20:37.840And of course, allyship and relationships and trust takes years.
00:20:42.080It's not something that's going to happen with one protest or one meal being created or one day of meals.
00:20:49.440But I think that over time, that healing continues when we show up and we do what's right and we live in right relationship to the land.
00:21:00.300Because I think when we are not in right relationship with the land, we'll never be free.
00:21:05.280We'll never actually have a spiritual liberation.
00:21:08.100we'll always be imprisoned by this pain knowing that we're causing harm like how can we ever
00:21:13.600really be healed when we know we're causing so much harm even if we don't want to admit it to
00:21:18.780ourselves we can look all around us and see it maybe people don't know the word for suburban
00:21:25.240sprawl or maybe they don't really understand what's happening with mining but where there is
00:21:30.840strip malls there once were wetlands or old growth forest or prairies filled with biodiversity and
00:21:38.500abundance and community. And community has been replaced by capitalism and consumerism. And even
00:21:46.260though maybe that for a moment distracts us enough to fill the void, it's never going to fill the
00:21:51.740void. And so there's always going to be this longing to feel something else. And consumerism,
00:21:58.300capitalism, success, quote unquote, it's never going to fill that. So I think that longing can
00:22:04.000only be met when right relationship to the land is being worked on. Oh, I love that. I think
00:22:12.480community building is our strength. I think that unity, even if you show up imperfectly,
00:22:19.020is important. It matters and it changes things because showing up even imperfectly
00:22:25.680is still showing up it means that you've activated something in your body something in your mind
00:22:31.280something in your spirit that has told you it's time it's time for me as an individual to take
00:22:37.600responsibility even if I might not be the person that is first and foremost affected by this
00:22:42.880environmental degradation it is my responsibility to uphold the voices and the strengths and the
00:22:50.060lives of the people who are first and foremost affected so that one day maybe my children's
00:22:55.720children also get to inherit a land that I've gotten to witness as beautiful and as perfect
00:24:20.060Well, I want to also bring up the Trans Mountain Expansion Project
00:24:39.820that's continuing in BC and Alberta amidst the pandemic.
00:24:44.480And after the Supreme Court of Canada declined an appeal brought forth by the Squamish and the Slatewatooth Nations and the Chilquayuk tribe and the Coldwater Indian Band that challenged the re-approval of the pipeline's construction, and I've learned that under federal law, the pipeline is unable to transport to any oil without insurance because of the inherent risk it poses.
00:25:08.800And currently, global insurance companies are providing Trans Mountain over $500 million in coverage. Companies like Liberty Mutual, Zurich, Temple Insurance, and AIG. So can you speak to the absolute absurdity of not only Trans Mountain, but the half a billion insurance policy that is covering it in times of austerity?
00:25:33.440I think the best way for me to approach that is to talk about Kanahu's manual. It's somebody that
00:25:43.420I look up to deeply and somebody that has paved the way for young people like myself
00:25:50.020to do the work that we do. She is standing in direct opposition of the Trans Mountain Pipeline
00:25:56.360a land defense camp known as the tiny house warriors and she's using what she has she's
00:26:03.820putting her body on the line she has created a healing space for young indigenous youth that
00:26:09.200have been on the front lines to go home and to heal and to eat and to to practice traditional
00:26:16.680medicine to sing and to be in community together and so the absurdities aside I think that it's
00:26:25.080important to focus on the thriving actions and behaviors that are being taken on behalf of
00:26:31.680Indigenous women specifically who are on the front lines of land defense. I think that it's hurtful
00:26:38.900to hear that all of these international companies are contributing to the environmental devastation
00:26:46.780that's taking place on this pristine land when I don't think many of those people have ever visited
00:26:52.520that land and I don't think that they've ever met any of the people that they are affecting
00:26:56.480but I think it is important to always keep my focus and my love and my attention on the people
00:27:04.020that are protecting it most and Kanahus always comes to mind she's so strong and the work that
00:27:10.760she does it revives traditions that are thousands and thousands of years in the making she's an
00:27:16.540Indigenous tattoo artist. She is a birth worker. She works on justice for women who have been harmed
00:27:23.420by sexual-based violence and gender-based violence. Her work is so much more important
00:27:31.260than anything that that company could ever produce. And I want people to always remember that
00:27:36.900resource extraction does not belong on her land and the work that she does, it will stop that
00:27:43.120pipeline. Yes. Thank you for reorienting that perspective. Even I'd like to transition our1.00
