00:01:03.300Siam does Indigenous Youth Solidarity organizing across Turtle Island with a focus on raising
00:01:08.540awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.
00:01:14.000They have plans to continue their learning through academic study with an end goal of
00:01:18.660disseminating all forms of settler colonialism in exchange for the survival of Black, Brown,
00:01:23.780and Indigenous people around the world. Well, Siam, thank you so much for joining me in
00:01:31.440conversation today. And before we begin, I'd like to invite you to introduce yourself further.
00:01:39.120Awesome. Thank you so much for having me today. My name is Siam Hamilton. I'm Stalo and Neuchanoth,
00:01:46.060and I'm Indigenous youth from what's now known as Canada. And I work in environmental justice
00:01:52.660on the front lines of wild salmon protection, as well as trying to stop various forms of resource
00:01:59.560extraction on my homelands. The last time global attention was turned to Wet'suwet'en land
00:02:07.080offenders was back in January of 2020, when Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs served coastal
00:02:12.700gas link in eviction notice, once again reminding so-called Canada that they have absolutely no
00:02:18.600claim or authority to force the 670-kilometer pipeline that would transport fracked gas across
00:02:25.420unceded lands. In response, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided camps and made multiple
00:02:31.440violent arrests. A month ago, charges against 200 land defenders were dropped, and CGL was ordered
00:02:37.920to stop pipeline construction near wetlands. But I also hear that RCMP officers continue to conduct
00:02:44.880armed patrols on Gidimetan territory. To begin, can you share with us a current update on what
00:02:51.980is transpiring on Wet'suwet'en territory in regards to coastal gas link?
00:02:58.720So as you mentioned before, the RCMP are still conducting armed patrols around the Wet'suwet'en
00:03:05.660territories many camps that are trying to stop construction but amidst the pandemic it is really0.74
00:03:15.720important to remember that these transient workers should not be on Wet'suwet'en territory. It's very0.93
00:03:21.740dangerous and it puts a lot of these remote community members at higher risk of infection
00:03:26.620and as remote Indigenous communities they are already medically underserved and an outbreak
00:03:33.720could devastate a nation. It could wipe out entire cultural practices, entire language systems,
00:03:41.100entire governance systems, as well as some of the community members that are most at risk,
00:03:46.400like elders and children. Yeah. When COVID-19 first spread, we witnessed a temporary halting
00:03:55.120of transportation and consumption and production. And I think many of us may have conflated this
00:04:01.340with a meaningful pause or period of respite, but globally we are seeing the very opposite.
00:04:09.020Here in the so-called United States, the Trump administration has used this pandemic as an
00:04:14.080excuse to roll back serious regulatory measures relating to logging, development, pipeline safety,
00:04:20.080and even the disposal of radioactive waste. And in so-called Canada, corporate exceptionalism
00:04:26.440not only reigns supreme, but it appears that the pandemic is being used as an excuse to actually
00:04:32.440pursue development full force. In preparation for this interview, I came across a quote from
00:04:38.140Alberta's Minister of Energy, Sonia Savage, who said, quote, now is a great time to be building
00:04:44.440a pipeline because you can't have more than 15 people. Let's get it built, end quote.
00:04:50.600and so before we talk more about the covid related risks specific to pipeline development or
00:04:58.500what this means for land offenders and strategy i'm wondering if you can share with us the actions
00:05:04.280the canadian government has taken when it comes to development projects over the past couple of
00:05:08.680months i think the most prominent choices that they've made is to move transient workers from
00:05:16.280around the country and notably around the world quite quickly and without detection from people
00:05:23.200who would usually be relied on as watchdogs for resource extraction corporate movement.
00:05:28.800They've relied upon people's fear of and legitimate fear and concern for their own health as a way to
00:05:38.120move swiftly and continue construction that has been directly opposed by the nation.
00:05:45.400We've seen trucking companies being hired.
00:05:49.480We've seen non-essential service workers moving themselves through the territory.
00:05:55.360And 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.0.82
00:06:14.180But 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.
00:06:29.640but 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 to be in cities gathering and standing in direct opposition of these companies and creating solidarity rallies and marches and nonviolent direct actions in opposition of the work.
00:06:59.640Mm-hmm. I'd like to now focus on why development is so dangerous during a global pandemic.
