00:03:02.360specifically related to deforestation and the climate crisis.
00:03:10.080You will now hear a brief introduction and timeline about the situation unfolding at
00:03:15.380the Ferry Creek blockades from Maya Wickler, followed by her on-the-ground interview.
00:03:25.460Today, less than 3% of old-growth forests remain in unceded British Columbia,
00:03:32.060Yet these endangered forests are still being logged across the province
00:03:36.040at the staggering rate of more than 500 soccer fields per day.
00:03:41.020On Vancouver Island, they are destroyed three times faster than the Amazon rainforests.
00:03:45.780With so few old-growth trees left, there is a high risk of permanent biodiversity loss across much of B.C.
00:03:53.420Over the past 20 years, forests in B.C. were so heavily logged
00:03:58.340that carbon emissions caused by the industry are now twice as large as Alberta's oil sands.
00:04:05.180Last August, Pachydot elder Bill Jones and land defenders caught word that Teal Jones would begin
00:04:11.300road building and logging ancient forests in the pristine Ferry Creek watershed in a remote part
00:04:17.520of southwest Vancouver Island. Ferry Creek, located about a two-hour drive from Victoria,
00:04:23.640is one of the last unlogged valleys of coastal rainforest in all of British Columbia. According
00:04:30.420to the Ancient Forest Alliance, Fairy Creek is home to some of the world's largest yellow cedars,
00:04:35.800including several trees that may be more than 2,000 years old. Galvanized by the dire threats
00:04:41.620these endangered ecosystems face, activists began the Fairy Creek blockades under the grassroots
00:04:47.280its name Rainforest Flying Squad in August 2020. For nearly a year, land defenders have held off
00:04:54.200logging operations through several ongoing blockades on unseated Pachidat and Dididat
00:05:00.060territories. Despite the province having promised a paradigm shift and its approach to managing old
00:05:07.100growth, the government has failed to implement all 14 recommendations from the province's Old
00:05:12.820Growth Strategic Review Panel Report released last year, which included logging deferrals in
00:05:18.700ecosystems and landscapes with very little old-growth forest remaining. According to the
00:05:24.440Wilderness Committee, the province increased the area of old-growth cut blocks by more than 40%
00:05:30.180just in the last year. BC Timber Sales continues to auction off some of the last remaining
00:05:36.440Highest Productivity, High Biodiversity Sites of Old-Growth Forest for Logging.
00:05:42.480In April, the B.C. Supreme Court granted Teal Jones an injunction to ban interference with
00:05:47.740logging. On May 17th, RCMP began enforcement of the injunction, equipped with paramilitary gear,
00:05:56.020specialized nighttime operations, and undercover infiltration. RCMP have obstructed freedom of
00:06:02.320the press, and arrests have been censored, journalists corralled, and contained within
00:06:07.580designated media areas, if granted access at all. On May 26, a coalition of media outlets and press
00:06:15.120freedom groups filed an application in B.C. Supreme Court asking a judge to order RCMP to
00:06:20.900provide journalists with access to report on the injunction enforcement taking place at the Ferry
00:06:26.640Creek blockades. There will be many more movements and injunctions like the ones at Ferry Creek.
00:06:32.320As the climate crisis intensifies, natural resources continue to grow more limited and
00:06:38.280indigenous communities assert their rights. The unchecked media obstruction by RCMP
00:06:43.980unfolding at the Ferry Creek blockades could set a dangerous precedent for democracy and the larger
00:06:50.540ongoing movement for indigenous sovereignty and climate justice. Indigenous elders, youth,
00:06:57.120politicians, community leaders, activists, students, and folks from all walks of life are
00:07:02.700currently on the front lines holding down more than seven blockade camps throughout at-risk
00:07:06.980logging areas in Ferry Creek, Walbran Valley, Eden Grove, and Kayakus Valley. They are chaining
00:07:13.260themselves to fallen logs, occupying tree-sit platforms hundreds of feet above the ground,
00:07:18.620and cementing their arms into the ground. Over 200 activists have been violently arrested and
00:07:24.200dangerously removed from these hard-block tactics. The fight for old growth is much more than big tree
00:07:30.720activism. While land defenders maintain blockades to protect some of the last stands of ancient
00:07:36.600rainforest in BC, just two fluent language speakers from Dididot remain, whose territories include the
00:07:43.000Kayakus blockade, where ancient cedars of over 800 years are being felled in the Kayakus valley in a
00:07:49.600matter of minutes. BC ended all funding this year for indigenous language programs, which coincided
00:07:56.800with the discovery of children's graves at the Kamloops Residential School, where unspeakable
00:08:02.200horrors were committed by the colonial state and its actors to erase indigenous languages.
00:08:07.240The solidarity to protect endangered ancient forests are inseparable from the threats facing
00:08:12.560endangered indigenous languages, all of which are inextricably bound to the land.
00:08:17.580New Chalnath land defender Aya Klapas has explained that resource extraction and isolated
00:08:23.500logging roads contributes to violence against Indigenous peoples. Failing to recognize these
00:08:29.000intersections only hinders the long-term goal of Indigenous liberation. Canada's own national
00:08:35.440inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women found that there is substantial evidence that
00:08:40.480natural resource projects increase violence against Indigenous women, children, and Two-Spirit
00:08:45.320peoples. Many First Nations communities are faced with a desperate choice of extreme impoverishment
00:08:51.600or the destruction of their forests as a result of stolen lands and the impacts of colonialism.