00:27:51.780conversation to discuss youth leadership and the grassroots collective indigenous youth for
00:27:57.180Wet'suwet'en. And I'm thinking back to this past winter and a banner that was displayed during the
00:28:04.380youth led solidarity occupations that took place in Victoria and Vancouver, which read first,
00:28:09.420they took the children from the land, now they take the land from the children. A powerful
00:28:14.240proclamation and telling of history. Can you begin by sharing your experience and the importance of
00:28:20.180Indigenous youth for Wet'suwet'en? It's really important, that quote that you just reminded me
00:28:26.320of, because the land has constantly, constantly been under attack. People have constantly tried
00:28:33.240to possess it. And through land dispossession from Indigenous people, there's been tactics that
00:28:39.560have been used against us by the Canadian government and multinational corporations.
00:28:44.300And they know that as a matriarchal society, as most Indigenous communities residing on the West
00:28:50.380Coast are, that our women and our children are the backbones of our society. They make us who we are.
00:28:58.160they enact law, they create the societies that we live in, they govern those societies with love
00:29:04.680and constant attention, and that the theft of children is the breakdown of our communities.
00:29:11.140It's a really hard topic to talk about, honestly, because I personally have experienced what it
00:29:17.100means to be separated from my family as a result of land offense. And I think a lot about my mom's
00:29:22.880resilience because she spent a lot of time in courtrooms and a lot of time in jail cells for0.99
00:29:28.660the work that she does but that also means a breakdown from our familial relationships and
00:29:34.180that sometimes means that students of hers would have to come and tell me that I wouldn't be seeing
00:29:39.520my mom for a couple days because she was like back in jail or had been arrested and I think that's a
00:29:46.220really important thing to remember is that that resilience comes at a price and sometimes that
00:29:51.120means separation from children and sometimes that means separation from what makes you whole and I
00:29:57.780think a lot about that because now as an adult I witness my mom's strength and I want to embody
00:30:04.700that same strength but I know that it comes at a price and I'm starting to pay that price as well
00:30:10.220sometimes that means unstable housing sometimes that means not ever getting the education that
00:30:15.440you dream about. I mean, I have like a grade 10 level education at best. I don't, I didn't go to
00:30:21.440school very much or very frequently due to a lot of my mom's work. We ended up just being like
00:30:27.960underhoused and constantly in survival mode. And I think about the things that you exchange.
00:30:34.120It's not always taken, but it is exchanged. Like the lives that we live, we exchange one for another
00:30:40.160and environmental protection work it's not always paid and it's not always pretty but
00:30:46.120it's something that makes you whole when you don't have your culture always intact it becomes a new
00:30:52.300culture and it becomes something that we get to hold on to that's different and just as meaningful
00:30:56.860as the old traditions that we've had for thousands of years
00:30:59.840speaking of this survival you write quote not one of us wants to live in this constant state
00:31:09.640of survival where we have to blockade traffic, shut down railways, occupy offices, or sacrifice
00:31:16.740our physical safety so people hear our voices. I feel so sad. Our people aren't meant to live
00:31:23.680in this cycle of survival. Everything we need to thrive is here on earth. It's traumatizing to be
00:31:29.380trapped in a cycle of genocide designed to remove us from our homes at gunpoint in favor of corporate
00:31:35.240profit. But we've been here since the beginning. It's only 500 years that has changed our
00:31:41.780relationship to the land. I'm really exhausted by cycles of survival. I'm exhausted that this
00:31:48.220work weighs heavily on the backs of the youngest generation. But I also know that this work is
00:31:53.880crucial and that responsibility is an honor. We live in a crucial moment in history where so many
00:32:00.060people have sacrificed so much so we could be here as young indigenous people end quote
00:32:06.380and i'm thinking about how the role of youth is absolutely necessary in ushering a different world
00:32:14.700as youth are perhaps actually much more prepared to undergo periods of deep pain and transformation
00:32:21.820in the pursuit of creating a different world and this is certainly not to romanticize this process
00:32:28.000but a recognition that young people are not wasting time on negotiations or superficial
00:32:34.380acts of inclusion or recognition. They are truly here for world-making because they are living in
00:32:41.520a world where reforms and reconciliations have already failed. So how are youth leaders
00:32:48.580envisioning a different world? I think we're enacting it when we step out on the front lines
00:32:55.680And we choose to care for ourselves, each other, and the broader community when we step into environmental justice work. That's been my conduit to finding love for myself and love for my people and love for my culture.