00:07:07.480While LNG Canada has supposedly sent half of its workforce home, and BC Hydro claims to be scaling
00:07:14.440back to essential workers only, the nature of this work and how workers are housed in man camps
00:07:21.100creates conditions ripe for the spread of viruses amongst vulnerable communities,
00:07:25.480both demographically and geographically. So why are man camps hotbeds for the spread of COVID
00:07:32.440and how is RCMP aiding in its spread? Well, the state and the RCMP are protecting this private
00:07:40.560industry and they're aiding and abetting unwelcome guests on Wet'suwet'en land. And speaking
00:07:49.040specifically about man camps we know that they are hotbeds for violence against women and children
00:07:55.960but also that same violence that we see against women and children is also the same violence that0.94
00:08:02.880I think that they show towards each other and so living as transient workers in enclosed spaces
00:08:09.260for long periods of time and being unjustly treated by these companies that are paying them
00:08:14.920not enough money or there is really no right amount of money for the work that they're doing
00:08:20.620but their health and their safety is also at risk and I actually constantly think about that because
00:08:27.260I know that when we do frontline land defense how scary it can be but I also I do consider the
00:08:33.000the workers and the resource extraction participants their health and safety also
00:08:39.340comes to mind. I know that man camps, those tiny little portable units that are housed in
00:08:44.820remote areas in land that they're not welcome in, is not a safe place. They don't have proper0.98
00:08:51.760and adequate access to showering facilities, bathroom facilities, and then first and foremost,
00:09:00.340like health and safety equipment. Thank you for speaking so compassionately
00:09:08.160For the workers, I think that's a story that's left untold throughout these narratives regarding man camps and these resource extractive industries and thinking about these transient workers, like you're saying, who are brought from their communities and their homes and their culture to a place that's isolated where they're unwanted and they don't have access a lot of times to showers, bathrooms, all of these things.
00:09:36.860I don't think many people go that far to think psychologically what they have to go through in order to destroy land that isn't theirs, that they know people are fighting against them. I'm sure that, yeah, please.
00:09:52.520I 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.
00:10:07.900They promote it within their workforce.
00:10:12.900For that system to work, they need violence within their own ranks.
00:10:16.700And 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.
00:10:37.980I think that it has been offered as one of the only ways forward and under capitalism, under colonialism.
00:10:46.700Well, you've pointed out that indigenous sovereignty and survival is unequivocally
00:10:51.640dependent upon preventing any further resource extraction. And I'm thinking about this in
00:10:57.340context to land defense during COVID-19, where we're being presented with this choice between
00:11:03.180protecting the land or protecting community, but it's one and the same. And by the time listeners
00:11:09.960hear this episode, things may have changed, but I think we can use this moment as an example because
00:11:16.120corporate fascists will continue to exploit future pandemics or moments of crisis, so we must learn
00:11:23.420how to work through them. And I'm wondering, what does land defense look like amidst pandemic in
00:11:29.000terms of community safety, as well as the risks when it comes to the lack of public awareness or
00:11:34.340attention to development? I mean, we're no strangers to creative resistance as Indigenous
00:11:41.620people, as poor people, as impoverished people, as people who have been marginalized. Creativity
00:11:48.000is probably at the very forefront of the work that we do always, regardless of global pandemics.
00:11:55.340I'm always going to be thinking about my health. I'm always going to be thinking about creative
00:12:00.560ways to keep the cops away from me. I'm always going to be thinking about how to ensure my family
00:12:06.280is safe when they are in remote areas and when they're unreachable through cell phones and
00:12:12.580are out of GPS location. So I think right now, some of the forefront of what creative activism
00:12:20.920looks like is people protesting from vehicle brigades and socially distant marches that are
00:12:29.760happening, arm lengths away from each other. Those are all incredibly important for us to utilize,
00:12:36.620but I think on the groundwork and reminding ourselves that our people were dying before
00:12:42.280this pandemic started, and we will continue to die after the pandemic is over. And COVID,
00:12:48.320as much as it is a disease that we can tangibly hold and see and know that it is affecting us
00:12:54.740numbers-wise and the government is creating these statistical analysis, we know that we've been
00:13:01.800facing this same extinction for hundreds of years. This is no different to me than smallpox.
00:13:08.480This is no different to me than resource extraction, taking women and children from my0.67
00:13:15.020communities. This is no different from drug and alcohol abuse within my homelands because people
00:13:22.080are so sick and having such a hard time coping with the trauma of what has happened to our land.
00:13:29.060I think that creative resistance is when we just stand up and we just keep doing the work that we
00:13:35.080can do because we know that this is not going to stop. I hear you that this current pandemic
00:13:43.920is really just connected to so many other pandemics and genocides and apocalypses for
00:13:53.760indigenous folks. And I was looking at a book the other day, I was with my mom and I live
00:14:00.880in the Redwoods and there was this old logging book. And it was like, I don't remember the name
00:14:07.220of it, but it was definitely a type of white man's ego boost about old growth logging. It was
00:14:13.060sickening. It was like the glory days and showing just the extensive devastation of these lands of
00:14:23.420Northern California and Oregon and Washington during the big old growth logging boom. And as
00:14:28.960I was looking at this and I was looking at these white dudes looking so proud of themselves as they0.98
00:14:34.480just completely decimated these forests and gosh, the creeks and these temporary railroads and0.90
00:14:42.980all the infrastructure that was created for this this really short period of time and where my mind0.95
00:14:49.840went was what must the indigenous people like how how could they have even witnessed something like
00:14:59.180this to their land and still continued on i do find myself wondering a lot about uh how non-indigenous
00:15:07.420people also feel, because I know there are a lot of people that ally themselves with
00:15:12.220Indigenous sovereignty and environmental movements, whether that's Black, whether
00:15:30.400And I know what it looks like in my community.
