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Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak

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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/

I think that we have so much to gain from living on our
territories and living the way our ancestors did.  That is why they were so strong. That is why
they were so smart and so strong physically and mentally and spiritually.  We need it, not only do we need it, but we’re
gonna be an even bigger force to be reckoned with when more of our people gain
that strength. 

 We can’t be Wet’suwet’en if we don’t have the Wet’suwet’en
lands.

-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/i-think-that-we-have-so-much-to-gain-from-living/

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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/

I don’t have the heart to sit here and see it happen.  Right now they’re drilling on Digby Island to
see how far they go before they reach rock bottom and then they’ll understand
how much, they call it bio mass waste, they have to take out, which is all the
living peat moss and rare plants and then they’re just going to dump it on the
other side of the island. 

–Goot-Ges

We realised people need to occupy that Island.  We learned form Enbridge that we can’t count
on the government of Canada’s processes, we can’t count on petitions, we can’t
count on protests; the government just ignores all this stuff. And we need
the people who have legal rights and title to that land.  It’s unceded territory.

–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/i-dont-have-the-heart-to-sit-here-and-see-it/

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/

They call this place Heaven on Earth. 

–Goot-Ges

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

I believe there is room for growth for our
people to go back and completely let go of this way of life and strengthen,
strengthen that land and that water and all the life within it.

–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/they-call-this-place-heaven-on-earth-goot-ges/

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/