00:08:58.260Pachita elder Bill Jones has explained that BC has an extensive history of using corporations
00:09:04.200as early as the Hudson's Bay Company and as recent as Teal Jones to legitimize land and
00:09:10.640resource theft and dehumanizing indigenous peoples. Pachidot is in the process of negotiating0.89
00:09:16.780a modern treaty with the BC government, and in recent years they moved heavily into the forestry
00:09:21.900sector. The revenue sharing agreement that Pachidot signed with the government in Teal Jones
00:09:27.580mandates that the nation quote not support or participate in any acts that frustrate, delay,
00:09:33.480stop, or otherwise physically impede or interfere with provincially authorized forest activities,
00:09:39.100and that the nation promptly and fully cooperate with and provide its support to British Columbia
00:09:46.440in seeking to resolve any action that might be taken by a member of the First Nation that is
00:09:52.040inconsistent with this agreement, end quote. The nation will be paid less than $300,000 in the
00:09:59.120first three years of Teal Jones logging invaluable, ancient, endangered, and irreplaceable forest
00:10:05.400ecosystems. On June 9th, BC NDP Premier John Horgan announced that he would comply with the
00:10:13.800Pachydot's request for logging to be deferred at Ferry Creek. The deferral, which only lasts two0.99
00:10:20.040years, merely prevents a section of an improved road network from going ahead. RCMP enforcement
00:10:27.400of Teal Jones Injunction and logging continues in at-risk areas. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs
00:10:35.360wrote in a co-letter signed with environmental organizations to the BC provincial government
00:10:40.660that with less than three percent of ancient forests remaining, BC needs to be held accountable
00:10:46.540to support a just transition for indigenous communities who are forced to depend on old
00:10:52.060growth logging. Lawyer for Rainforest Flying Squad Noah Ross also explains that the old
00:10:58.460growth logging industry on Vancouver Island is responsible for only about 60 to 80 jobs,
00:11:04.260most of which are mainly held by white men. This shows how beholden the settler society is0.87
00:11:11.420to maintain well-paying jobs for white men even when the consequences are destroying0.72
00:11:17.380the few remaining stands of old growth. This is why there must be a just transition.0.85
00:11:24.140I have been visiting the blockade since late February as a writer and an ally. Even amidst
00:11:30.060heavy snowfall, a small group of forest protectors gathered at river camp situated on a logging road
00:11:35.380that leads into the Ferry Creek watershed, where active road building was halted by the original
00:11:40.140summer blockade. Now, months later, that small group of around 10 forest protectors has grown
00:11:46.900into thousands. People are reconnecting with the land and enacting the principle of reciprocity
00:11:52.740that is so integral to our collective humanity. In June, I visited Katie George to interview her
00:11:58.760for this podcast episode. She is the niece of Pachita Elder Bill Jones. We met at Sasan Camp
00:12:05.220on unceded Dididot territories, located several hours from Lake Cowichan, on remote logging roads
00:12:12.040without access to cell service. Sasan means hummingbird in Uchalnath, and it's a camp that's
00:12:18.460set up for safe space for Indigenous youth and BIPOC following the violent insults from loggers
00:12:24.040targeting Indigenous youth a few months ago at the Walbran Watch Camp.
00:12:28.200We began our interview by the fire, but about 20 minutes into the conversation,
00:12:33.500her friend ran over to let us know that active logging of Old Roast could be seen across the
00:12:38.140valley in Kaikus, where one of the blockade camps had been dismantled by RCMP, and it's also where
00:12:44.560Katie had been violently arrested a few weeks earlier. We immediately jumped onto the back of
00:12:49.340the truck and raced down the dirt road, coming to a stop on a steep hillside that had been logged.
00:12:55.360We looked out from the midst of a clear cut across the valley. We could see the fresh scars
00:13:00.520marking where ancient trees of thousands of years had once stood just moments ago. Katie and I
00:13:06.360continued our conversation from the back of the pickup truck, overlooking the valley in the very
00:13:11.200midst of ongoing extractive colonial violence. We sat together as it began to rain, trying to make
00:13:17.460sure our conversation could be picked up on my phone. At one point, we both paused and a hummingbird
00:13:24.120hovered in between us and then flew away. It was Sasan. We both looked at each other in awe and
00:13:30.600continued our conversation. Okay. So how do you want to start? Do you want to start with introducing
00:13:40.060yourself yeah i will my name is my borrowed name is katie george jim and on my mother's side
00:13:55.380her name is quetztonat and she is of sukh and patchidat on her father's side and english
00:14:08.240and Akkadian descent on the other. And on our Sook side, my grandpa Bob George was the son of
00:14:21.480the late Eddie George of Sook and Discovery Island, which Discovery Island is in the Kwongan
00:14:28.980territory. And then on my grandpa's mother's side, his mom was Sarah Daisy Lazar of Pachydat
00:14:40.260and European descent. And for that side, Sarah Daisy Lazar was the eldest daughter of Granny
00:14:49.360Ida Lazar. And Granny Ida was the eldest daughter of Annie Jones and Andrew Lazar.
00:14:58.980Do you want to tell me a little bit about where we are and how you've arrived at Saasen and what this camp means to you?