00:15:33.320I 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.
00:15:53.940I know about the harm from when women and girls go missing I know about air pollution creating
00:16:02.360toxic environments that are hard to breathe in but I don't know what it looks like and it feels
00:16:08.540like when you don't have the same connection to the land because when I see resource extraction
00:16:14.860when I see pollution it feels like somebody's hurting my family relatives that are hundreds
00:16:22.060and hundreds of thousands of years in the making are being disrespected. But I wonder what it's
00:16:29.200like for the people who are newer to this land, whether they were stolen from their homelands
00:16:35.280and brought, whether they migrated here out of necessity for their lives and their family's
00:16:41.020lives, or whether they came here as settlers unknowingly participating in genocide or knowingly.
00:16:48.320I 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.
00:17:05.880And I think it really is important to approach this work from as unified a place as possible so that we can all work together.
00:17:12.840yeah i don't know exactly you know not that i think you're asking me that question but
00:17:21.660what i think of is the disconnection is so strong with so many settlers the connection to
00:17:32.420the earth and to land and to trust and consent has been beaten out of people for so long that
00:17:39.240maybe many settlers aren't consciously hurting when they see the land being destroyed. But I do
00:17:47.280think that there is a subconscious illness that works within the body. And I think that's why
00:17:53.720we're seeing so much disease and depression and just overall sickness in people, whether that's
00:18:02.620because it's a physical sickness that's coming from the pollution, but it's also a spiritual
00:18:06.880sickness and I don't think anybody can run from it I think that there are things that can
00:18:11.520distract us from that pain that that enormous pain of being separated from the earth
00:18:20.320from connection yeah I would imagine that it's a spectrum for settlers and yeah it's really
00:18:27.620interesting to hear that line of deep questioning that you're going through and I will be sitting
00:18:32.980in that question with you for probably the rest of my life. And I'm sure our listeners will be
00:18:40.340as well. So thank you so much for bringing that up. Do you think that that question gets answered
00:18:45.080a little bit though, when you and I talk or like when people who maybe don't share the same
00:18:51.720connection I have with the land still respond and then participate with us in environmental
00:18:57.260protection efforts, when they ally themselves on the front lines or when they bring frontline
00:19:02.920workers' meals or when they care for the community in so many different capacities.
00:19:09.400Do you think that that question of connection kind of becomes solved and that there is connection
00:19:14.020being built? Absolutely. I think it's like an internal homecoming back to maybe some people
00:19:22.060call it spirit or, you know, it's hard for me to put like the name on it or the word, but absolutely,
00:19:29.380I think there's so much healing when settlers decide to ally with indigenous folks, with the land, because there's just no way that people are not hurting.
00:19:46.180Like I said, whether subconsciously or consciously, I 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.
00:19:58.000And so I absolutely think that when we're talking about this question, people decide to show up. And that could be little by little. And of course, allyship and relationships and trust takes years.
00:20:14.060It's not something that's going to happen with one protest or one meal being created or one day of meals.
00:20:21.440But 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.
00:20:32.380Because I think when we are not in right relationship with the land, we'll never be free.
00:20:37.360We'll never actually have a spiritual liberation.
00:20:40.100we'll always be imprisoned by this pain knowing that we're causing harm like how can we ever
00:20:45.600really be healed when we know we're causing so much harm even if we don't want to admit it to
00:20:50.780ourselves we can look all around us and see it maybe people don't know the word for suburban
00:20:57.240sprawl or maybe they don't really understand what's happening with mining but where there is
00:21:02.840strip malls there once were wetlands or old growth forest or prairies filled with biodiversity and
00:21:10.500abundance and community. And community has been replaced by capitalism and consumerism. And even
00:21:18.260though maybe that for a moment distracts us enough to fill the void, it's never going to fill the
00:21:23.740void. And so there's always going to be this longing to feel something else. And consumerism,
00:21:30.300capitalism, success, quote unquote, it's never going to fill that. So I think that longing can
00:21:36.000only be met when right relationship to the land is being worked on. Oh, I love that. I think
00:21:44.480community building is our strength. I think that unity, even if you show up imperfectly,
00:21:51.020is important. It matters and it changes things because showing up even imperfectly
00:21:57.660is still showing up it means that you've activated something in your body something in your mind
00:22:03.280something in your spirit that has told you it's time it's time for me as an individual to take
00:22:09.600responsibility even if I might not be the person that is first and foremost affected by this
00:22:14.880environmental degradation it is my responsibility to uphold the voices and the strengths and the
00:22:22.060lives of the people who are first and foremost affected so that one day maybe my children's
00:22:27.720children also get to inherit a land that I've gotten to witness as beautiful and as perfect
00:23:52.060Well, I want to also bring up the Trans Mountain Expansion Project
00:24:11.820that's continuing in BC and Alberta amidst the pandemic.
