Voices

Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak

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An Update From the Road

Good Morning Deer Loves,

As our mother Earth turns us towards the sun and the seeds are rising up and growing tall much work is being done to
protect land, water and Indigenous Sovereignty.

We wanted to take this moment to provide some news on this work because people on their lands doing this work need our support.

 xoxo wulf and beyon.

Wulf and two other trans white settler supporters living on Lkwungen Territory are facing charges and harsh proposed
sentencing.  They are remaining strong and have connected with a lawyer who will be representing the three co-accused on a pay what you can basis.  Thank you to everyone who has been providing such incredible care, knowledge and support.

 

While this has been going on Wulf has been able to spend time at Flo’s farm and at Ulluisc mostly helping with getting
food in the earth.  They are super grateful for all the love and support that makes it possible for them to be
mobile and available on the ground especially to support the people they love.

Cyale

Flo and Wolverine’s farm, Cyale, is well underway with planting and much work was done by hand to weed and mulch the large strawberry patch and prepare the soil for beans, peas and potatoes.  The thing is Flo and her family are still
trying to raise the funds to purchase tractor wheels, which cost about $3400.  Approximately $2600 has been
raised so far.  To learn more about Flo’s work and contribute there is an online fundraiser here: https://fundrazr.com/flowolverinefarm

Ulluisc

Christine Jack, caretaker of Ulluisc, is hosting 3 gatherings over the coming months.

On June 3rd Ulluisc will be hosting a walk and talk with Elders from 10 am to 2pm.

June 19th to 23rd is the Women’s Gathering at Ulluisc. This event is for Women identified people of all walks of life (this means trans women and two-spirit people wanting to work with woman energy welcome.)

The third gathering is the All Others Gathering for Two-Spirit, Queer and Trans identified folks.  More details to come!

For more information check out Christine’s most recent update video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDBve6oBFTs

And here is the event page for the Women’s gathering:

https://www.facebook.com/events/523978791059714/

To make monetary donations cheques can be mailed to PO Box 1188 Lillooet BC V0K 1V0.

There is also a fundraiser for Ulluisc on Coast Salish Territory, vancouver bc, on May 29th.   

https://www.facebook.com/events/258251721314546/permalink/270555103417541

Lil’wat

The Indigenous Leadership Academy is building a Pit House in Lil’wat a part of the St’at’imc Nation. This is an educational project that revives Indigenous ways of being through teaching, and living.

They are raising funds here: https://www.chuffed.org/project/pit-house-indigenous-architecture-revival-project#

Yakguudang

Tsimshian, Haida and Nisga’a Water Protector Goot-Ges is currently raising funds to cover the cost for her and three other Indigenous Mothers on Tsimshian territory to take a trauma healing course as part of the preparations in establishing a safety plan for Girls and Women in the city of Prince Rupert.  With industry moving forward with export facilities on unceded waters the threat of Man Camps housing thousands of transient and exploited workers pose serious threats of violence against women.

You can donate directly to Goot-Ges’s work through e-transfer here: yakguudang@gmail.com

And learn more about her work here: https://yakguudangjournies.wordpress.com/

 

Secwepemc

Secwepemc Women Warriors threw down recently at the Imperial Metals AGM where one supporter was arrested and later released.

https://www.facebook.com/100012060671019/videos/303883980023622/

And they are getting themselves and their people organized and need your support:

FUNDRAISING APPEAL for the Secwepemc’ulecw Assembly

All settler comrades, friends and allies, Elders and women from the Secwepemc nation are hosting a nation-wide Secwepemc’ulecw Assembly on the land in June. The goals of the Assembly are to discuss and take action under Secwepemc law against colonial corporate development impacting Secwepemc’ulecw without Collective Consent.

One of the imminent concerns is to resist Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion. The Assembly will be taking place on the land close to where the pipeline is proposed to cross. The LARGEST Indigenous territory that Kinder Morgan crosses is in fact Secwepemc territory. The pipeline would carry 900,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen through 518 km of Secwepemc territory.

This Assembly is rooted in the vision of beloved Secwepemc leader Arthur Manuel. Shortly before he passed away, he wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “We do not accept that the federal government can make this
decision unilaterally and without the prior informed consent of the Secwepemc people as the rightful titleholders… Any leakage would immediately threaten the pacific salmon who spawn in the Thompson and Fraser River basins. It is not surprising that most Secwepemc people are in complete solidarity with the Water Protectors from Standing Rock North
Dakota. Our waters are also sacred.”

Secwepemc women, elders and nation members are volunteering their time, energy and labour to host this assembly. They write, “The Secwepemc peoples’ have survived the impacts of colonialism (disease, residential schools, the Indian Act) and maintain our original instructions to look after the water, plants, and animals.”

*** HOW TO SUPPORT ****

As settlers, our responsibilities must also be unwavering and unequivocal – to support Indigenous Peoples affirming collective Indigenous law over their territories. As settlers and organizations, we daily materially benefit from living and working on lands that are unjustly seized and occupied.

One concrete way to support is to financially resource this grassroots effort. ** We suggest all settlers donate at least one day of their wage or whatever you can contribute to resourcing this Assembly. ** The fundraising goal is $15,000 for food, tents, gas and transportation costs, elders lodging, sound equipment and more.

Etransfer funds to: Tellqelmucw@gmail.com
Question: What is this for?
Password: Assembly.

or Cheques to Janice Billy, Treasurer, George Manuel Institute, Unit B –
5836 Trans Canada Highway, Chase, BC, V0E 1M0.