00:15:08.800yeah so sauce and and neutronus means hummingbird and i don't even know what day it is but i believe
00:15:20.960it was almost four weeks ago now that loggers from the western forest product company that
00:15:34.080owns TFL 44 which is within the court ordered injunction by Teal Jones. These loggers came
00:15:46.500directly from work in TFL 44 to harass and ended up violently attacking young indigenous folks
00:16:00.660who were at the Walbran watch camp where it wasn't a hard blockade it was a watch camp
00:16:09.400and these loggers not only attacked and harassed the camp but they racially targeted the native
00:16:18.840people that were there and this incident is on on record it's recorded and it's videotaped
00:16:27.640and there was i believe over 10 loggers that approached this camp and this was the first and
00:16:38.560only as as far as i know actual physical interaction between people from logging
00:16:45.860companies specifically western forest products and people at the camps and it's not a surprise that
00:16:53.280they were racially targeted especially because of the amount of anti-indigenous hate that exists
00:17:01.920on all of our territories but especially when folks that feel threatened like their jobs or
00:17:10.180their future feels threatened by indigenous leadership and indigenous sovereignty
00:17:15.600and so after that day folks including myself came to that camp and you know came and chatted to the
00:17:27.140indigenous folks that were there and were able to to yeah feel what they were feeling and
00:17:34.600feel that that anger on behalf of the land itself too to see that those that are standing up
00:17:42.920to protect our ancestors and to protect the future of of our ancestors to be on these territories
00:17:50.240that they were targeted for standing up in solidarity with with the land and so after that
00:17:59.520day a group of us were able to come back again and scout where those loggers were falling trees
00:18:06.320within tfl 44 and just the previous morning they had fallen a portion of the forest just to get at
00:18:16.960single logs single ancestors both red cedar and douglas fir and in this tfl where sauce and camp
00:18:29.700is in the back there are four cup blocks and the cup blocks are directly on top of a creek
00:18:37.560and so not only are these industries breaking their own Canadian law and provincial law
00:18:46.060by logging on a creek and by disregarding any sort of environmental impact but they're also
00:18:55.920violating the laws of these lands in new chanath specifically dididat territory where these logging
00:19:03.560companies are are operating on and so following that we took a stand and were able to establish
00:19:13.520a camp here as a base camp for supporting the people that were at at that time kq's camp when
00:19:22.300in the Kayceus Valley, along the river, the Kayceus River, where they were protecting
00:19:32.940old growth logging with, we later found out, tree sits and other sort of actions that were
00:19:44.240meant to stop logging in a different TFL, a tree farm license. And this was TFL 46 by
00:19:51.700teal jones and teal jones is the company that was able to get the injunction um on back from the
00:20:00.740court and so these this camp is connected to other camps in that way and also at that point
00:20:09.760for myself who was spending time between patchy dad and dididat territory where the
00:20:15.420action camps are are operating out of to be a part of establishing this camp as sauce and
00:20:23.540as a place where indigenous leadership specifically for coastal like for kuwas0.59
00:20:31.800for the coastal people of new chonath and queer kuwas and young kuwas and the kuwas that
00:20:41.920need a place to be upheld and have skill sharing and to also share culture and and respect and
00:20:51.300that growth that's what SOSN has it started as and has really become today and ensuring that
00:21:00.760on front lines both indigenous resistance and every other type of front line
00:21:09.120is that we're upholding what it means to be in relation to the laws of the land whether you're
00:21:16.640from here or not and that means you know in English how we say consent but in our laws
00:21:24.600when we talk about respect or talk about relationships with each other we have to
00:21:30.940be learning from the land and so at this camp we are centering that we're centering the consent of
00:21:42.520the peoples that are here as indigenous relations both coastal and new chanath people but as well
00:21:52.280as other relatives from other indigenous nations. And so here at camp, it's so much about making
00:22:03.440meals together, learning how to, you know, use chainsaws, learning how to cedar bark harvest
00:22:10.800and salvage from the cap blocks and be able to return that to the people who0.97
00:22:18.920belong to this territory, the Dididat, and ensure that we are witnessing and reporting accurately
00:22:27.520what is happening into these territories and not to be acting out of term as people that
00:22:36.140are here on someone else's territory. And for myself, I am not Dididat by blood. I have Dididat
00:22:46.620family that have been adopted into my Sook side to the George family in Sook and I recognize
00:22:53.400the Edgar and Tate families in Dididat as just as close as other any other family that I have
00:23:01.900and just getting the chance to introduce myself and to hear the songs of these territories and
00:23:10.620to hear the stories and familial connections that Dididat has to our Pachidat family,
00:23:17.580to our Sook family, to the Cowichan family,
00:23:20.140and then all the way up the coast of the New Chanath and down to the south of Macaw.
00:23:26.020Like this camp being close to where the Dididat reserves are,
00:23:31.780which up here on the island and where it's considered British Columbia and Canada,
00:23:37.600The Native people here are segregated still to this day to Indian reservations or Indian reserves, and that is not anything to do with Indigenous sovereignty or our Indigenous laws, Indigenous systems.
00:23:56.040The Indian band councils stem from the Indian Act, which was imposed on our Indigenous peoples when the colony of Vancouver Island and then at large, the province of British Columbia imposed on these lands and imposed on our peoples in order to dispossess land, in order to take away our children.
00:24:20.900and also to ensure that we were being starved,
00:24:26.420to ensure that if you left the reserve that you would be incarcerated.
00:24:32.500And so those are still the same systems that apply to the lands today.
00:24:38.040And so when I say this camp is close to the reserves,
00:24:42.020I mean that I want to recognize that the Dididat
00:24:47.340and all of our Indigenous peoples on these lands are still segregated
00:24:51.900and they're governed, and I mean that loosely, by the band councils
00:25:00.820who have no place to be making decisions on behalf of the ancestral territories of where we're from
00:25:09.420Because their power only exists within the realm of Canada as a state and as a body that has the jurisdiction which they gave themselves from the crown, from the British crown, to make decisions on behalf of the land.