00:24:16.480And after the Supreme Court of Canada declined an appeal brought forth by the Squamish and the Slatewatooth Nations and the Chilquayook 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.
00:24:40.800And 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?
00:25:05.440I think the best way for me to approach that is to talk about Kanahu's manual somebody that
00:25:15.420I look up to deeply and somebody that has paved the way for young people like myself
00:25:22.020to do the work that we do she is standing in direct opposition of the Trans Mountain Pipeline
00:25:28.360a land defense camp known as the tiny house warriors and she's using what she has she's
00:25:35.820putting her body on the line she has created a healing space for young indigenous youth that
00:25:41.200have been on the front lines to go home and to heal and to eat and to to practice traditional
00:25:48.680medicine to sing and to be in community together and so the absurdities aside I think that it's
00:25:57.080important to focus on the thriving actions and behaviors that are being taken on behalf of
00:26:03.680Indigenous women specifically who are on the front lines of land defense. I think that it's hurtful
00:26:10.880to hear that all of these international companies are contributing to the environmental devastation
00:26:18.780that's taking place on this pristine land when I don't think many of those people have ever visited
00:26:24.520that land and I don't think that they've ever met any of the people that they are affecting
00:26:28.480but I think it is important to always keep my focus and my love and my attention on the people
00:26:36.020that are protecting it most and Kanahus always comes to mind she's so strong and the work that
00:26:42.760she does it revives traditions that are thousands and thousands of years in the making she's an
00:26:48.540Indigenous tattoo artist. She is a birth worker. She works on justice for women who have been harmed
00:26:55.420by sexual-based violence and gender-based violence. Her work is so much more important
00:27:03.260than anything that that company could ever produce. And I want people to always remember that
00:27:08.900resource extraction does not belong on her land and the work that she does, it will stop that
00:27:15.120pipeline. Yes, thank you for reorienting that perspective even. I'd like to transition our
00:27:23.780conversation to discuss youth leadership and the grassroots collective, Indigenous Youth for
00:27:29.180Wet'suwet'en. And I'm thinking back to this past winter and a banner that was displayed during the
00:27:36.400youth-led solidarity occupations that took place in Victoria and Vancouver, which read,
00:27:40.940first they took the children from the land, now they take the land from the children.
00:27:45.700A powerful proclamation and telling of history.
00:27:48.940Can you begin by sharing your experience and the importance of Indigenous youth for Wet'suwet'en?
00:27:54.860It's really important, that quote that you just reminded me of.
00:27:58.920Because the land has constantly, constantly been under attack.
00:28:03.760People have constantly tried to possess it.
00:28:06.100And through land dispossession from Indigenous people, there's been tactics that have been used against us by the Canadian government and multinational corporations.
00:28:16.200And they know that as a matriarchal society, as most Indigenous communities residing on the West Coast are, that our women and our children are the backbones of our society.
00:28:28.420They make us who we are. They enact law. They create the societies that we live in.0.96
00:28:34.260they govern those societies with love and constant attention and that the theft of children is the
00:28:41.500breakdown of our communities. It's a really hard topic to talk about, honestly, because I
00:28:46.480personally have experienced what it means to be separated from my family as a result of land
00:28:52.040offense. And I think a lot about my mom's resilience because she spent a lot of time in
00:28:57.940courtrooms and a lot of time in jail cells for the work that she does. But that also means a
00:29:03.440breakdown from our familial relationships. And that sometimes means that students of hers would
00:29:09.140have to come and tell me that I wouldn't be seeing my mom for a couple of days because she was like
00:29:13.620back in jail or had been arrested. And I think that's a really important thing to remember is
00:29:19.620that that resilience comes at a price. And sometimes that means separation from children.
00:29:25.180And sometimes that means separation from what makes you whole. And I think a lot about that
00:29:30.740Because now as an adult, I witnessed my mom's strength and I want to embody that same strength.
00:29:38.160But I know that it comes at a price and I'm starting to pay that price as well.
00:29:42.560Sometimes that means unstable housing.
