Indigenous – Page 3

August 31, 2016

Even though [as land defenders through out so-called BC] we might not physically be there all the time
with each other we know we’re all in it together. We know that we’re fighting the same fight
and that we’re fighting for freedom.
We’re not fighting to save one area from one pipeline, we’re not
fighting to save one thing, like a lake or the ocean, we’re all fighting for
freedom from colonization. We’re
fighting to live as sovereign people, to be connected to our lands, to have
healthy families, to have healthy Nations. That’s what we’re fighting for. We know that healthy lands are essential to
our existence. It feels really good to
know that we’re not alone.

-Molly Wickham

Molly Wickham is a Wet’suwet’en land defender, mother and hunter from
the Gitemden clan’s Spookw house. She lives with her husband and two
children at Lhudis Bin, “The Lake Way Out There,” a place where her
ancestors and elders lived, hunted, gathered medicine and fished.
Lhudis Bin was the planned site for a tailings pond that would hold
chemicals from mining operations on Nanika Mountain, a project that has
never moved forward. Through her work with the Life School and
leadership with the Wet’suwet’en drum group Molly shares stories of
resistance with the next generation, passes on skills and creates the
songs that will tell the stories of these times.

Learn more about the Life School at the Cedars R.I.S.E Society.

Donations and offers of support can be made to ror.wickham@gmail.com

And cheques can be sent via snail mail to Box 3664 Smithers BC V0J 2N0

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/even-though-as-land-defenders-through-out/

August 18, 2016

Time does not make its way through our lives in a linear movement and so we begin our updates with the winding down of the work on the Youth Art Mural. The mural painting was part of the Unist’ot’en’s first Youth Art Camp and we took a rare quiet opportunity to visit Molly Wickham and her family at their home on Gitemden Territory.

The territories of the Gitemden Clan of the Wet’suwet’en located next to that of the Unist’ot’en’s unceded Yintah of Talbits Kwa. Past sprawling lakes, fields of wild medicines, tangles of berries and painful clear cuts we made our way to Lhudis Bin meaning “The Lake Way Out There,” where Molly and her partner Cody with their two kids, Liam and Lily have made their home at the request of their Elders.

Lhudis Bin, the lake way out there, is located at the center of the Casyex House Territory, the Grizzly Bear House. It is a place where the Elders and the Ancestors once lived, where the earth hides caches and the hills grow medicine, the lake is home to Chard and the lands nourish Bear, Moose, Dear and Coyote. The waters of this lake are fed by the Nanika river, where Molly and her family get their drinking water from, which flows from the glacier of nearby Nanika Mountain. Nanika Mountain holds within her mineral deposits at risk of industrial extraction. If Nanika mountain were to be mined it would turn Lhudis Bin into a tailings pond. (The term “pond” can be a little misleading, as the structures can grow to be the size of Central Park.) Lhudis Bin is connected to Wetzin Bin, which drains into Wetzin’kwa, where Freda and everyone at the Unist’ot’en camp get their drinking water, which is connected to the Bulkley and eventually to the Skeena and on to the sea.

Molly, Cody and their son Liam began living on their territory and in close relationship to the land as defenders and caretakers in 2012. This has ensured that a proposed ‘sling site’, where materials and workers for the proposed pipelines on Unist’ot’en territory would be brought in, has not been established. Returning to their territory has not only created the possibility for the land to heal from years of colonial devastation through logging it has also made it possible for the growth of the Life School.

The Life School is an initiative of grass roots Indigenous families raising their children decolonized, in relationship to the land, and learning their own histories of resistance instead of the assimilation fed to youth in colonial public education institutions. Seasonally these families come together to offer support to one another, share skills, put away food and connect their children with other kids like them.

“Really we’re just living Indigenous lives, we’re
living an Indigenous existence and that’s the education that we want to be
giving our kids. We want to be able to
be out on the land with our kids and teaching them in an experiential way according to our own tradition.” -Molly Wickham

If you are interested in supporting Molly and the Life School’s work they are always in need of both monetary donations, assistance with grants, and support approaching businesses for in kind donations in order to make their seasonal gatherings possible.

You can learn more about their work at the Cedars R.I.S.E Society.