00:33:13.240I think that Indigenous youth are becoming the forefront of environmental protection out of necessity.
00:33:20.120We've grown up in adversity in an environment that we feel is constantly punishing us for being born and that we've willfully denied colonialism as it tries to change who we are, erase who we are, eliminate us from the land.
00:33:36.460And I think that the destiny of many young Indigenous people, it was prayed for by our elders. And I think that people that are no longer with us had made this decision before we were ever here. And so I think there's a more divine connection to the work that's happening now.
00:33:54.640Nothing I could ever say, no words in the English language could ever exemplify that connection.
00:33:59.920But I know I feel a responsibility to generations ahead of me that I've never met.
00:34:06.200And I know that even though I may not benefit from any of the work that I do right now,
00:34:11.160I hope and I pray that this work will show the next generation and the generation after that,
00:34:16.700that I love them and that I care deeply about them and that I don't want them to always have to be in survival mode.
00:34:23.700I don't want them to have to blockade traffic. I do not want them to have to face arrest. I do not want the police to be violent towards them. And I do not want the land that will teach them to love themselves to be degraded by resource extraction.
00:34:39.380i think that the connection that i have to generations to come is so much deeper and so
00:34:47.340much older than anything i could ever describe but i know that it's a responsibility that i feel
00:34:52.720an honor and a connection to and a love i just feel a love for the next generation because i
00:35:01.340want them to become whatever they want to be and i want it to be a possibility outside of violence
00:35:07.360the violence that I've experienced myself. I don't want that for them. I do not want militarized
00:35:14.140raids. I do not want any more missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people.1.00
00:35:20.100I don't want to constantly be in survival mode in that next generation. And I think that1.00
00:35:26.040knowing that there's a possibility for a brighter future for them
00:35:30.820is that young people right now are taking that responsibility. We're taking our destinies into
00:35:37.280our own hands when we do this work, it's time. It's time for us to stand up. It's time for us
00:35:43.100to fight back. It's time for us to say no to environmental degradation, to police violence,
00:35:49.120to xenophobia, to homophobia, to transphobia. We are so lucky to have such massive access to
00:35:55.980education, mostly through online platforms. And I think that is what's pushing us so far forward
00:36:01.580right now is that connection that we're constantly feeling and growing and constructing through
00:36:08.880online communities as much as we also have our like home communities sometimes I think it's
00:36:14.520really powerful for maybe children in the north to have access to Instagram so that they can find
00:36:19.500different people that maybe have a sexual orientation or a gender orientation that's
00:36:24.780closer to what they experience, but cannot express themselves.
00:36:27.960And I think that this age of social media being a conduit for information sharing and
00:36:38.240media sharing and news sharing, I think that it's paving the way for a better way forward
00:36:47.180And I hope that whatever digital imprint I leave on this land, the next generation can keep that work going and they can keep sharing with each other. That's all I can really hope for.
