Voices

Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak

You are here: Home / Archives for Wild Salmon

Rebelling is not like a cool thing you do
and then you go to college and then get a fucking job and then be a fucking
capitalist for the rest of your life.

-Queen Sacheen

It’s a colonial lie that we cannot support
each other in a diversity of tactics.  

-Queen Sacheen

Xhopakelxhit, Sacheen Seitcham, is a Snuneymuxw, Nuu Chah Nulth,
Coast Salish and Cree Grandmother, Medicine Maker, Water Protector and
Strategist.  Co-Founder of the Coast Salish Native Youth Movement, The West Coast
Women Warrior Society Media Cooperative, Yaakswiis Warriors, Imperial No More and Ancestral Pride Sacheen’s life is
dedicated to the futures of the children.  In August of 2016
Sacheen and 3 others were arrested for attempting to block the restocking of a
fish farm in Ahousaht waters and in the autumn Sacheen and her family were
throwing down with Red Warrior at Standing Rock and providing crucial on the
ground media coverage.

Sacheen’s work relies on the support of people like you dedicated to
Indigenous Sovereignty and Protection of Water, Land and Life.  With
court dates coming up on both sides of the colonial border, family to
support and Imperial Metals, the Kinder Morgan Pipeline and Cermaq to fuck up
your donations are crucial.

Please support Warriors.

E- transfers can be made to: mamazonscreations@gmail.com

Sign up to make a monthly
donation

Donate Sacheen’s work
with Imperial No More

or Donate
directly to support Sacheen

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/rebelling-is-not-like-a-cool-thing-you-do-and-then/

On August 25th we drove out of Lekwungen Territory to go visit our friend Sacheen, a Grandmother, medicine maker, traditional midwife, writer and unwavering land defender. 

image

Sacheen and her husband Crow, of Ancestral Pride and the Yaakswiis warriors  live in the village of Ahousaht on so-called Flores Island with three of their children.  The village is a short boat ride from the yuppie surfer tourist bon-iver listening culturally appropriative hell of Tofino.  Surrounded by the ocean and one of the last standing temperate rain forests still intact Ahousaht is watched over by Chitapii Mountain from across the waves.

image

We arrived a few days after Sacheen, Crow, their niece Havannah and friend Lenny, all Ahousaht members, were arrested for attempting to stop the restocking of a Cermaq fish farm.  This fish farm was the site where over a million fish were culled when it was shut down in 2012 due to risk of disease spreading to wild fish.  Fish farms are responsible for devastating Wild Salmon runs particularly in the Fraser River.  This has had terrible impacts on dozens of communities not just along the coast, but the whole length of the river.  The corporations responsible are heavily subsidized and protected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the ‘federal government’ of so-called canada.

image

After spending the night catching up and preparing for the next day we all threw down with a demo at the DFO in solidarity with those arrested for defending their land.  The DFO was shut down for the day due to the presence of Land Defenders and their supporters.  Those arrested were present and affirmed that although RCMP had forced them to sign conditions they would not back down in the defense of Wild Salmon.

image

Upon returning home to Ahousaht we arrived to a dozen wild salmon gifted to Sacheen and Crow for their protection of land, waters and life.  We spent the next dozen hours together processing and canning these life giving fish.  Salmon are a crucial species for the ecosystems of which they are apart.  They are also a primary food for many people all over Turtle Island.  The destruction of our relationships to the animals and plants that are our foods is a form of colonialism and genocide that goes back to the very beginnings of the occupation of turtle island.  It escapes none of us that the destruction of wild salmon is similar to the slaughter of the buffalo. 

image

The rains came as we visited and most of our days were spent playing with Chevayo, Sacheen and Crows youngest, making big meals for the dozen of us in the house while sharing stories and planning for continued resistance to both Fish Farms and Imperial Metals a company with mineral rights to Chitapii mountain.  The rain did let up enough so that we were able to explore the beaches and forests and harvest black berries, huckleberries, blueberries and cranberries.

image

Sacheen and her family live resistance each and every day.  It is not a job or something that can ever be put down and returned too.  It is always such a gift to spend time with this family who are so dear to our hearts and to join in resistance to the corporations, whether industry or the so-called government of canada that threaten their lives and home. 

image

If you too are interested in supporting Sacheen and her families work we suggest signing up for a monthly donation through their website.  We all know the monthly hustle to pay to live is real especially when we have people dependent on us and our contributions to relieve Sacheen and Crow of this monthly hustle is a huge strength to our collective movement towards liberation.

Make a monthly donation.

You can also support the campaign Imperial No More.

…and learn more about Ancestral Pride’s work on their website.

image

Lastly if you live nearby we’re planning a big bus ride with some pals to head up to Tofino for Sacheen, Crow, Lenny and Havannah’s court date on November 7th.  If you interested shoot us an email as we would love to have you join us.

xo beyon and Wulfgang.

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/on-august-25th-we-drove-out-of-lekwungen-territory/

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/

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/