00:25:30.180And so, again, this camp, to have it be Indigenous, to be Kuwas, and to have that leadership just by the notion of having relationships with each other.0.70
00:25:46.340And we have the ability to say who can come into this camp in the sense of upholding those laws, upholding that respect where they're directly accountable to the people that are here, but then we're also directly accountable to the people's territories in which we're on.
00:26:06.140And the reason why I'm here is to ensure that I can have relationships with KUAS that want to be a part of these actions, be a part of this larger movement, I guess you could say, in all of our territories here.
00:26:27.260Because there are very few places where Native people can be seen and held by each other where they're not centering men, not centering the patriarchy, not centering other ways of leading and having relationships which are outside of our laws.
00:26:49.960and we talk about land back we talk about indigenous sovereignty and we talk about
00:26:56.720reconciliation or reclaiming identity and all of those things are nice to talk about but what does
00:27:06.080it actually mean in practice every single day where you yourself and your peers or your family
00:46:30.860as the sun is powerful yeah the sun's coming out yeah they're flying around there's lots of birds
00:46:42.320around here every morning to listen and see them i remember that's what someone said to me
00:46:49.180about the difference between an old growth forest that's alive and a tree farm that's dead
00:46:55.100is that sunset and old growth forest is like an orchestra and the tree farm is silent
00:47:04.380that makes me think about our languages and how they are derived from the territories that we're
00:47:14.420on and the dialects and the relationships to our families and the land where our languages
00:47:21.100are they're the land that's the sounds of the territory the breath that you take and and have
00:47:30.420emphasis on each sound has been made from these lands before my name is of the land and that's
00:47:41.040why it's so integral to us as as kuas as huamuj to be able to have our birthright to know our
00:47:53.660languages to know our names and to have that identity where and why these colonial projects
00:48:01.760target our language why it was one of the first things that they stripped from our children and
00:48:07.900our families was made making it illegal to speak our native languages because the the colonial
00:48:16.020projects here by the time they got here they had practiced their their tactics of of genocidal
00:48:27.360action and targeting language targeting land and targeting women and for us those0.68
00:48:37.580things aren't separate and so for me like sook the language of sook
00:48:46.860the last speaker was my grandpa and unfortunately he wasn't able to pass any of that on
00:48:54.940because of those experiences with residential school and what was passed on by his parents
00:49:01.900some that like white supremacy and colonial mindset that's been passed on in all of our
00:49:09.240families and so for me there's yeah no one to learn that from and that's an entire people's
00:49:18.180entire territories language so for me as a young guas young wellmuch learning it from recordings
00:49:27.200reviving it and also not giving up that sukh is an independent people independent language it
00:49:35.340doesn't mean it's not related to languages like sanchothin or hokaminam or lukwangan
00:49:40.560as ko salish people it is related however also like sukh is where the territories the ecosystems
00:49:51.760transition from a gary oak meadow ecosystem to a temperate rainforest and so it also shares
00:49:59.520many sounds and many words with dididat and new chanith language so it is as myself as a coastal
00:50:07.000person like both through my like dna and my blood um from my family and both kosalish and new chanith
00:50:14.520the language in like my place is sook is also that and that long lineage and long relationship
00:50:20.660with all of the types of peoples and the lands where they come from um like is is reflective
00:50:28.400in our culture as well and so I guess I just need to even remind myself of how important
00:50:35.960that language is and in my life where my name is of that territory is of that language that
00:50:44.320isn't spoken every day and so how powerful that is to ensure that i speak that
00:50:51.580truth and i honor the the families and the nations that are in very strongly advocating
00:51:01.980and practicing their languages and that's extremely powerful example from titi dot
00:51:08.320and our family that is doing all of that work with the youth and so none of the like land back
00:51:15.360and and indigenous resurgence and sovereignty you know we can't be separate from our culture
00:51:22.140can't be separate from the land so it's how to bring all of that together all of the actions
00:51:26.720together and so there's so much to to come out of this and even saucon where young kawas can meet
00:51:37.140talk and as coastal people especially build those alliances across this big island and all of our
00:51:46.120territories here to ensure that we can be supporting each other we can be upholding each
00:51:52.080other through our laws and also through our experiences which I which I have mentioned
00:51:57.560before and how laughter and joy is brought out when we get to come together and get to know each
00:52:07.560other and just share as as coastal people and just how as me as a person has never felt more
00:52:17.980more at peace and more not I've never been this ready before to be exactly where I need to be
00:52:28.040and act in the way that I believe to be honoring those laws and perhaps I sound so serious when I
00:52:37.240talk about that but it I I take it that seriously but I also don't I try to take I don't try to
00:52:44.620take everything as seriously as that in the sense that I need to remember to laugh and to to express
00:52:51.940myself in ways that allow myself to be vulnerable and demonstrate that we can be all parts of
00:53:01.500ourselves while we do this work and there have been many generations before us that have fought
00:53:08.520for land and for the generation right now and to be able to transform a lot of the lessons
00:53:15.800like we have transformation stories as coastal people that is exactly who we are and I really
00:53:21.300believe in that myself as as me transforming and transforming with other people and transforming
00:53:27.360with the land as as we're in relation to it because there's not really a beginning or end
00:53:35.500it's just so many cycles of transforming and so this is just one iteration of that
00:53:43.140how does it feel to have been out here for so long now you know you've spent weeks upon weeks
00:53:53.460being in these forests that are threatened and meeting new community returning to old community
00:54:02.640what has that felt like for you and what does this movement mean to you beyond you know the
00:54:11.400less than three percent old growth that remains and all these statistics and ways of quantifying
00:54:17.740colonialism what does it mean for you and more of a relational level and and kind of the bigger
00:54:25.580picture of this movement that's beyond the big tree activism yeah as spending as much time as
00:54:34.940I have been able to in both Dididat and Pachydat territories it's allowed me to have and formulate