Everyone also email hwalia8@gmail.com if you are sending an etransfer or cheque with the amount being sent and if and how you would like to be included in the list of thank yous.

Thank you for contributing to this struggle and strengthening collective Secwepemc governance. Share this far and wide.

xoxo

Leave your mark.

Leave your mark everywhere you can so that
white fascism and cis supremacy drowns in a sea of your stories.

Leave your message scrawled on street
corners, written on the walls, painted on the bus stops over body shaming
advertisements, on misogynist billboards, across slurs on bathroom stalls.  Transform their hate everywhere you find it.

Just because they can buy the spaces on the
sides of buildings and buses, along the highways and park benches does not make
it theirs.  

These cities are stolen land and you are
the mutineers within them.

All you need is a spray can, a marker, some
paper, flour, water and your friends.

Leave your mark.

Leave your mark everywhere.

Take a page from Octavia’s books and write
yourself into the present and into the future.   Write stories, create art, make zines, play
music, keep a blog, tattoo your friends.

Every space is an opportunity.  Leave constellations for others to follow to
learn from and grow out of.  We are not
alone, you are not alone, we are many and we are fighting, surviving, loving and
dreaming alongside you.  Make it so each
time we go outside we cannot help, but stumble upon you, a reflection of
ourselves, our resistance and our dreams.

One of the contributions to the 2Spirit
Warrior Society Raffle are 2 two hour tattoo collaborations with queer artist and
tattooist Kiala.  

https://2spiritwsraffle.tumblr.com/

Kiala’s works explore their own and shared
stories of queer existence, chart narratives of resistance and dream other
realities into being.   For many of us our survival is resistance,
leaving our mark is courageous, and making art of our dreams transformative.

This prize is available to anyone on Lkwungen and W̱ŚANÉC territories, or
down to travel to collaborate on a tattoo for you with Kiala.

You can support Kiala’s work directly
here:  http://artbykiala.com/handpoked

And leave your mark.

Leave your mark everywhere because art is
too powerful to be contained in the white walls of galleries and you are too
important to not tell your story.

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/leave-your-mark-leave-your-mark-everywhere-you/

**ONLINE STORE NOW OPEN**

**ONLINE STORE NOW OPEN**

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ARTWORK BY BEYON WREN MOOR FOR SALE!
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WÜLFGANG ZAPF FOR SALE!

• Screen Printed Shirts & Patches

• High Quality Poster Prints

• Photographic Prints 

• Giclée Prints

(funds raised go directly to indigenous women and two-spirit land defenders on the frontlines)

Have you heard about these 3 Land Defenders Potentially Facing Life?

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Re-posted from line9shutdown.ca.

On the morning of December 21st 2015 Vanessa Gray, a young woman from
Aamjiwnaang First Nation, with the support of Stone Stewart and Sarah
Scanlon, shut down Enbridge’s Line 9 on Anishnaabe Territory just
outside of Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia.

At approximately 7:30am the three arrived at the valve site and
called Enbridge Inc. to inform them of the action and requested that the
pipeline, and its flow of oil, be turned off. At this point, the three
shut down the pipeline’s manual hand wheel and bike locked their necks
to the valve in an act of civil disobedience to prevent the operation of
the pipeline.

The Charges

They were arrested, held overnight and released with minimal
conditions. All three were charged with counts of Mischief Over $5,000
(maximum sentence of 10 years in prison) and Mischief Endangering Life
(maximum sentence of life in prison). Stone Stewart was also charged
with Resisting Arrest.

There are no known prior accounts of activists being charged for
Mischief Endangering Life, which leads us to believe it is a scare
tactic to discourage land defense and resistance against the fossil fuel
industry.

Vanessa, Stone and Sarah are currently awaiting trial to fight these charges.

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  • Stone Stewart is arrested. Photo: Mike Roy

Line 9 is a highly contested tar sands pipeline that began shipping
diluted bitumen in December 2015 between Sarnia and Montreal. Those
involved in this action assert that the operation of Line 9 is a
violation of Indigenous sovereignty and treaty rights.

“The crown is failing in their obligation to consult with first
nations about pipelines,” said Sarah Scanlon. “As settlers it’s our
responsibility to respect Indigenous land rights and support those
protecting the land and water on the front-lines.”

Line 9 has faced opposition from several of the 18 First Nations
along its route. Chippewas of the Thames First Nation is currently
challenging the pipeline in Supreme Court, on the basis of
non-consultation. Aamjiwnaang First Nation, among others, testified to
the National Energy Board that they were never consulted with when Line 9 was built.

“The fact that line 9 is currently in operation really just adds to
the urgency for people to act. I’m here because the negative impacts of
the oil industry are taking place right now, every day,” says Stone
Stewart.

The tar sands are known to be the second leading cause of
de-forestation in the world and permanently contaminate over 7 million
barrels of water every day.

Locally, Aamjiwnaang First Nation experiences skewed sex ratios and
high rates of cancer, respiratory illness, and developmental disorders
as a result of pollution from nearby petrochemical refineries.

“It’s clear that tar sands projects represent an ongoing cultural and
environmental genocide,” Vanessa Gray asserts. “I defend the land and
water because it is sacred. I have the right to defend anything that
threatens my traditions and culture.”

  • Vanessa Gray with Elder Mike Plain at a 2015 protest near Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Photo: Michael Toledano.

Line 9 Shut Down In Sarnia – Ricochet Media:

Activists Shut Down Enbridge’s Line 9 in Canada Again! – The Indignants

Courthouse Rally: Line 9 is Scarier than Prison – Submedia.tv

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/

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.

“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?”

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/

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/