The Unist’ot’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have been defending their traditional territories from Pipelines for nearly a decade and the fight is not over.
Imperial Metals AGM
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
PLEASE SHARE AND FOLLOW
Voices: Indigenous Women on the Front Lines Speak is many, many things involving many, many people.
Voices is the creation of a hand made, hand bound book and series of posters featuring interviews and illustrated portraits of Indigenous Women and Queer/Two-Spirit Land Defenders.
Voices is the process of traveling so called british columbia to front lines in support of Indigenous Land Defenders protecting their traditional and unceded territories. It is the strengthening of existing relationships and the growing of new ones. It is participating in resistance to the stranglehold of colonialism that threatens to destroy all of us.
Voices is an act of honouring the Indigenous Land Defenders who raise their children on the land, living their lives unwavering in the way of industrial expansion. Voices honours those who blaze the trails of what contemporary anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance can look like while teaching new/old ways of being in relationship to the land and each other.
Voices is Ulluisc, it is the Unist’ot’en Yintah, it is Meagan of the Lekwungen, it is Chipati Mountain and Ahausaht, it is Lax U’u’la.
Voices is possible through the willingness of Indigenous Women and Queer/Two-Spirit Land Defenders to share of themselves, it is possible through the love and support of our friends and chosen families who feed us, care for our hearts, offer their cars, accompany us to the front lines, provide materials and supplies, funds, grant editing, connections and advice. We are the multitude of the hands who hold us up.
Voices is an artistic collaboration and labour of love by beyon wren moor and Wulfgang Zapf.
In the fall of 2016 beyon and Wulfgang will travel to Halifax for a residency with Radstorm where they will hand make the book and posters.
The books and posters will be available for purchase in the Winter of 2016. A large run of Zines will be an accessible accompaniment to the hand made book. We will be touring Turtle Island to share our work after the Winter launch, we’d love to visit you.
All proceeds made from the books, posters and zines will go directly to the Land Defenders featured in this project.
** a note on the title. We made the decision to say only Women in the title and to not include the words two spirit and/or queer. One honest reason for this is it keeps the title shorter. We also mean to use Women in an expansive sense to include non-binary gender people as well. We have been engaged with the language we choose, and recognize that the english language is always lacking when describing and naming queerness and cultures outside of white settler culture. For us we felt we lost more by trying to get too specific with colonial words and boundaries then we gained. People’s own languages have important, powerful and beautiful words to describe gender and that many of these have been lost through the violence of colonialism. We wish we were able to use these words. We did not want to participate in further erasing those words by using colonial replacements as if the ‘queerness’ of Indigenous people can be properly addressed with a colonial word like queer or that the diversity of indigenous gender can be captured by an important yet often generalizing word like Two-Spirit. We recognize also that this decision acts to invisibilize queer/two-spirit indigenous people and that we end up using these words in order to say what we mean while lacking other words anyway. Deer ones, we are in process.
https://www.voicesfrontlines.com/please-share-and-follow-voices-indigenous-women/