00:29:44.900Sometimes that means not ever getting the education that you dream about.
00:29:48.320I mean, I have like a grade 10 level education at best.
00:29:52.300I didn't go to school very much or very frequently due to a lot of my mom's work.
00:29:58.380we ended up just being like underhoused and constantly in survival mode and I think about
00:30:04.340the things that you exchange it's not always taken but it is exchanged like the lives that we live
00:30:09.880we exchange one for another and environmental protection work it's not always paid and it's
00:30:16.920not always pretty but it's something that makes you whole when you don't have your culture always
00:30:22.480intact it becomes a new culture and it becomes something that we get to hold on to that's
00:30:27.380different and just as meaningful as the old traditions that we've had for thousands of years.
00:30:34.400Speaking of this survival, you write, quote, not one of us wants to live in this constant state
00:30:41.640of survival where we have to blockade traffic, shut down railways, occupy offices, or sacrifice
00:30:48.740our physical safety so people hear our voices. I feel so sad. Our people aren't meant to live
00:30:55.680in this cycle of survival. Everything we need to thrive is here on earth. It's traumatizing to be
00:31:01.380trapped in a cycle of genocide designed to remove us from our homes at gunpoint in favor of corporate
00:31:07.240profit. But we've been here since the beginning. It's only 500 years that has changed our
00:31:13.780relationship to the land. I'm really exhausted by cycles of survival. I'm exhausted that this work
00:31:20.500weighs heavily on the backs of the youngest generation. But I also know that this work is
00:31:25.880crucial and that responsibility is an honor. We live in a crucial moment in history where so many
00:31:32.060people have sacrificed so much so we could be here as young indigenous people, end quote.
00:31:39.960And I'm thinking about how the role of youth is absolutely necessary in ushering a different world
00:31:46.720as youth are perhaps actually much more prepared to undergo periods of deep pain and transformation
00:31:53.820in the pursuit of creating a different world and this is certainly not to romanticize this process
00:32:00.000but a recognition that young people are not wasting time on negotiations or superficial
00:32:06.360acts of inclusion or recognition they are truly here for world making because they are living in
00:32:13.520a world where reforms and reconciliations have already failed. So how are youth leaders
00:32:20.580envisioning a different world? I think we're enacting it when we step out on the front lines
00:32:27.680and we choose to care for ourselves, each other, and the broader community. When we step into
00:32:35.720environmental justice work, that's been my conduit to finding love for myself and love for
00:32:43.220my people and love for my culture. I think that Indigenous youth are becoming the forefront of
00:32:49.260environmental protection out of necessity. We've grown up in adversity in an environment that we
00:32:55.700feel is constantly punishing us for being born and that we've willfully denied colonialism as it
00:33:03.180tries to change who we are, erase who we are, eliminate us from the land. And I think that
00:33:09.980the destiny of many young Indigenous people, it was prayed for by our elders. And I think that
00:33:16.800people that are no longer with us had made this decision before we were ever here. And so I think
00:33:23.020there's a more divine connection to the work that's happening now. Nothing I could ever say,
00:33:28.020no words in the English language could ever exemplify that connection. But I know I feel a
00:33:32.980responsibility to generations ahead of me that I've never met. And I know that even though I may
00:33:40.260not benefit from any of the work that I do right now, I hope and I pray that this work will show
00:33:45.780the next generation and the generation after that, that I love them and that I care deeply about them
00:33:51.300and that I don't want them to always have to be in survival mode. I don't want them to have to
00:33:57.180blockade traffic. I do not want them to have to face arrest. I do not want the police to be
00:34:03.360violent towards them. And I do not want the land that will teach them to love themselves
00:34:07.900to be degraded by resource extraction. I think that the connection that I have to generations
00:34:16.800to come is so much deeper and so much older than anything I could ever describe. But I know that
00:34:23.060it's a responsibility that I feel an honor and a connection to and a love. I just feel a love
00:34:30.580for the next generation because I want them to become whatever they want to be. And I want it
00:34:36.900to be a possibility outside of violence, the violence that I've experienced myself. I don't
00:34:42.300want that for them. I do not want militarized raids. I do not want any more missing and murdered
00:34:49.360Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. I don't want to constantly be in survival mode1.00
00:34:55.920in that next generation. And I think that knowing that there's a possibility for a brighter future
00:35:02.300for them is that young people right now are taking that responsibility. We're taking our
00:35:08.640destinies into our own hands when we do this work. It's time. It's time for us to stand up.
00:35:13.980It's time for us to fight back. It's time for us to say no to environmental degradation, to police violence, to xenophobia, to homophobia, to transphobia. We are so lucky to have such massive access to education, mostly through online platforms.