00:37:02.080yeah well i'd like to talk about how canada is such an obvious example that colonial governments
00:37:15.360do not and will not care about climate change we can't keep blindly believing that policy change
00:37:21.940or liberal settlerism is going to create a livable future in preparation for this interview for
00:37:28.060example, I learned that it is estimated that the upstream emissions from the additional oil
00:37:33.880produced by Trans Mountain, which was purchased by the Canadian federal government in 2018,
00:37:39.800will release up to 15 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. Similarly, British Columbia's
00:37:46.640government is looking at how they can buy emission reduction credits to offset industrial development
00:37:53.720from liquefied natural gas so that they can frack as much as they want and then sell it to other
00:37:59.560countries at a lower price in exchange for emissions reduction credits. It's just, again,
00:38:06.980like insanity. So in your own words, how do you see federal or provincial climate leadership
00:38:14.380as an absolute deception? I think that any form of illegitimate governments that are built on the
00:38:21.500backs of slave-owning, village pillaging, and women-killing communities will always be in0.77
00:38:29.840direct opposition of what we all need. I just think the Canadian government is absolutely
00:38:35.360illegitimate. They have no jurisdiction on our homelands. And so any of the legislative power
00:38:42.740that they hold also is illegitimate. And the laws that they create on this land are in direct
00:38:48.740opposition of the natural laws that we have been ruled by for thousands and thousands of years.
00:38:54.680And so I don't think anything good could ever come from system reform. I think that total
00:39:02.160abolition of these systems, including the Canadian government, is what is necessary because it will
00:39:09.860always reproduce harm if the foundation is built on genocide. Yeah. And speaking of abolition,
00:39:18.740here in the States, there is a mass movement that is finally recognizing that the police were created
00:39:24.860to protect property, not people. And within that, particularly the so-called property of slave
00:39:32.140owners. Similarly, the mounted police were designed after a militarized colonial police force
00:39:38.160used by the British to control the Irish. You've pointed out many times that the RCMP protects
00:39:44.560profit. So can you speak to RCMP's role in protecting and maintaining CGL and infrastructure
00:39:52.100development across so-called Canada and the reality that the police state is also completely
00:39:57.900antithetical to climate security? I think it's important to always reflect on the historical
00:40:06.780inception of police and remember, yeah, that they were created to keep rowdy Indians on the0.99
00:40:14.060reservation and off of our homelands and the places that we've known for so long so that
00:40:21.280the colonial project that is now known as Canada could be more accurately settled anything
00:40:28.740created to harm people at its roots could never be effective at protecting anybody
00:40:35.620so I think that it is in the favor of all people every single person who's living under this
00:40:43.960colonial government structure to participate in abolition of the police because they do not keep
00:40:49.740Indigenous people safe. I've never felt safe surrounded by police. I've never felt like they've
00:40:55.080protected the land. I've never felt like they've stood for my rights. And I think that if there's
00:41:01.900anybody that they're not protecting, then none of us are protected. It is in the direct favor of all
00:41:08.320people living on this land to abolish those police systems because if they can turn on one group
00:41:13.960they can turn on all groups. And it's really important to find new and imaginative futuristic
00:41:19.180ways for us to protect ourselves and grow and build capacity within our communities
00:41:24.460so that we can find a better way forward. Yeah. And I'm thinking about how the police
00:41:31.340protect profit. And I also feel that the media is, of course, another arm in profit protection
00:41:38.900and that the media in Canada does not favor Indigenous people.
00:41:43.540So I'm wondering if you could speak to how the media has covered Wet'suwet'en solidarity.
00:41:49.480I mean, I think at the very beginning, when Wet'suwet'en people first reoccupied that
00:41:56.780healing place on their land to start a healing center, it was seen as an occupation.
