Voices

Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak

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Three hundred and thirty million juvenile salmon come out of
that river, through the estuary and you know that’s a victory right there,
that’s a victory… I know one day our future generations will talk about what we
have all done together no matter how it turns out that will be a victory. 

–Goot-Ges

About three years ago I had a dream that I was in a long
house. I was sitting around thirteen grandmothers and they were all speaking to
me in all the west coast languages.  I
could hear a little bit of Sm’algyax, a little bit of
Nisg’a and Haida and then all up the line I could here there was one
grandmother from each different nation.
They were talking to me and I couldn’t understand everyone but I think
my spirit knew. They said, “you know we’re going to be losing our salmon and
we’re asking you to go find the salmon warriors and to bring the people back to
the land to protect the waters because if we lose our salmon we are not going
to be who we are supposed to be anymore.” 

-Goot-Ges

Goot-Ges is a Haida, Nisga’a and Tsimshian woman from the
village of skulls, Gingolx, in the Nisga’a Nation whose clan is Raven from the
house of T’tanihaulk.  She is a
land defender, freelance writer, radio producer and independent mother of
three.  In August of 2015 in
collaboration with four other Indigenous women Goot-Ges began an occupation at
Lax U’u’la, which continues to protect the island and surrounding waters from
destruction to this day.  Her work is
rooted in cultural practice: prayer, story telling and medicine as healing and
an integral aspect of resistance to ongoing colonization.  She has founded and supported countless
projects assisting her people in healing inter-generational trauma and ending
gender based violence.  

Check out
Goot-Ges’ most recent project Yakguudan, which means ‘to respect all life’ in Haida.

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/three-hundred-and-thirty-million-juvenile-salmon/

Vigil for Joey English

Hello
dear ones,

This
evening Beyon and I joined Goot-Ges and her three children at the march and
vigil for Joey English an Indigenous Woman and Mother of three murdered in
so-called Calgary. 

Many
powerful Indigenous women drummed, sang and sent prayers for her family and to
honour Joey’s life.  Dozens of children played in the sand and grasses at
our feet and Indigenous Men joined in solidarity and outrage. Settlers from the four corners participated in solidarity.

 Joey’s
Cousin, Brailon English, in a post publicized online had this to share:

“My
people are turned away from medical centers, ignored on the streets, told they
are worthless. When our women are murdered, the news represents them as high
risk or points out their addictions, but nobody sees why. The pain we have
grown up with and the abuse we have endured has become normal,” he
continued.

“I
want a future where I don’t have to worry about my family being killed.”

Indigenous
Women here on unceded Musqueum, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories are
organizing another march and vigil in solidarity with Joey’s family and for all
murdered and missing Indigenous Women.  It will be on July 26th, the date
set for the man accused of Joey’s death to appear in court.  You can check
out the facebook page for details about this vigil and
other ways you can support Joey’s family.

If
you would like to make a donation directly to the family you can do so at their
Go Fund Me.

Rest
in Power Joey.  Not one More Missing Sister.

The other day on the island I took my kids for a walk to go
and pick berries.  We didn’t find any
berries, but we found lots of medicine. 
We just stopped and prayed with each medicinal plant that we came
across.  Instead of harvesting that
medicine we just sat and prayed with it while it was alive and talked to the
spirit of that plant, that life form.  We
asked it to keep protecting the whole entire island. 

–Goot-Ges

Our wild foods are the last part of our culture
that a lot of us still have.  We’ve been
losing it over generations and through this we see ourselves losing our last
connections to the earth. No, you’re not taking that too.

 –Christie Brown

Goot-Ges is a Haida, Nisga’a and Tsimshian woman from the
village of skulls, Gingolx, in the Nisga’a Nation whose clan is Raven from the
house of T’tanihaulk.  She is a
land defender, freelance writer, radio producer and independent mother of
three.  In August of 2015 in
collaboration with four other Indigenous women Goot-Ges began an occupation at
Lax U’u’la, which continues to protect the island and surrounding waters from
destruction to this day.  Her work is
rooted in cultural practice: prayer, story telling and medicine as healing and
an integral aspect of resistance to ongoing colonization.  She has founded and supported countless
projects assisting her people in healing inter-generational trauma and ending
gender based violence.  

Check out
Goot-Ges’ most recent project Yakguudan, which means ‘to respect all life’ in Haida.

Christie Brown of Gitxan and Scottish descent has worked to
defend the lands, waters, salmon and lives of her people against the Northern
Gateway pipeline and Petronas’ Pacific North West LNG export facility.  Her creative forms of resistance merge the
contemporary tools at hand with the revitalization of traditional skills and
hereditary systems.  In August of 2015 in
collaboration with 4 other Indigenous women Christie organized and began an
occupation of Lax U’u’la on unceded Tsimshian territory.  Christie’s work defending Lax U’u’la, the
Flora Banks and it’s protective eelgrass and the Skeena River continues to this
day.  

Support Christie and her work
upholding Tsimshian Law to protect Lax U’u’la for future generations.

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/the-other-day-on-the-island-i-took-my-kids-for-a/

The government never changed its
agenda: take away their land, take away their food sources, especially the food
sources, if you take away the food you take away the people and then we would
become even more dependent upon them, fully assimilated and believe that we’re
Canadian.  This makes us more wiling to
participate in the destruction of our lands and waters for so called financial
benefits or economy or jobs. 