00:35:30.540And I think that is what's pushing us so far forward right now is that connection that we're constantly feeling and growing and constructing through online communities.
00:35:42.260As much as we also have our like home communities, sometimes I think it's really powerful for maybe children in the north to have access to Instagram so that they can find different people that maybe have a sexual orientation or a gender orientation that's closer to what they experience but cannot express themselves.
00:35:59.960And I think that this age of social media being a conduit for information sharing and media sharing and news sharing, I think that it's paving the way for a better way forward for us, a more educated way forward.
00:36:19.180And 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.
00:36:34.080yeah well i'd like to talk about how canada is such an obvious example that colonial governments
00:36:47.360do not and will not care about climate change we can't keep blindly believing that policy change
00:36:53.940or liberal settlerism is going to create a livable future in preparation for this interview for
00:37:00.060example, I learned that it is estimated that the upstream emissions from the additional oil
00:37:05.880produced by Trans Mountain, which was purchased by the Canadian federal government in 2018,
00:37:11.800will release up to 15 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. Similarly, British Columbia's
00:37:18.640government is looking at how they can buy emission reduction credits to offset industrial development
00:37:25.720from liquefied natural gas so that they can frack as much as they want and then sell it to other
00:37:31.560countries at a lower price in exchange for emissions reduction credits. It's just, again,
00:37:38.980like insanity. So in your own words, how do you see federal or provincial climate leadership
00:37:46.380as an absolute deception? I think that any form of illegitimate governments that are built on the
00:37:53.500backs of slave-owning, village pillaging, and women-killing communities will always be in0.77
00:38:01.840direct opposition of what we all need. I just think the Canadian government is absolutely
00:38:07.360illegitimate. They have no jurisdiction on our homelands. And so any of the legislative power
00:38:14.740that they hold also is illegitimate. And the laws that they create on this land are in direct
00:38:20.740opposition of the natural laws that we have been ruled by for thousands and thousands of years.
00:38:26.680And so I don't think anything good could ever come from system reform. I think that total
00:38:34.160abolition of these systems, including the Canadian government, is what is necessary,
00:38:39.980because it will always reproduce harm if the foundation is built on genocide.
00:38:45.720yeah and you know speaking of abolition here in the states there is a mass movement that
00:38:53.400is finally recognizing that the police were created to protect property not people and
00:39:00.780within that particularly the so-called property of slave owners similarly the mounted police were
00:39:07.120designed after a militarized colonial police force used by the british to control the irish
00:39:12.780You've pointed out many times that the RCMP protects profit. So can you speak to RCMP's role in protecting and maintaining CGL and infrastructure development across so-called Canada, and the reality that the police state is also completely antithetical to climate security?
00:39:32.200I think it's important to always reflect on the historical inception of police and remember yeah0.97
00:39:41.900that they were they were created to keep rowdy Indians on the reservation and off of our0.97
00:39:48.800homelands and the places that we've known for so long so that the colonial project that is now0.94
00:39:55.200known as Canada could be more accurately settled anything created to harm people at its roots
00:40:05.260could never be effective at protecting anybody so I think that it is in the favor of all people
00:40:12.660every single person who's living under this colonial government structure to participate
00:40:18.460in abolition of the police because they do not keep indigenous people safe I've never felt safe
00:40:24.220surrounded by police I've never felt like they've protected the land I've never felt like they've
00:40:29.480stood for my rights and I think that if they if there's anybody that they're not protecting
00:40:35.360then none of us are protected it is in the direct favor of all people living on this land to
00:40:42.140abolish those police systems because if they can turn on one group they can turn on all groups and
00:40:47.480it's really important to find new and imaginative futuristic ways for us to protect ourselves and
00:40:53.560grow and build capacity within our communities so that we can find a better way forward.