00:42:03.740it's been seen as like a squatting grounds almost when really it's just elders women children who
00:42:11.280are returning to their homelands and participating in centuries old traditions and I think that
00:42:18.960the media's portrayal of environmental protection it fits into a really small box and it's not very
00:42:26.160expansive and it it isn't very kind to people who they don't understand and I think that is
00:42:32.540probably like the largest issue within media and communications around Indigenous issues is that
00:42:38.820they just don't know who we are. They don't try to get to understand who we are. And there is no
00:42:44.280general love or curiosity for what we are because it doesn't serve corporate profit. It doesn't
00:42:51.400generate wealth under capitalism. It generates wealth within our like our homelands. It generates
00:42:56.460wealth within our communities because a connection to the earth is the most powerful thing that you
00:43:00.940could have. But in the capitalistic sense, it doesn't create anything. And I think media just
00:43:07.020doesn't understand that. I think that there is no care right now. I think that the media has
00:43:12.860been super careless and very dangerous with the lives of Indigenous people who are living in
00:43:19.280conjunction with natural laws that are in existence. And I hope and I pray that one day1.00
00:43:26.720there will be people and I think that it's happening right now yourself included in this
00:43:32.000that our stories are told and they're told within our voices and they're told in honor of the work
00:43:38.700that we do so that more people can hear what's really happening I want our lives to be thought
00:43:45.100about carefully I want the work that we do to be thought about carefully because media right now
00:43:52.080is actually contributing to a lot of the harm that people are experiencing on the front lines,
00:43:56.880especially. I think that careless reporting can lead to violence. And I think that it does,
00:44:02.680whether it's online violence and threats of abuse, or whether it's people showing up to
00:44:08.580front lines to agitate, interrogate, and cause physical harm to people who are just living on
00:44:17.820their homelands in spite of colonial occupation. I think that a lot of people don't realize that
00:44:24.440Indigenous people have jurisdiction over their land and over their bodies, and that when we
00:44:30.340reoccupy our homelands and create healing centers, child care, birth working centers,
00:44:36.520all of these different things, this is just us living our lives as best we can under colonial
00:44:42.320siege and it's really really important now more than ever for the media to listen to our voices
00:44:48.720to see what we are doing to see that we are non-violent and that we are always just in search
00:44:54.240of a better way forward and survival we are always here just to survive and it's about time that the
00:45:01.440media takes more notice of that we're not evil protesters and we're not trying to sabotage this
00:45:09.480like Canadian life that so many people are trying to lead. We are just trying to survive.
00:46:06.320Take me down, take me down South, take me down
00:46:16.760Feel the warmth, feel my blood circling
00:46:24.300Feel the warmth, feel my blood circling
00:46:36.320Talking about the RCMP and Indigenous sovereignty, I want to take a moment to continue to remember
00:46:47.900Chantal Moore, who was murdered by the police in New Brunswick. Across North America,
00:46:54.220we continue to grapple with missing and murdered Indigenous women, children, and two-spirits who
00:47:00.780were murdered by the state or disappear without any follow-up. Last year, Canada released its
00:47:06.500report on MMIW, which offered 231 recommendations to the government, police, and public on these
00:47:14.760issues. But we're left wondering how many reports will be needed. And for listeners, how much more
00:47:22.740awareness will have to be generated before change happens? How many times will Indigenous voices
00:47:28.600have to articulate this grave concern. So I'd like to ask, has this report made any difference
00:47:36.620at all in the past year? And if not, what will it take and why is it impossible for any government
00:47:43.880to say they care about the well-being of Indigenous women and children when they
00:47:48.200simultaneously back the development of oil and gas pipelines? I think that's a really important
00:47:54.260point that you brought up, especially around the contradictory efforts of the Canadian government to
00:48:01.320one, release these reports talking about the violence that Indigenous women and girls experience
00:48:07.860while simultaneously allowing for resource extraction to go full steam ahead. I think0.98
00:48:13.360that's really important to constantly recognize that this government and the figureheads that
00:48:19.420our elected leaders within the country are only doing those commissions and reports because
00:48:26.780people have demanded for so many years. And it is becoming, as a result of Indigenous women1.00
00:48:33.260at the forefront of media who are constantly talking about these stories, it is becoming
00:48:38.420stories that they can no longer ignore. But I do not think that commissions and reports do the jobs
00:48:44.380and the justice of people on the front lines and the people that go looking for these women.
00:48:49.420and the people that demand justice for the murdered.