Donations and offers of support can be made to ror.wickham@gmail.com

And cheques can be sent via snail mail to Box 3664 Smithers BC V0J 2N0

If you have questions feel free to contact us.

xo beyon and wulfgang <3

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/time-does-not-make-its-way-through-our-lives-in-a/

August 12, 2016

These are our friends who we have been throwing down with for the past couple weeks. last night we collaborated together to create this gofundme in order to get the resources that these warriors need to fight off these billion dollar companies. please consider donating <3

Today the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society and Ancestral Pride launch the Imperial No More Campaign. We are launching this campaign to stop Imperial Metals before they cause any more violence and devastation to the lands, waters and our lives. We are seeking support to protect our unceded territories and to ensure the children of all people can eat the salmon and breathe the air, we cannot do it without your support.

“We the people are the Protectors and Land Defenders and with our allies supporting this indigenous-led resistance, we will make a stand to stop Imperial Metals from violating our rights. Not one more mountain will be mined, not one more water way destroyed in the name of profit, not one more tree logged to create roads for these mines.” –Kanahus

Kanahus Manuel of the Secwepemc Women’s Warriors Society, mother and artist and Sacheen Seitcham of Ancestral Pride, Grandmother, medicine maker and traditional midwife have been organizing resistance to the illegal mining operations of Imperial Metals on their territories since before the devastating tailings pond breach in 2014. We stand to protect Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe and Chitaapi Mountain from Imperial Metals.

Despite their efforts Imperial Metal’s Mount Polley mine continues to operate and in November 2015 the province issued a permit for the company to discharge their toxic tailings into Hazeltine Creek, the same waterways affected by the 2014 breach.

“The Time is Now, We Cannot Wait Anymore”

The creeks, rivers, lakes and ocean are all connected. The poisons being discharged into Hazeltine Creek flow through the connected waterways. The salmon which return to the rivers form the oceans must pass through the toxins never cleaned up by Imperial Metals. This is not just an Indigenous issue, we all live downstream. The destruction of the land by mining is violence and enough is enough.

Two full years after the catastrophic breach of Mount Polley’s Tailings Pond, Imperial Metals continues to operate illegally destroying the land and endangering the lives of all the surrounding people.

Over the last week the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society and Ancestral Pride have been taking direct action with the support of allies to show Imperial Metals that we will escalate resistance until they cease and desist all mining operations on our Indigenous territories.

On August 4th we marked the 2-year anniversary of the devastating Tailings Pond breach with a gathering of Indigenous land defenders, allies and supporters to shut down the mine and to assert sovereignty over our unceded territories. There were workshops, feasting, training, ceremony and information sharing.

After skilling up together we completely blocked all workers from returning to work and stopped mining activity.

On August 9th the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society and Ancestral Pride successfully occupied the Imperial Metal’s Vancouver Office. Imperial Metals ordered thirty police offers to violently assault Indigenous women and supporters, with four arrests and many bruised bodies. Spirits remain high and we know the world is watching, we have support from around the world.

“Colonial violence is real! The mining companies in central and south amerikkka are already killing indigenous people for protecting their land and their ways of life. We are quick approaching that time here in kkkanada and we need to know where everyone stands? Will you put your bodies on the line to fight for the future?” -Sacheen

It is time to gather the resources to SHUT IMPERIAL METALS DOWN!

What the funds will be used for:

All funds raised will be used to develop and maintain the campaign to Stop Imperial Metals. Up to this point Sacheen, Kanahus and their supporters have been operating on their own funds and small contributions from their networks.

Here is where the funds will be used:

• For the materials and equipment necessary to hold events, direct actions and provide documentation for media releases.

• To repair our vehicle and cover the travel costs for members of the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society, Ancestral Pride and their supporters to be where they need to in order to continue pressure on Imperial Metals and their shareholders.

This also means we will be able to connect with the grassroots community, indigenous and non-indigenous most affected by Imperial Metals mines.

• To ensure we have the necessary funds for any legal fees that arise when the RCMP come down on our supporters and us.

• For awareness spreading materials and activities.

• To provide capacity building featuring Guerilla Media training, grant writing opportunities for other indigenous land defenders and our supporters.

• To build homes at Tska7 (Ruddock Creek) and Chitaapi (Catface Mountain) to assert our rights and title over our territories by living on them. This is most important as occupation is key to stopping resource extraction!

• We plan to host a large gathering that can bring together members of effected communities and our supporters to strategize and build a stronger movement to resist Imperial Metals on all affected territories.