00:40:59.920Yeah, and I'm thinking about how the police protect profit. And I'm also feel that the media
00:41:07.460is, of course, another arm in profit protection, and that the media in Canada does not favor
00:41:13.980Indigenous people. So I'm wondering if you could speak to how the media has covered
00:41:18.640Wet'suwet'en solidarity? I mean, I think at the very beginning, when Wet'suwet'en people first
00:41:27.080reoccupied that healing place on their land to start a healing center, it was seen as an
00:41:35.200occupation. It's been seen as like a squatting grounds almost, when really it's just elders,
00:41:41.740women, children who are returning to their homelands and participating in centuries-old
00:41:48.420traditions and I think that the media's portrayal of environmental protection it fits into a really
00:41:56.800small box and it's not very expansive and it it isn't very kind to people who they don't understand
00:42:03.020and I think that is probably like the largest issue within media and communications around
00:42:09.400indigenous issues is that they just don't know who we are they don't try to get to understand who we
00:42:14.460are and there is no general love or curiosity for what we are because it doesn't serve corporate
00:42:22.360profit it doesn't generate wealth under capitalism it generates wealth within our like our homelands
00:42:27.880it generates wealth within our communities because a connection to the earth is the most powerful
00:42:32.380thing that you could have but in the capitalistic sense it doesn't it doesn't create anything and i
00:42:37.520i think media just doesn't understand that i think that there is no no care right now i think that
00:42:44.240the media has been super careless and very dangerous with the lives of Indigenous people
00:42:48.700who are living in conjunction with natural laws that are in existence. And I hope and I pray that
00:42:58.140one day there will be people, and I think that it's happening right now, yourself included in
00:43:03.700this, that our stories are told and they're told within our voices and they're told in honor of
00:43:10.380the work that we do so that more people can hear what's really happening. I want our lives to be
00:43:16.660thought about carefully. I want the work that we do to be thought about carefully because media
00:43:22.700right now is actually contributing to a lot of the harm that people are experiencing on the front
00:43:28.440lines especially. I think that careless reporting can lead to violence and I think that it does
00:43:34.660whether it's online violence and threats of abuse, or whether it's people showing up to
00:43:40.580front lines to agitate, interrogate, and cause physical harm to people who are just living on
00:43:49.820their homelands in spite of colonial occupation. I think that a lot of people don't realize that
00:43:56.440Indigenous people have jurisdiction over their land and over their bodies, and that when we
00:44:02.340reoccupy our homelands and create healing centers, child care, birth working centers,
00:44:08.500all of these different things. This is just us living our lives as best we can under colonial0.61
00:44:14.340siege. And it's really, really important now more than ever for the media to listen to our voices,
00:44:21.160to see what we are doing, to see that we are nonviolent and that we are always just in search
00:44:26.240of a better way forward and survival. We are always here just to survive. And it's about time
00:44:33.100that the media takes more notice of that. We're not evil protesters and we're not trying to
00:44:39.880sabotage this Canadian life that so many people are trying to lead. We are just trying to survive.
00:45:54.740circling feel the warmth feel my blood circling
00:46:06.340talking about the rcmp and indigenous sovereignty
00:46:15.040i want to take a moment to continue to remember chantelle moore who was murdered by the police
00:46:22.980in New Brunswick. Across North America, we continue to grapple with missing and murdered
00:46:29.260Indigenous women, children, and two-spirits who are murdered by the state or disappear without
00:46:35.080any follow-up. Last year, Canada released its report on MMIW, which offered 231 recommendations
00:46:43.780to the government, police, and public on these issues, but we're left wondering how many reports
00:46:51.080will be needed. And for listeners, how much more awareness will have to be generated before change
00:46:57.700happens? How many times will Indigenous voices have to articulate this grave concern?
00:47:03.800So I'd like to ask, has this report made any difference at all in the past year? And if not,
00:47:12.160what will it take and why is it impossible for any government to say they care about the well-being
00:47:17.900of Indigenous women and children when they simultaneously back the development of oil
00:47:22.580and gas pipelines? I think that's a really important point that you brought up, especially
00:47:27.860around the contradictory efforts of the Canadian government to, one, release these reports talking
00:47:36.340about the violence that Indigenous women and girls experience while simultaneously allowing for
00:47:42.560resource extraction to go full steam ahead. I think that's really important to constantly0.92
00:47:47.640recognize that this government and the figureheads that are elected leaders within the country
00:47:53.940are only doing those commissions and reports because people have demanded for so many years.
00:48:02.360And it is becoming, as a result of Indigenous women at the forefront of media who are constantly0.98
00:48:08.080talking about these stories it is becoming stories that they can no longer ignore but I do not think
00:48:13.800that commissions and reports do the jobs and the justice of people on the front lines and the people
00:48:19.520that go looking for these women and the people that demand justice for the murdered and I think
00:48:25.700that it's really important to constantly remind ourselves that these colonial governments and
00:48:30.460institutions were not just built on our lands without our permission but were built in direct
00:48:35.620opposition of our lives and nothing that they could produce would ever create justice for us
00:48:42.140in this life. I know we have spoken about a number of different topics throughout this conversation
00:48:52.020but I wonder what are you conjuring for our collective future amidst these times of great
00:49:01.740uncertainty and tumultuousness. And I know you had mentioned a bit earlier about what you as
00:49:09.020an Indigenous youth would like to see, but maybe we could even go into this practice a bit deeper.
00:49:16.300And whether you want to speak directly about what you could see for the land itself, or for
00:49:23.980community building, or any of the topics that we've covered, I just want to get into this
00:49:30.440future world building with you and really hear what you're calling in?
00:49:37.320I think at the foundation of what I see for a future for this land is based upon respect.
