UNBC Livestream | University of Northern British Columbia
Watch the live stream of a panel discussion with Freda Huson, Helen Knot and Goot-Ges! 2pm today!
UNBC Livestream | University of Northern British Columbia
Decoloneyes
Our deer friend Goot-Ges has just launched her first book of stories.
The e-book is available here and we hope to have hard copies available
on our Voices Store soon!
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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. In this book you can read stories spun from the fabrics of dreams, from the places where Ancestors speak, from a deep being of the land.
So please, support Indigenous Land Defense and drop some fliff for a good read.
<3 <3 <3
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/
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/
Seeking Support!
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Our friend Goot-Ges reached out to us last night as she is trying to get her daughter Kwiadda up to the Unist’ot’en Art camp.
Goot-Ges is an incredible land defender, healer, story-teller and Mama
and it would be incredible to get her and her daughter to the camp. (She is also one of the participants in this book and interviews Wulf on the radio!)
We let her know that we would share her request for support, found below.
Please share this with your peeps and send some funds, anything helps, if you can.
Any contributions (or prayers and messages of love) can be made by e-transfer to yakguudang@gmail.com .
Thank you lovelies,
Beyon and Wulfgang
*********
Hello,
My name is Goot-Ges, an independent mother of
three beautiful babies. I am Nisga’a, Tsimshian, and Haida. Came to the
city for some healing, and to have some safety for me and my children.
Had some money saved up to be on this trip,or to secure a new place to
live, but had some unexpected vehicle repairs, which ended up being
double than what I could afford.
My oldest child Kwiadda is trying to make it to the Youth Art Camp at Unistoten, July 18-29th.
We are currently in Vancouver, and are looking to get back to the north
for the camp. I just finished working on a blog to outline what our
journey is, as my big project right now is Yakguudang, this translates
into Respect all life in Haida language. The vision behind Yakguudang is
to keep our coast clean from any potential oil and gas projects.
Healthy environments create healthy communities. And i believe that
social justice and environmental justice are connected.
Our last
project with Yakguudang was stopping Naikun wind farms from developing
in Haida Waters to power WCC lng export facility being proposed for tuck
inlet in unceded Tsimshian land of Prince Rupert. That was a success,
to date no project there. If anyone can help us out in anyway, it would
be greatly appreciated.
Click here to find out how you can get involved
Thank you for your time, and anything will help us. Even a good prayer, or a message of love.
Sincerely,
Goot Ges, aka Fire Woman.
