Voices

Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak

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morningstarangeline:

Kickstarter: ‘Beginnings of my Heart”

“The Beginnings of My Heart is a feature film that tells the story of a Native American girl (“Heart Girl”) who is experiencing love for the first time. Hidden secrets from her past, that she has not yet come to peace with, come back to haunt her and steal her heart. She will have to travel through her apartment hallways to find the spirits that have stolen her heart and convince them into giving her heart back by having them come to peace with their own past traumas.

Our film is one that shows the challenges of insecurities and trauma. It speaks of when you find true love for the first time and have to make sure not to focus on your perceived faults. This could lead to bad spirits, for they will take what you don’t appreciate. A first panic attack can feel like a heart exploding.

As a Native American family growing up on the reservation, we learned to make our own toys and build our own forts in the mountains. Making the choice to steer away from CGI and instead incorporate stop motion and real built sets felt appropriate. Films like City of Lost Children, Fifth Element, The Brothers Quay, Little Otik, The Cream Master Series is how we fell in love with cinema. Using traditional techniques for Heart Girls journey will give us the chance to grab that piece of her heart as a viewer.”

The cast thus far includes Devery Jacobs (Rhymes for Young Ghouls, The Sun at Midnight) and MorningStar Angeline (Drunktown’s Finest, I Am Thy Weapon).

Check out our Kickstarter via https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1245793154/help-us-make-the-feature-of-the-beginnings-of-my-h?token=f4686bc7

You can also follow us on social media:

We deeply appreciate all support whether it is actual funding or simply sharing our Kickstarter campaign.

(Source: http://morningstarangeline.tumblr.com/)

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/morningstarangeline-kickstarter-beginnings-of/

“Supernatural Guardian of Lax U’u’la”
Limited Edition of 10 digital prints, 8.5"x11", original acrylic painting by Goot-Ges @lilfire17. Prints available at: http://voicesbook.storenvy.com/collections/1438636-art-by-goot-ges/products/18539185-supernatural-guardian-of-lax-uula

“Supernattural Guardian of Lax U’u’la”

Painted on Tsimshian Territories.

Acrylic paint on canvas.

Autumn 2016

This painting depicts Wolf protecting the island of Lac U’u’la from the destruction proposed by Pacific North West LNG.

Goot-Ges is a Tsimshian, Haida and Nisga’a woman from the house of Txaatk’anlaxhatkw, of the Village of skulls. Out of a dream she collaborated with five other Indigenous Women to begin the occupation of Lax U’u’la, also called Lelu Island. A mother of 3 babies Goot-Ges is a powerful force against the Colonial State, defending waters and land along the North West Coast.

Sale of Goot-Ges’ art goes directly to supporting her family and furthering the work of Yakguudang.

https://yakguudangjournies.wordpress.com/

#laxuula #leluisland #gootges #tsimshian #painting #indigenousart #landdefenders #indigenousresistance #indigenous (at Lelu Island)

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/supernatural-guardian-of-lax-uula-limited/

“Flora Banks”
Prints available in store:
http://voicesbook.storenvy.com/collections/1422062-photography/products/18306446-flora-banks-lax-uula-2016

Shot on 35mm B&W Film with no digital editing. Original photograph by Wülfgang Zapf.

50% of all sales goes directly to Land Defenders featured in the Voices Project.

Photo of the Flora Banks at low tide. It is where one generation of salmon cross the next. Located in the channels between Lax’U’u’la and adjacent islands.
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 eel grass 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 eel grass 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.
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.
There are 8 facilities planned for the Tsimshian’s territories around colonial Prince Rupert.
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 life.

#waterislife #voicesbook #leluisland #indigenousresistance #bwphotography (at Lelu Island)

https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/flora-banks-prints-available-in-store/

2Spirit Warrior Society

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As many of you know we are part of a crew, with our fierce lovely friends all over Turtle Island, raising funds for our other loves in the Two Spirit Warrior Society.  Here’s a little update we wrote regarding whats going on with the Dakota Access Pipeline and info. about the fundraiser.

xoxoxo

Thank
you tender babes for helping us raise $ 689 for the Two Spirit Warrior
Society! There is still a ways to go to meet our goal, so please give
generously if you are able to and please share.

https://igg.me/at/2jlFL6wrqfk

Some
people have been asking the organizers of this fundraiser “what is
happening at Standing Rock?"  And that is a great question.  One of
the tactics of the oil companies, banks, and State powers who want to
see the pipeline happen is to manipulate support for resistance through
corporate media by providing misinformation and partial truths.  Yes, Water
Protectors have had a hard fought victory, as the main stream media has
reported – however the project is not dead and it is crucial to follow this through to the end, we must
not waver now.

 The focus of corporate media and use of language saying “the pipeline is no longer
being built” is intentional miss information. Through partial truths,
mass media outlets are redirecting attention elsewhere so as to weaken
the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline; resistance that has been growing all over Turtle
Island.  This can leave Water Protectors vulnerable. 

What
more accurately has happened is the U.S. Army Corps did not grant permission to put the
pipeline under the river (the easement). 

Wherever the pipeline is routed to, it will
damage water systems and ecosystems. Dakota Access hasn’t packed up
and left– they still have floodlights on, equipment ready, and private
security. Razor wire and police still stand between water protectors and
the drill site. They aren’t leaving, they’re lying in wait.

Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics, the companies behind the
project, called the ruling a “purely political action”, accused the
Obama administration of abandoning the rule of law “in favor of currying
favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency”, and said the
pipeline project would go ahead.

President-elect Trump has expressed explicit support for the
pipeline, and it is expected that he will over turn the U.S. Army Corp decision after his
inauguration on January 20.

Trump
and his pro-oil, climate-change-denying cabinet pose a serious threat to
the environment and to indigenous sovereignty.

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This fight is far from
over.

Our
two-spirit friends are gathering resources to fight the re-emergence of
the black snake, and to make sure this temporary victory holds.

The
camps have been reduced in numbers, and for the most part supplies are
being organized by internal camps. Many of the original funds have been
disconnected, or are not available to people on the ground. It is
important to continue to support the groups who are sticking it out,
including Pueblo Camp, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Red Medicine Liberation
Camp, and the Two Spirit Warrior Society.  It is important to recognize
that Water Protectors are throwing down now, as we speak all along the
length of the Black Snake, not just at Standing Rock and that this
diversity is crucial to stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Please
support this work if you are able to – every dollar counts! Please tell
your friends about it.  

<3

Here are some links to articles if you would like to read more about what is currently going on.

“Standing Rock Activists Stay in Place Fearing ‘Victory’ was a Trick”

“From Keystone XL Pipeline to #NODAPL: Jaslyn Charger, Water Protector from Cheyenne River Reservation”


Photo credit: Wulfgang Zapf