For more information:

Imperial Metals is engaging in mining practices and operations that are in direct oppostion to the protocols and inherent rights and title of the Secwepemc, Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht, Wet’suwet’en, and Tahltan First Nations.

www.imperialnomore.com

www.ancestralpride.org

www.facebook.com/yuctnesenxiymetkwecamp/

https://www.youtube.com/embed/WvahN7pdXek

https://vimeo.com/107615821

https://vimeo.com/113344620

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

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/these-are-our-friends-who-we-have-been-throwing/

Vigil for Joey English

July 16, 2016

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.

July 11, 2016

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/

Seeking Support!

July 7, 2016

Good Morning Dear Ones,

Our friend Goot-Ges reached out to us last night as she is trying to get her daughter Kwiadda up to the Unist’ot’en Art camp.
Goot-Ges is an incredible land defender, healer, story-teller and Mama
and it would be incredible to get her and her daughter to the camp. (She is also one of the participants in this book and interviews Wulf on the radio!)

We let her know that we would share her request for support, found below.

Please share this with your peeps and send some funds, anything helps, if you can.

Any contributions (or prayers and messages of love) can be made by e-transfer to yakguudang@gmail.com .

Thank you lovelies,

Beyon and Wulfgang

*********

Hello,

My name is Goot-Ges, an independent mother of
three beautiful babies. I am Nisga’a, Tsimshian, and Haida. Came to the
city for some healing, and to have some safety for me and my children.
Had some money saved up to be on this trip,or to secure a new place to
live, but had some unexpected vehicle repairs, which ended up being
double than what I could afford.

My oldest child Kwiadda is trying to make it to the Youth Art Camp at Unistoten, July 18-29th.
We are currently in Vancouver, and are looking to get back to the north
for the camp. I just finished working on a blog to outline what our
journey is, as my big project right now is Yakguudang, this translates
into Respect all life in Haida language. The vision behind Yakguudang is
to keep our coast clean from any potential oil and gas projects.
Healthy environments create healthy communities. And i believe that
social justice and environmental justice are connected.

Our last
project with Yakguudang was stopping Naikun wind farms from developing
in Haida Waters to power WCC lng export facility being proposed for tuck
inlet in unceded Tsimshian land of Prince Rupert. That was a success,
to date no project there. If anyone can help us out in anyway, it would
be greatly appreciated.

Click here to find out how you can get involved

Thank you for your time, and anything will help us. Even a good prayer, or a message of love.

Sincerely,

Goot Ges, aka Fire Woman.

Imperial Metals AGM

June 28, 2016

On May 27th the Corporate Scum behind the Mount Polley disaster, where a four kilometer tailings pond emptied into Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, met on unceded Musqueam territory for their annual shareholders meeting.

Secwepemc Warrior, Kanahus Manuel, and supporters were there to greet them and remind the decisions makers of the company that they do not have permission to be on unceded Neskonlith Secwepemc territory and in fact have been told to leave.

Although Kanahus had the legal documentation to enter the AGM as a Proxy Voting member dozens of the Colonial Corporation of Canada’s hired guns blocked her way.

Imperial Metals is responsible for one of the most horrific acts of terror in this region since agents of the Hudson Bay company committed acts of violence through biological warfare, known as smallpox. The destruction of the land upon which the Secwepemc people live and contamination of their food sources is part of a legacy of colonial violence and genocide committed by the Corporation of Canada and the Corporations they partner with.

Sovereign Indigenous communities living on their unceded territories, who are not a part of the so called Canadian State, all over the region are resisting the invasive and destructive actions of Imperial Metals. The Tahltan people have been fighting hard against Imperial Metal’s Red Chris Mine, which has recently been given the ‘permits’ to operate at full capacity despite the opposition of the people responsible for the lands.

Members of Ancestral Pride, an Indigenous resistance organization from the village of Ahousaht on Nuu-chah-nulth territory have been organizing against Imperial Metal’s plans to open pit mine the sacred Chitaapii Mountain located directly across from the village.

On unceded Wet’suwe’ten territories Imperial Metals has been illegally operating an open pit copper mine without permission of the hereditary peoples responsible for protection of the lands there. Although the mine is currently not in operations due to low copper costs, it must not be permitted to open again.

We support the Talhtan, Secwepemc, Nuu-chah-nulth, Wet’suwe’ten and all sovereign Indigenous peoples and their protection of the lands we all rely on to live.

We’re also looking forward to visiting with Kanahus and Sacheen of Ancestral Pride in August and to be including them in Voices.

If you want to know more about how you can support these rad women led movements get at us and shoot us an email!

xox

June 14, 2016

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/