00:54:45.800my own relationship with these territories outside of work outside of school outside of
00:54:52.460institutions and as someone who has been a part of institutions for the majority of my life
00:55:01.160as a relative to be here as someone that can either represent family or represent
00:55:10.080a territory it is so empowering to be a sovereign indigenous person to be kuas to be
00:55:20.160to be a in this time and recognize it as it unfolds is so powerful and I've been working
00:55:32.560extremely hard on having that spiritual balance on having an emotional balance and
00:55:40.900while being able to carry forward with everything that my heart wants to do and my
00:55:49.080my climaxti my spirit is carrying me forward so in these actions to lead with that and not lead
00:56:01.860with a construct of action like activism is so important for me to recognize within myself
00:56:12.740but also to really foster and recognize that in other people and we we hear a lot about
00:56:22.300how people can join together and create action and change and these larger movements that have
00:56:30.880so many different facets from environmentalism to social justice to this or that that are
00:56:37.620categorized like you were saying um to be to be quantified or even through qualitative
00:56:46.700perspectives that are from an outside perspective versus a internal perspective in relation to the
00:56:56.840land and when you personalize that when you have that relationship through your
00:57:05.860sli through your sli maksti to the to the nisma to the tamoh to the land that's what that means
00:57:15.020like when when i say like if we're indigenous you're of the land of the land that you come from
00:57:20.780and so a movement or an action doesn't always capture the entire story the entire truth
00:57:35.040in the sense we have to be able to link it to our past our present and the future
00:57:41.340of what we're experiencing and and the knowledge itself because as as huomo as kuas
00:57:51.820our knowledge systems our legal systems our education systems every every all of the systemic
00:57:59.940parts of who we are in our societies and in relation to the land, those do not have an
00:58:07.800expiration date. Those do not get to fade into the past or be forgotten. And that's what I mean
00:58:19.500when we practice who we are every day is that we acknowledge all of that time in one place.
00:58:26.220And so when colonial systems have been introduced and imposed and violently erected in our sovereign territories, not only is that declaration of war on the land and on the people,
00:58:46.580But it has been sustained and funded and legitimized through state occupation by claiming that Indigenous people or the Indian problem or First Nations or Aboriginal people or whatever definition that is made by the government of Canada or the government of British Columbia, which are acting on behalf of the British crown.
00:59:12.300we do not need to be recognized by any of the colonial bodies to exist
00:59:19.320but the false the falsehoods and this fantasy that these governments and the state and the
00:59:29.420British crown vomit over everyone to distract people from the truth of sovereignty to distract
00:59:38.180people away from these truths of genocide and assimilation? Is respectability politics? Is
00:59:46.020this recognition politics? Even me talking in this way to define what these mechanisms are
00:59:54.100that are imposed on Native people is a part of the problem as well. Like, should I even need to
01:00:00.680explain it through this colonial tongue to talk about oppression versus just accepting it as a
01:00:07.620truth, accepting it as a fact. However, taking the time to do it and for me to demonstrate that
01:00:15.340a colonial system is the complete opposite, the antithesis of indigenous society and systems,
01:00:22.980which is why the land and our women and queer people and our children and these matriarchical
01:00:33.300systems are targeted so heavily by sexualized violence, by gender-based violence, by violence
01:00:39.980against the land and ripping our children away from our peoples. Why we need to talk about that
01:00:47.200is because we need to talk about the colonial reality, that falsehood, having real life
01:00:54.320consequences and intergenerational consequences on these lands and on these people. And then we
01:01:02.160also need to talk about the parallel reality of Indigenous sovereignty, Indigenous society,
01:01:08.800which has never ceased to exist. And why we don't need to be recognized by any state or provincial
01:01:17.980or foreign monarchy is because we have always existed and we will continue to exist
01:01:26.900in our sovereign way. And the fact that we are required through systems like the Indian Act
01:01:37.260and the band council system or treaty systems, treaty band nations, treaty nations,
01:01:43.340so that these governments can interact with Native people in a contained environment,
01:01:50.780which can be controlled, is a part of a colonial narrative. That's a colonial reality.0.87
01:01:56.900And so for this environmental movement, for standing up for old growth, for these actions, I like to call them, versus a movement, because a movement implies there's force and energy and people behind it in a sense where that is the movement where we need to go or be carried by.
01:02:26.900And what I really have to say to that is that it is so limiting and we can't look to a future that has limitations around transforming or having that change and transitioning away from colonial reality.
01:02:44.640We talk about just transitions for energy. We also need to talk about how we're going to transform and transition away from systems and the entire, whether it's a political one or an economic one or a social one, which are categorized in these colonial Western ideologies.
01:03:05.140we need to be asserting and uplifting indigenous sovereignty in the ways that it is going to be
01:03:15.120as it already has been the past present and future of this planet of this world
01:03:24.380and that is what needs to be upheld as a quote-unquote movement
01:03:29.720and we need to all get behind this idea that there's not going to be many solutions for a
01:03:43.380broken system we can't fix the police we can't fix capitalism we can't fix colonialism or imperialism
01:03:52.880the solution is to either abolish absolve ourselves by choosing something different
01:04:03.660by removing ourselves and rebuilding because the thing is we can't just have
01:04:10.760just total destruction and be left with the same biases with the same problems that we've always
01:04:18.780had in relation to Western ideology or colonialism. There has to be something else
01:04:26.980at the same time that we're building up. And so for me, in these moments of interpersonal
01:04:36.040relationships, or in this larger scale movement that people have been investing time into,
01:04:43.340is just to say that we need to be imagining and dreaming of a future that doesn't include0.70
01:04:54.540oppression and the raping and the colonizing of indigenous people, whether that's here
01:05:02.320on the island that I'm from or from an island across the Pacific or across anywhere there is
01:05:10.480sovereignty in relation to the land. We need to be able to acknowledge the land is sovereign.
