Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak
Christine Jack, a spiritual leader among the St’at’imc people, gives an
update from Ulluisc where she has been living on the land protecting the
territory from further industrial devastation.
facebook.com/reoccupationofjunctioncreek/
voicesbook.tumblr.com/
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/christine-jack-a-spiritual-leader-among-the/
Hello Dear Ones,
Sacheen is an incredible land defender, life
giver, traditional midwife and indigenous sovereigntist. Wulf’s been
honoured to have know her for many years and we are excited to share her
voice and work with you in our book.
Right now we are sharing this fundraiser for Sacheen and her partner Crow to take time to heal and train.
Please share this opportunity to support and hold up two powerful protectors of the land and contribute if you can.
<3 Wulfgang and Beyon
click here to support
Also check their webpage for more info: ancestralpride
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/hello-dear-ones-sacheen-is-an-incredible-land/
“I feel in awe as to the tremendous life
that I get to be among because we quite honestly forget that a tree has a
life, that a piece of grass, that a dandelion, that the kinnikinnick is just so
alive. Being a caretaker is creating a system for me to actually coexist with
them.”
-Christine Jack, Ulluisc 2016
Christine
Jack is a two-spirit St’at’imc life-giver and spiritual leader. In March of 2015 she was asked by her Elders
to protect a place called Ulluisc. Since that moment, Christine became caretaker
and made Ulluisc her permanent home. Ulluisc,
“a place for the people to gather”,
is high in the mountains nestled in the Yalakom Valley and is an ancestral
village site where the St’at’imc, Tsilcotin and Secwemc people came
together. The forests, creeks, and
mountains of Ulluisc are a place where medicine grows, where the pines stand
next to the cotton woods and shade the alders; where bears raise their cubs,
deer find their shelter and eagles build their nests. The last time there was clear cutting in
Ulluisc was 2015 the logging company responsible, intended to continue
cutting through 2016 and beyond. Christine Jack has halted their progress, and
as long as she remains it will never happen again.
For more information about Christine and Ulluisc go to the voice for the voiceless fb page and check out our Update.
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/i-feel-in-awe-as-to-the-tremendous-life-that-i/
“The deer is important to me because I’m
a hunter. It has become a really
powerful, powerful medicine for me.”
“The Elders
asked me then if I had time to put aside to do this stand here for the village,
the old village our ancestral village as well as for the animals out here because
the logging is tremendously huge in our valleys.”
-Christine Jack, Ulluisc 2016
Christine
Jack is a two-spirit St’at’imc life-giver and spiritual leader. In March of 2015 she was asked by her Elders
to protect a place called Ulluisc. Since that moment, Christine became caretaker
and made Ulluisc her permanent home. Ulluisc,
“a place for the people to gather”,
is high in the mountains nestled in the Yalakom Valley and is an ancestral
village site where the St’at’imc, Tsilcotin and Secwemc people came
together. The forests, creeks, and
mountains of Ulluisc are a place where medicine grows, where the pines stand
next to the cotton woods and shade the alders; where bears raise their cubs,
deer find their shelter and eagles build their nests. The last time there was clear cutting in
Ulluisc was 2015 the logging company responsible, intended to continue
cutting through 2016 and beyond. Christine Jack has halted their progress, and
as long as she remains it will never happen again.
For more information about Christine and Ulluisc go to the voice for the voiceless fb page and check out our Update.
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/the-deer-is-important-to-me-because-im-a-hunter/
“Our people have been pulled away from
their natural place. Pulled into a place so deep, generations deep now that
they don’t understand what it’s really going to take to return”
“I hope that people find that they are
worth healing.”
-Christine Jack, Ulluisc 2016
Christine
Jack is a two-spirit St’at’imc life-giver and spiritual leader. In March of 2015 she was asked by her Elders
to protect a place called Ulluisc. Since that moment, Christine became caretaker
and made Ulluisc her permanent home. Ulluisc,
“a place for the people to gather”,
is high in the mountains nestled in the Yalakom Valley and is an ancestral
village site where the St’at’imc, Tsilcotin and Secwemc people came
together. The forests, creeks, and
mountains of Ulluisc are a place where medicine grows, where the pines stand
next to the cotton woods and shade the alders; where bears raise their cubs,
deer find their shelter and eagles build their nests. The last time there was clear cutting in
Ulluisc was 2015 the logging company responsible, intended to continue
cutting through 2016 and beyond. Christine Jack has halted their progress, and
as long as she remains it will never happen again.
For more information about Christine and Ulluisc go to the voice for the voiceless fb page and check out our Update.
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/our-people-have-been-pulled-away-from-their/
“Oh the mountains, they are just like
the walls to my home.”
“I want my grandchildren to only know
the grandma that lives on the mountain.
That’s a beautiful thing”
“I want to be able to heal the people so
our generations get all the wonderful support and medicine from each other and
we’ll thrive again.”
-Christine Jack, Ulluisc 2016
Christine
Jack is a two-spirit St’at’imc life-giver and spiritual leader. In March of 2015 she was asked by her Elders
to protect a place called Ulluisc. Since that moment, Christine became caretaker
and made Ulluisc her permanent home. Ulluisc,
“a place for the people to gather”,
is high in the mountains nestled in the Yalakom Valley and is an ancestral
village site where the St’at’imc, Tsilcotin and Secwemc people came
together. The forests, creeks, and
mountains of Ulluisc are a place where medicine grows, where the pines stand
next to the cotton woods and shade the alders; where bears raise their cubs,
deer find their shelter and eagles build their nests. The last time there was clear cutting in
Ulluisc was 2015 the logging company responsible, intended to continue
cutting through 2016 and beyond. Christine Jack has halted their progress, and
as long as she remains it will never happen again.