–Goot-Ges

I feel at times in my life I’ve been really
disconnected from the earth.  I’ve lived in the city, you know spent a lot
of time in places where there is just concrete around you and eating foods form
stores where I have no idea who harvested the foods and no idea how to be
responsible for feeding myself.  I have come to realise that here we have
everything we need in this region to live and thrive and the more wild plants I
learn that I can eat the more grateful I am and realise that we don’t need to
be looking elsewhere and manufacturing all kinds of harmful awful things that
are bad for you.  I’m grateful and I feel like when there are things that
you are grateful for you have to work damn hard to keep them and honour
them.

–Christie Brown

The way things are going today as indigenous people we’re
heavily criminalized for saying “I want the right to clean air,”
“I want the right clean water” and “I want the right for our
food sources to be protected for not only my generation, but my children’s generation
and the next generations to come." 

-Goot-Ges

Goot-Ges is a Haida, Nisga’a and Tsimshian woman from the
village of skulls, Gingolx, in the Nisga’a Nation whose clan is Raven from the
house of T’tanihaulk.  She is a
land defender, freelance writer, radio producer and independent mother of
three.  In August of 2015 in
collaboration with four other Indigenous women Goot-Ges began an occupation at
Lax U’u’la, which continues to protect the island and surrounding waters from
destruction to this day.  Her work is
rooted in cultural practice: prayer, story telling and medicine as healing and
an integral aspect of resistance to ongoing colonization.  She has founded and supported countless
projects assisting her people in healing inter-generational trauma and ending
gender based violence. 

Check out
Goot-Ges’ most recent project Yakguudan, which means ‘to respect all life’ in Haida.

Christie Brown of Gitxan and Scottish descent has worked to
defend the lands, waters, salmon and lives of her people against the Northern
Gateway pipeline and Petronas’ Pacific North West LNG export facility.  Her creative forms of resistance merge the
contemporary tools at hand with the revitalization of traditional skills and
hereditary systems.  In August of 2015 in
collaboration with 4 other Indigenous women Christie organized and began an
occupation of Lax U’u’la on unceded Tsimshian territory.  Christie’s work defending Lax U’u’la, the
Flora Banks and it’s protective eelgrass and the Skeena River continues to this
day. 

Support Christie and her work
upholding Tsimshian Law to protect Lax U’u’la for future generations.

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/the-government-never-changed-its-agenda-take-away/

image

We left Lekqungen Territory to cross the Salish Sea on the last day of May on our way to Lax U’u’la (Lelu Island) in Tsimshian territory.  On our first day out of so called vancouver we stopped in at Ulluisc to deliver donated food supplies, cash donations and photographs to Christine Jack, the caretaker and protector of the mountains there.  We were also able to sleep along the banks of Wedzin Kwah in the Gitemden Clan’s territory.  Wedzin Kwah is the life giving river that flows through Wet’suwet’en territory and has been fiercely protected by hereditary leadership of the Unist’ot’en clan.  Wedzin Kwah is a tributary to the Skeena river and we would eventually follow the Skeena along the highway of tears to the sea.

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Lax U’u’la, is located at the mouth of the Skeena river.  Adjacent to the island are the Flora Banks, an area made up of glacial silt from the last ice age where eelgrass flourishes.  The Flora Banks and the eel grass that grows there is a crucial habitat for young Salmon smolts who as adults will run the Skeena river.  The eelgrass provides shelter from the strong currents and tides while the smolts acclimatize to their new lives in saltwater and adult salmon re-adjust to begin their journey up the river.  This is a place where one generation of salmon passes another.  The straight next to Lax U’u’la teams with porpoises, humpback whales pass through the region and wolves hunt the deer who find bountiful food on the island.  We were told the ancestors and wild spirits of the animals protect Lax U’u’la.

image

It is on this small marshy island, covered in berries, ancient cedars
and eagle’s nests that Petronas and Pacific North West LNG (PNW LNG)
scheme to build an export facility for gas fracked in the North East of
so called bc.

image

There are 8 facilities planned for the Tsimshian’s territories around colonial Prince Rupert.

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In August of 2015 five Women of Haida, Gitxsan and Tsimshian descent, with the support of the Hereditary House Leader for the Gitwilgyoots tribe responsible for Lax U’u’la, began an occupation of the Island.  Since that moment they have been offering their prayers, utilizing the medicines of the island, raising their children and going out onto the water to courageously stop the work of surveyors hired by PNW LNG.  Many warriors and supporters have joined these women in their fight for the land, waters and air.

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We were honoured to have the opportunity to sit down with Christie Brown in her home and talk about her experiences protecting Lax U’u’la and beginning the occupation.  Once on the island we joined Goot Ges and her three children who harvest medicines there, offer prayers and join supporters in stopping industry on the water.  We were able to assist with cooking meals for supporters, constructing a cedar smokehouse, building a composting toilet and joining patrols to protect the island. 

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If you are interested in learning more about Lax U’u’la you can check out their facebook page or this short documentary.

If you would like to support the Land Defenders who are out there protecting the salmon, waters, land and air there are two specific needs:

The first is for financial donations to fuel the boats necessary for patrols, and you can donate to the go fund me, or e-transfer funds through: Lelu_island@hotmail.com.

The second is a need for people to be out there on the land.  Supporters are welcome and skills related to working collaboratively, navigating conflicts, care work, boating, cooking and construction are super helpful.

If you have questions about accessibility or anything at all, please do not hesitate to contact us!

xo beyon and wulfgang

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/we-left-lekqungen-territory-to-cross-the-salish/

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/

(Source: https://player.vimeo.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/

PLEASE SHARE AND FOLLOW

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/