01:05:19.020We are not the sovereigns. And the sooner we get behind that, the sooner we're able
01:05:28.160to acknowledge our limitations and how we impose that on the land versus continuing to try to be
01:05:38.780righteous to continue to try to have the moral position to rape the land, the sooner we'll be
01:05:47.860able to have a chance of surviving together and with that ability to say that we transformed in time.
01:06:56.840a lot of the last couple of weeks since the injunction and enforcement of the injunction
01:07:21.440has been colonial state actors doing whatever they can in their power to impede the ability to
01:07:31.700witness. Can you speak a little bit about why witnessing is important and what you have been
01:07:41.920witnessing since being out here and a part of this larger movement that goes beyond the
01:07:48.920fairy creek blockades yeah i i think leading up to uh the rcmp enforcement on these sovereign lands
01:08:00.460there wasn't the ability for many folks to see themselves in how the enforcement would go
01:08:10.520And as a indigenous person and as like a woman and a young, young person who has held different experiences, both myself and then in relation to other people around police and state sanctioned violence and witnessing what's been happening in other territories across the world and in so-called B.C., that there is there was no doubt in my mind.
01:08:38.400the type of violence and the type of force that the RCMP are always prepared to use against
01:08:44.120Indigenous people, let alone people standing in the way of industry and profit.
01:08:50.180And so to try to talk about that within the camps that were established before the enforcement
01:08:56.060was very difficult for people to believe that the police aren't your friend, to believe that
01:09:03.280you'd be treated differently because you're a settler or a white person, or that this is a
01:09:08.160a movement where the police could respect these direct actions and civil disobedience.
01:09:15.280And most of those people had an alarming wake-up call when the enforcement started to happen
01:09:22.200where there was an exclusion zone and there still is an exclusion zone illegally erected by the RCMP
01:09:29.420on these territories that that type of force was used against me and as like someone who was
01:09:39.380racially targeted but also someone who did not stop speaking while I was being arrested
01:09:48.720as a sovereign indigenous person how the RCMP has no jurisdiction on these lands to forcibly
01:09:55.760remove anyone, let alone sovereign indigenous people. And then the more and more violent
01:10:05.620that the police got on these territories, including the tree sitters that were in the
01:10:13.960territory behind us here, where they threatened tree sitters with rubber bullets and tear gas
01:10:24.160and where they rappelled down from a helicopter to drop into tree sits
01:10:28.920and also removed someone from a tree sit just by a piece of rope.
01:10:36.940And in addition to behind the exclusion zone, what happened at the exclusion zone,
01:10:44.000again, where young Native queers were targeted by the police
01:10:48.740and were some of the first people arrested at an action at the exclusion zone on KQ's main
01:10:55.480logging road and then a second time where a mass arrest happened where they arrested every single
01:11:03.820person on site except for a couple media people and this was the day where there was the largest
01:11:11.460amount of indigenous youth that showed up that was over 50 people and so there is no law that0.95
01:11:21.980the RCMP follow except for the one that has the most force and typically that has the most violence0.86
01:11:31.820and a sad reality is that you know if there wasn't a media person documenting my arrest
01:11:40.540on the first day would I I have no doubt that would have been more violent you know that day
01:11:48.500actually I was charged with then when they first were announcing that they were arresting us which
01:11:53.660they didn't tell us they only told us after they grabbed us was that we were being arrested for
01:11:59.440obstruction of justice and then later on after I were I I mean at that point I was practicing my
01:12:08.020right not to speak until my lawyer was present they were charging me allegedly with assault of
01:12:15.280a police officer those are charges that I could be charged with if they find a case however if
01:12:22.380you look at that footage it is very clear that I am the one being assaulted and even while I was
01:12:30.760being arrested they this police officer he had to be examined for any physical injuries and so the
01:12:39.440medic I guess was asking him if he had any if he had any injuries and he replied only my pride
01:12:47.580so you know you're asking about yeah my experience both behind the illegal exclusion zone
01:13:00.300and in front of it and it's it's no different and you know even with my friend that was driving
01:13:10.620other young natives out here he was arrested on the spot just in in the in the town in a parking
01:13:20.040lot for being a racialized native man so no matter as native people if we're standing in
01:13:30.340the front of the police in some sort of exclusion zone or if we're just walking in our hometown
01:13:38.260there's always that potential for violence and you know they're armed and they are employed
01:13:46.760to use lethal force and we are unarmed sovereign indigenous people
01:13:52.740and so with this larger movement in how we engage with the police it's been a steep learning curve
01:14:03.300with so many privileged white people who believe that getting arrested is fun or
01:14:13.740a family activity or something that you know you can check off your list
01:14:21.760and unfortunately they've had to see and witness and be a part of the violence against indigenous
01:14:34.820people out here and that is what it takes for their wake-up call is seeing violence against
01:14:40.500our bodies. And, you know, we can see this echo in so many different parts of the world
01:14:46.900where, you know, trauma porn is something I've heard it being called, where people only
01:14:54.620wake up when they get to see that violence. And that's sickening. Where, you know, as0.83
01:15:03.120someone, an oppressed person and another oppressed person through a system of oppression, we
01:15:10.400can acknowledge that violence without even needing to hear in graphic detail that it's real
01:15:16.500and so a takeaway from any of this really should be the ability for us to hear or know about stories
01:15:30.500without us needing to know graphic details to be legitimized and so for me as a witness out here
01:15:38.760That day that I was arrested, I was a legal observer. But at the same time, with these movements or with these actions, as Native people, we can't be separate from who we are when we're participating in action. So we can't just put on a face or be a token to be used for this greater movement and be sacrificed.