For more information about Christine and Ulluisc go to the voice for the voiceless fb page and check out our Update.
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/oh-the-mountains-they-are-just-like-the-walls-to/
“The tree is like our brothers and
sisters they are the standing ones. You
know, they have witnessed far more than we have”
“They don’t interfere with one another
they find a way to exist among each other.”
“Both are just trying to reach the
sun. They are trying to have that
relationship with the elements around them”
-Christine Jack, Ulluisc 2016
Christine
Jack is a two-spirit St’at’imc life-giver and spiritual leader. In March of 2015 she was asked by her Elders
to protect a place called Ulluisc. Since that moment, Christine became caretaker
and made Ulluisc her permanent home. Ulluisc,
“a place for the people to gather”,
is high in the mountains nestled in the Yalakom Valley and is an ancestral
village site where the St’at’imc, Tsilcotin and Secwemc people came
together. The forests, creeks, and
mountains of Ulluisc are a place where medicine grows, where the pines stand
next to the cotton woods and shade the alders; where bears raise their cubs,
deer find their shelter and eagles build their nests. The last time there was clear cutting in
Ulluisc was 2015 the logging company responsible, intended to continue
cutting through 2016 and beyond. Christine Jack has halted their progress, and
as long as she remains it will never happen again.
For more information about Christine and Ulluisc go to the voice for the voiceless fb page and check out our Update.
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/the-tree-is-like-our-brothers-and-sisters-they/
The voice of Christine Jack, a Two Spirit St’at’imc spiritual leader who was asked by her Elders to protect Ulluisc from Aspen Planers, a company which has already been responsible for multiple clear cut blocks on the territory. Ulluisc, which is the ucwalmicw name for the territory means “a place for the people to gather” as it is an ancestral village site where the Secwepemc, Tsilhqot’in and St’at’imc people met and traded. Christine has taken this stand in order to protect the ancestral village site as well as allow the land to heal as it is home to a diversity of life.
This is the latest update from Christine, Caretaker of Ulluisc recorded during our last visit in May of 2016.
If you are interested in making a monetary donation cheques can be made out to Christine Jack and mailed to:
PO Box 1188 Lillooet bc V0K 1V0
In June, Christine is seeking supporters to assist with the building of an ishtkin (pit house). If you are interested in helping out supporters are welcome on the territory. See the Ulluisc Update we posted for more info.
look here for more information
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/the-voice-of-christine-jack-a-two-spirit/
Voices: Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak is many, many things involving many, many people.
Voices is the creation of a hand made, hand bound book and series of posters featuring interviews and illustrated portraits of Indigenous Women and Queer/Two-Spirit Land Defenders.
Voices is the process of traveling so called british columbia to front lines in support of Indigenous Land Defenders protecting their traditional and unceded territories. It is the strengthening of existing relationships and the growing of new ones. It is participating in resistance to the stranglehold of colonialism that threatens to destroy all of us.
Voices is an act of honouring the Indigenous Land Defenders who raise their children on the land, living their lives unwavering in the way of industrial expansion. Voices honours those who blaze the trails of what contemporary anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance can look like while teaching new/old ways of being in relationship to the land and each other.
Voices is Ulluisc, it is the Unist’ot’en Yintah, it is Meagan of the Lekwungen, it is Chipati Mountain and Ahausaht, it is Lax U’u’la.
Voices is possible through the willingness of Indigenous Women and Queer/Two-Spirit Land Defenders to share of themselves, it is possible through the love and support of our friends and chosen families who feed us, care for our hearts, offer their cars, accompany us to the front lines, provide materials and supplies, funds, grant editing, connections and advice. We are the multitude of the hands who hold us up.
Voices is an artistic collaboration and labour of love by beyon wren moor and Wulfgang Zapf.
In the fall of 2016 beyon and Wulfgang will travel to Halifax for a residency with Radstorm where they will hand make the book and posters.
The books and posters will be available for purchase in the Winter of 2016. A large run of Zines will be an accessible accompaniment to the hand made book. We will be touring Turtle Island to share our work after the Winter launch, we’d love to visit you.
All proceeds made from the books, posters and zines will go directly to the Land Defenders featured in this project.
** a note on the title. We made the decision to say only Women in the title and to not include the words two spirit and/or queer. One honest reason for this is it keeps the title shorter. We also mean to use Women in an expansive sense to include non-binary gender people as well. We have been engaged with the language we choose, and recognize that the english language is always lacking when describing and naming queerness and cultures outside of white settler culture. For us we felt we lost more by trying to get too specific with colonial words and boundaries then we gained. People’s own languages have important, powerful and beautiful words to describe gender and that many of these have been lost through the violence of colonialism. We wish we were able to use these words. We did not want to participate in further erasing those words by using colonial replacements as if the ‘queerness’ of Indigenous people can be properly addressed with a colonial word like queer or that the diversity of indigenous gender can be captured by an important yet often generalizing word like Two-Spirit. We recognize also that this decision acts to invisibilize queer/two-spirit indigenous people and that we end up using these words in order to say what we mean while lacking other words anyway. Deer ones, we are in process.
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/please-share-and-follow-voices-indigenous-women/