00:49:45.220It's based upon traditional principles that allow the water to remain clean and the land
00:49:50.700to remain undegradated and the air to be clear.
00:49:54.880I 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.
00:50:07.840I 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.
00:50:27.180I don't think that a future is created quickly.
00:50:29.260I 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.
00:50:51.940Now 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.
00:51:21.180I 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.
00:51:41.000And I don't get to determine what it looks like and I might not get to live it.
00:51:44.720But 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.
00:51:56.860I 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.
00:52:21.520and it's happening within my community it's happening within my household and I think it's
00:52:26.820really important to acknowledge that these futures do exist but they exist in small pockets and
00:52:32.780they're created by people who work really hard to constantly survive and sometimes the outside
00:52:38.480world punishes them for that survival but they are happening and they happen in communities that
00:52:44.600maybe people would disregard I think reservations are a really good one the foundation of a lot of
00:52:51.080the indigenous people who have been pushed on reserve living here in what's now known as Canada
00:52:56.860they do incredible work they create incredible movements of love and of community care but
00:53:07.580maybe don't have the academic language to name it but it's work that's happening because I know
00:53:14.600when my aunties create care packages and fundraisers and do that work in their homelands
00:53:21.040that that is creating a future that I get to exist in and I get to learn from
00:53:27.680oh Sam this has been such a deep and powerful conversation I already had so much respect for you
00:53:41.200before meeting you in this way and getting to know you a bit better through this time we've spent
00:53:49.780has just grown my yeah my respect my care for for you and your vision for the future and
00:53:57.660I'd like to take a moment and ask you how can the listeners tuning in support you support the
00:54:05.580Indigenous youth for Wet'suwet'en and how can people stand for the land? And yeah, I just,
00:54:12.660I want to be able to direct the listeners who I'm sure are feeling so moved by everything that
00:54:18.400you've said. I want to be able to offer folks the ability to engage and be involved and support you.
00:54:27.260One of the things that I keep coming back to is visibility and amplification of marginalized
00:54:33.900voices and so whether it's through social media whether it's in your home communities there are
00:54:41.380a lot of different ways that you can support people who are doing environmental work whether
00:54:46.540it's donation based whether it's amplifying social media posts whether it's just engaging
00:54:52.480with new information and learning about the people who are at the forefront of these movements
00:54:58.240there are a lot of different ways that we can all participate one of the things that i i
00:55:03.420constantly go back to is the visibility thing though because this work happens quietly sometimes
00:55:09.900it happens very slowly and a lot of the time it happens in the background of a world that's moving
00:55:16.040really fast and I think that it's really important for people to constantly try and seek out the
00:55:22.380information try and seek out what's happening try and look for us like find us because I'm not the
00:55:27.900only person doing this work I am definitely on the younger side of things and I think a lot of
00:55:33.220People kind of forget that when I'm in spaces with much older folks, but it is important
00:55:38.480to seek us out and amplify our voices.
00:55:42.080My biggest thing is I use social media.
00:55:44.760And one of the things that I always ask people is like, please, like if you ever see something
00:55:48.860happen to me, I know you mentioned at the start of this conversation that you had seen
00:55:52.840some posts about police surrounding a vehicle that I was inside of with a number of other
00:55:58.360young indigenous women who were patrolling a pipeline farm sorry a holding site and I think
00:56:06.520those moments when you're trapped in a car and surrounded by police it's important to have
00:56:10.540visibility it's important for people to remember who you were so that if anything bad ever happened
00:56:15.740that people would come looking for you or would demand your justice I think that visibility is
00:56:22.200our strength right now so that we don't get forgotten because there are a lot of people
00:56:26.660who have been forgotten there are a lot of people who have suffered the consequences
00:56:30.580of doing this work while never ever having their voices heard and I think that that's where my
00:56:37.360safety lies is when people care about who I am care about who my relatives are and show genuine
00:56:43.620love and concern when they see us being violated by the Canadian government violated by the RCMP
00:56:50.340violated by coastal gas link workers the harm stops when people are watching
00:56:56.220it's not as easy to perpetuate violence when there are eyes on you
00:57:01.080wow Sam thank you and I take that ask to heart and us at For the Wild will definitely be
00:57:15.360looking out for you in the ways that we can and i'm sure that the folks listening to this
00:57:22.740will feel the same way so you have you have our eyes and ears ayana thank you so much i cannot
00:57:31.760tell you how much i appreciate your time and your concern and your love for our community and the
00:57:38.880environment i know that you're in this for the long haul and i feel the love that you have for
00:57:43.720all of us and i'm so thankful thank you for listening to another episode of for the wild
00:57:53.220podcast the music you heard today was from elisa pay i'd like to thank our podcast production team
00:58:00.220francesca glassbell erica ekram and melanie younger