01:15:59.660We have to be exactly who we are in our entire form when we're doing this work, because it's not just some sort of civil disobedience. It is 100% practicing who we are as sovereign peoples and being accountable to the laws that are of the territories that we're on.
01:16:20.400And so as a witness, it's not only as a legal observer or someone that can vouch or participate in some sort of Canadian legal system.
01:16:32.360To me, it's so much more important to be accountable to the laws of the land and witness and report to the peoples whose land this is.
01:16:42.460And to ensure that those peoples, those ancestors, those families know what exactly has happened.
01:17:09.040And that's through our coastal systems as we have witnesses for all of the work.
01:17:14.620because our oral history is what has survived it's still a part of who we are
01:17:25.940and so the storytelling and the narratives it's just going to be as important as a piece of
01:17:33.560documentation you being on the land and upholding your responsibilities is also a form of truth
01:17:42.520telling because you found the deactivations of critical roads for community that was done by
01:17:51.140the logging companies can you speak a little bit about that and what that experience was of seeing
01:17:57.180the in the just the extent that they're willing to go to deactivate roads yeah that's a really
01:18:05.520good example of witnessing and reporting to the people's territories it's on because where we are
01:18:11.960out on the coast there's really only one way in and one way out and they're logging roads
01:18:17.780and as I was learning more from our Diddy Dot family is that the more and more like on the
01:18:25.760unpredictability of deactivating roads by logging companies for the sake of stopping actions just
01:18:33.160to prevent logging in the type of old growth industry that is raping these lands they're
01:18:40.660severely putting everyone else in these communities in these remote coastal communities at risk
01:18:46.720where there is flooding that often happens on a main road and if all the other roads the logging
01:18:54.820roads are deactivated where they make massive craters or trenches or lay massive logs across
01:19:02.880the road then that means that the peoples whose land that were on they're stranded and segregated
01:19:10.080again on a reserve. And so for the lack of disregard and the lack of force, the lack of
01:19:19.760foresight done by these industries, again, for sacrificing everything for profit, including for
01:19:28.400the peoples in which they say that they're, that are benefiting from these industries, they're not
01:19:34.640acknowledging the everyday impact that these logging industries and these road building
01:19:40.060companies have on the peoples that have the birthright to be on these lands. So in addition
01:19:46.840to it being an unsafe environment for everyone to be here and the destruction on the land,
01:19:52.460they're also just doing what they want when they want to ensure that their profit is in some way
01:20:00.980protected. Do you want to tell me how you reconnected with your uncle Bill Jones, who
01:20:09.880is an elder that has been a huge source of leadership for countless people in this movement
01:20:17.820to protect these forests? Yeah, so I've known my uncle for a couple years now in the ways that I
01:20:26.340know him in in relation to the land and you know but I've obviously connected with other aunties
01:20:34.440and uncles like his siblings before and have had nice long-standing relationships with them
01:20:40.480and so with my uncle Bill he's been doing work around our territories and specifically old
01:20:49.560growth for over a decade now in a similar way he's doing work with Ferry Creek and Ferry Creek to him
01:20:58.680is a spiritual place where he grew up and with his family including many of his grandpas
01:21:06.280and where he learned the laws of the territory and so connecting with him my mom has asked me
01:21:16.420to check in on him for as long as these actions have been taking place in our territory in Pachydat
01:21:22.260and so I have checked in and and sat and listened and also just shared a little bit about myself
01:21:30.500each time and you know starting last summer and even the year before that I was I was doing
01:21:37.280similar work and we you know got to talking at another meeting about old growth and
01:21:42.040um yeah I guess I'll start with our relationship instead of all of the politics but in March and
01:21:48.760April like I knew my uncle's health he was seeking quite a bit of support and help for that and
01:21:56.500I wanted to ensure that I checked in on him just as his niece and as someone that takes the work
01:22:05.860that he was doing to heart and how proud I am of my uncle coming into his own and his own power
01:22:13.720and his own spirit and his own relationship with the land at this part of his life like he's
01:22:21.20081 just a little over 80 and you know his journey from when he was a baby until now
01:22:32.060And so how many experiences he's had as being Kuwas, as well as being someone so close to colonialism for so long, as someone who was stripped of their language, stripped from their home.