00:48:53.360And I think that it's really important to constantly remind ourselves
00:48:56.860that these colonial governments and institutions were not just built on our lands
00:49:00.980without our permission, but were built in direct opposition of our lives,
00:49:05.700and nothing that they could produce would ever create justice for us in this life.
00:49:10.900i know we have spoken about a number of different topics throughout this conversation but
00:49:21.360i wonder what are you conjuring for our collective future amidst these times of
00:49:29.260great uncertainty and tumultuousness and i know you had mentioned a bit earlier about
00:49:35.580what you as an indigenous youth would like to see but maybe we could even go into this practice a
00:49:42.660bit deeper and whether you want to speak directly about what you could see for the land itself
00:49:50.780or for community building or any of the topics that we've covered I just want to get into this
00:49:58.460future world building with you and really hear what you're calling in?
00:50:05.320I think at the foundation of what I see for a future for this land is based upon respect.
00:50:13.220It's based upon traditional principles that allow the water to remain clean and the land
00:50:18.700to remain undegradated and the air to be clear.
00:50:22.880I think that it's really important to constantly keep our ancestors values at the forefront of whatever work we do, no matter what decade we're living in a future where black lives matter is really important.
00:50:35.840I think a future where Indigenous issues are at the forefront of environmental conversations, justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people, gender-based violence being a topic of household conversation.
00:50:55.180I don't think that a future is created quickly.
00:50:57.260I think that everything moves very slowly. And as people become more educated, that's the future I dream of where education around these topics that will keep popping up are being talked about because the concerns that I have and I hold are so deep and they're so felt that I need other people to participate with me.
00:51:19.940Now in these conversations, contemporary conversations around people who are missing, people who are being snatched, people who are being taken, human rights that are being violated, environments that are being disregarded, I think it's really important that that future encompasses all of the contemporary issues that we have now and takes those issues into account and demands justice for all of the problems that we're facing today.
00:51:49.180I think that future feels really distant, but it gets closer and closer every day that people fight for police abolition, trans rights, queer justice, justice for all living people who have been oppressed and marginalized.
00:52:08.980And I don't get to determine what it looks like and I might not get to live it.
00:52:12.720But within my own community, I'm already creating it when we respect each other, when we show each other love, when we work for each other to create environments that are safe.
00:52:24.860I think that's like the future I live in my household, when people respect each other's pronouns, when they think thoughtfully about people who are neurodivergent, when people discuss gender and gender based violence, when people take care of each other and love each other and share food and share housing, share resources, that is the future that I am creating.
00:52:49.520and it's happening within my community it's happening within my household and I think it's
00:52:54.820really important to acknowledge that these futures do exist but they exist in small pockets and
00:53:00.780they're created by people who work really hard to constantly survive and sometimes the outside
00:53:06.480world punishes them for that survival but they are happening and they happen in communities that
00:53:12.600maybe people would disregard I think reservations are a really good one the foundation of a lot of
00:53:19.080the indigenous people who have been pushed on reserve living here in what's now known as Canada
00:53:24.860they do incredible work they create incredible movements of love and of community care but
00:53:35.580maybe don't have the academic language to name it but it's work that's happening because I know
00:53:42.600when my aunties create care packages and fundraisers and do that work in their homelands
00:53:49.020that is creating a future that I get to exist in
00:55:55.180because I'm not the only person doing this work.
00:55:57.980I am definitely on the younger side of things.
00:56:00.380And I think a lot of people kind of forget that
00:56:02.820when I'm in spaces with much older folks,
00:56:05.420but it is important to seek us out and amplify our voices.
00:56:10.080My biggest thing is I use social media.
00:56:12.640And one of the things that I always ask people is like, please, like if you ever see something happen to me, I know you mentioned at the start of this conversation that you had seen some posts about police surrounding a vehicle that I was inside of with a number of other young Indigenous women who were patrolling a pipeline farm, sorry, a holding site.
00:56:33.860And I think those moments when you're trapped in a car and surrounded by police, it's important to have visibility. It's important for people to remember who you were so that if anything bad ever happened, that people would come looking for you or would demand your justice.
00:56:46.920I think that visibility is our strength right now