01:22:47.420and this past year even for me spending a lot of time with uncles which I grew up so closely with0.55
01:22:55.440elders and and aunties and mums and cousins and sisters so not so much spending time with men or
01:23:04.840uncles and you know especially in this past year talking about and and learning more about
01:23:13.540the impacts of sexualized violence and gender-based violence in our communities
01:23:18.320in the sense of like I've always known and I was very much protected as a child from
01:23:25.040so many of those circumstances and situations where as an adult it's been impressed upon me
01:23:34.480about what type of action and type of person and type of responsibility that I can have
01:23:41.100for that change and to be that voice or to be that support. And so the reason I'm sharing that
01:23:49.240is because spending time with men and especially men in our communities, it hasn't necessarily
01:23:56.400been at the forefront of my learning, whether that's traditional teachings or with just
01:24:03.440experiences and so with my uncle as someone who wears their hearts so so openly and
01:24:13.820it's it was quite uncommon for me to spend that much time um with an with an uncle great uncle
01:24:25.260and so even that vulnerability for both of us as me as like a young coastal queer woman and him as
01:24:35.900an old coastal man so we were able to talk a lot about politics and our experiences and
01:24:47.200I entered into his life at that point in the spring as someone like a caregiver
01:24:53.640and you know groceries and laundry and just stuff around the house and cooking and
01:25:00.920you know and it reminded me that I need to do more of that for myself but also like some of that
01:25:09.120that reciprocity that comes from when you develop that type of relationship with your family
01:25:14.520in that way and how right it is to be able to spend a lot of uninterrupted time listening and
01:25:24.400developing relationships with elders that isn't just in a meeting or outside the home or
01:25:31.300for some sort of external purpose other than just wanting to get to know your family and I feel like
01:25:38.660because of all these colonial disruptions that that's something that also has been taken away
01:25:43.540from us and so for me to feel at ease to yeah spend that much time with my uncle and you know
01:25:54.820to hear about our family that's a big part of what I spent time talking about and listening
01:26:01.520like my uncle talk about was our our coastal side and the history of the Jones family
01:26:08.600on this coast in relation to Pachydat but also the true history of of the family there
01:26:17.180which has relations to Kla'us territory further up the coast and then before that
01:26:23.000they were folks in Klallam territory and even before that they were closer to La Push and
01:26:30.140Macaw and so for someone of his age and his experience to be able to talk about that truth
01:26:38.720so openly where he wasn't looking or searching or trying to assert power over a territory he was
01:26:46.260telling the truth as he learned it as a child all the way until his age now both from oral history
01:26:53.340and from his own research about our family and so how much of a gift that is for me and more
01:27:00.340knowledge that I'm equipped with about my own family lineage and the impacts we've had on the
01:27:06.860land or our people for better or for worse and so I just you know that early time that I was able
01:27:15.620you know we woke up in the morning and had coffee and just started sharing and talking and he's such
01:27:23.160a social person and you know especially with him taking on these roles later in his life like after
01:27:29.400you know his 60s and 70s being very vocal about what's happening in the territory the corruption
01:27:37.200within the band council system and even the journey and lesson that he's learned and his
01:27:43.800mistakes as a human being and how he's returning to himself returning to the land and to the people
01:27:52.440And he says that he's, this is his fight that he will die on. And so to be a young person, a young relative in his life that he can pass all of that on during this transitional point, this transformative point for him and for myself, it has been incredible.
01:28:13.700and so that love and that care you know he thinks of me as precious as a gift for him
01:28:22.580in the sense of like for our people like for him to depend on um as in that i am he recognizes my
01:28:34.300sovereignty as a person he recognizes my consciousness and he recognizes the power
01:28:41.160that was passed on to me by his grannies are grannies and how I remind him of the old people0.93
01:28:47.580and so that to me really warms every part of my climaxing my salute my spirit
01:28:56.880and you know some things have been challenging and challenged by other people interacting with
01:29:08.720our relationship as um as family within the movement where mamalini or winitam like think
01:29:18.780that they can interact or interfere with the relationship that we've established because of
01:29:25.240an organizing preference or decision making when it needs to be recognized that elders and young
01:29:31.500people whether they're acting as warriors or cultural speakers or caretakers we have different
01:29:38.660roles and the way that me as a sovereign person is going to carry myself is going to look different
01:29:46.780than how my uncle as a sovereign person is going to carry himself and so learning how to also ensure
01:29:54.760that I am addressing things in the moment even with my own family if something comes up
01:30:01.140especially around leadership or ways of talking about colonialism or addressing racism or
01:30:09.220homophobia. And so ensuring that my uncle and I had that communication and, you know,
01:30:17.920our relationship stands strong, even in the pressures of taking direct action or some sort
01:30:24.320of environmental movement. And that's definitely a lesson that I'm carrying forward too, is to
01:30:29.940ensure that I'm not afraid of keeping that open communication and approaching my family with the
01:30:37.140truth and maintaining that integrity throughout that process. And so that's even just sharing a
01:30:46.520small aspect of my relationship with my uncle and other family on the coast where it's, yeah,
01:30:54.560that reciprocity and to hear both of us being vulnerable about our experiences with colonialism
01:31:03.940and how we're striving to be our fullest self in relation to the land with you know him
01:31:14.840experiencing 60 more years of colonialism that I had I have and him to be able to see
01:31:23.640in me and in my peers and in our relatives, the future that we're going to be creating together
01:31:32.120based on knowing each other at this point in time. And so I feel so grateful and humbled to have known
01:31:42.360all of our ancestors through him in this short period of time. And it's been hard because
01:31:52.420the more and more that I'm on on the front line and on the territories
01:31:57.380unfortunately I haven't been able to spend as much time in the last few weeks especially since
01:32:04.480being arrested to be with my uncle and just to even have that time to you know have coffee in
01:32:13.080the morning together or just to you know hear his stories again so I can remember on my own
01:32:20.500and so as much as I recognize this important work it's also a reminder that unfortunately I'll be
01:32:31.160spending time away from my family because not everyone can be in the same place at the same
01:32:38.500time and to recognize that that is the reason that we're fighting for this is so that we can
01:32:45.580have our family on the land, that we can have these stories being told in the cultural work
01:32:51.100happening on the land. But when there's colonial destruction and enforcement and violence that
01:32:59.380happens here, it is not safe for our people to be here all the time. We can't take care of the
01:33:04.920people that we need to take care of while we do this work. And so for my uncle to be on the front
01:33:13.800line when he can and bust through those police lines and lead our people and show that inspiration
01:33:21.820to peoples everywhere that we are able to take up the space and assert our sovereignty