Secwepemc Nation

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On Day 114 of the disaster we are remembering our friends. Our delegations continue to travel Turtle Island spreading the word of resistance, unity and hope. We have visited many places, and today we pay tribute to our visit to Chiraq (Chicago). We declare our solidarity with Chairman Fred Hampton and Minister of Defence Mark Clark of the Black Panther Party assassinated 45 years ago on December 4th, now known as International Revolutionary Day.  The real and serious, the painful and genocidal impact of colonialism, has effected so many of us. We are children of genocide and slavery. We have fought, we have sometimes won, but in the end we have lost and we continue to lose so many. We stand with our black brothers and sisters in America. We stand with them in solidarity and in unified struggle and resistance. America, its laws and legislation, its white house and government buildings, built on the continuing enslavement of one group and the continuing genocide of another, will be tolerated no more. America and Canada are soaked in the blood of the murders, rapes and land thefts these so called nations have committed and continue to commit. These nations and their systems are not broken, the systems, the infrastructures, the judiciary, the police the institutions of these nations are designed to brutalize black and brown people. The power and the violence of these colonial states are regularly employed to maintain the racial, gender, class hierarchies and slaveries that birthed their existence. There is no flaw in the system. This is the system.  This is a special time for all of us, one that calls for our bravest, boldest, and most liberated selves to take action in the name of freedom and justice. We do this by defending our Lands and our Waters. We do this by defending each other. We do this by standing strong and proud in the knowledge that we are a greater people than this. We can overcome and will only overcome together.  #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere #blacklivesmatter

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TODAY is WAGE SOLIDARITY: Nourish the Nation 2014!!! It's an exciting day for all of us. For everyone who asks what can I do? This is it. This is a very important thing to do friends. Wolverine, in his 80s, leader of the Gustafson Lake standoff and keeper of seeds is feeding the Nation. He needs our support. We owe him so much. DONATE by purchasing a ticket at:http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/972193  -or- e-transfer/paypal to [email protected]

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On Day 112 of the disaster, we are organizing. There is so much to be done and less and less time for us to be doing these things in. All of our struggles are interconnected, none of our struggles will mean anything if we do not hold each other up while we fight. A friend of ours once spoke to us of the infrastructure of change, the infrastructure of resistance and dissent. Shelter and food. The very basics of human survival. When we consider taking steps out of the colonial system, these are the things we worry about. Where will we find shelter? Where will we find food? If not at the end of a work day or in our bank balance, at the grocery store or in the restaurants. We are building infrastructure. We have learned a very important lesson. That dependence on the government will keep you beholden to it, its crimes and its violence. So we build alternatives. Food security is an important first step to freeing ourselves and each other from dependence. Elder Wolverine, Secwepemc Ts'peten Defender (Gustafson Lake 1995), seed keeper, learned this lesson years and years ago and has established a big and bountiful garden on 8 acres of land in C'yele. He has done this to feed the people, he has done this so we the people can fight with both hands.  It's time we held up our end. On December 4th then, people of all Nations, across the whole of Turtle Island are asked to donate whatever a day's wage in labor is to you to Nourish the Nation, Wolverine's autonomous Indigenous garden project feeding communities on the front lines of resource extraction. We've eaten from the tons of squash and potatoes, tomatoes and carrots from Wolverine's garden. He's helped start gardens at Unist'ot'en Camp. Let's spread the seeds, the love and the community. Every single dollar that you donate will go towards the purchase of a small tractor, an irrigation upgrade, and fencing- all to keep this project alive. To donate a day or even an hours wage to Wage Solidarity- Turtle Island on Thursday December 4th go to: nourishthenation.brownpapertickets.com or paypal and e-transfer to: [email protected] #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 111 of the disaster it is winter in the mountains and winter in the city. We are moving forward, we are counting victories. We are learning lessons and we are applying them with joy and ferocity. We are building and loving ourselves, we are building and loving each other, we are building and loving our communities, our Nations. We are loving radically, we are putting aside colonial ways of valuing and we are reaching for something deep within ourselves and within our collective dreams. It's exciting.  Across Turtle Island and more immediately, across so called B.C., Indigenous Nations are gathering, are setting the stakes, are resisting. Nations, clans, communities and families are challenging the continued and destructive intrusion of the colonial government on their territories. Corporations and corporate government alike, none are welcome. Indian Act bands and tribal councils are on notice, the people will no longer sit by as they sign away the Land, the Water and the safety of their future generations.  The people are gathering and they are gathering in force and in strength. They have learned the lessons of their former generations, don't trust the police, don't trust the politicians. Find your community and take care of each other, resist and survive at every opportunity. So many of us have been saying it for generations, it's better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Get out there. Do some living. Tear down the things that seek to destroy and build things that won't. This is the place. This is the time. Defend. Decolonize. #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 109 of the disaster, we are resting. The Elders finally make it home, and for some, it was a more tiring journey than for others. Today we rest because we're busy again tomorrow. There is still so much to do. The Tl’abānot’in are a strong clan and while this minor issue of an injunction being granted against them, us, is a frustration, things are busy within families and communities. There is a strength, a unity, a force that cannot be stopped by politician or police, building. It's an important time for the clan and other clans too.  So we are in Iskut today and it is cold outside. We spend time inside thinking. Reading. Keeping in touch with our friends on the frontlines across this so called province. We are disgusted with the police. Be it the RCMP assaulting Elders and kidnapping our friends on Burnaby Mountain under an invalid court order, or the police across Turtle Island regularly murdering black men, black children, and getting away with it. We stand in love and solidarity, so many of us have suffered violence at the hands of the police.  When we stand like this, when we build unity, when we love like this, when we build community, nothing can stop us. No pipeline, no big bad mining company, no white man's army, no rich man's police. So build your affinities. Chain yourself to court's doors, make known the violence in this society, stand in front of the machines that would otherwise rip scars into the earth or cuts into the mountains. We have momentum. The courts are a sham and the police are the enforcers. We will keep building on top of. We will not accept anything less than justice. Justice for our men in prison, justice for our women missing, justice for our children taken, justice for our bodies broken, justice for our Land stolen. These are desperate times. We will take desperate measures. Any. Means. Necessary. We are taking back our dignity. #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 107 of the disaster we emerge from two long days in the colonizer's court. Imperial Metals is granted an injunction against the Tl’abānot’in Elders. Against our Elders. Our Grandmothers. In addition to being granted a permanent injunction, Imperial Metals lawyers indicated they would also be applying to regain their court costs from our Elders. Our Grandmothers. As we met, talked about and planned for our court hearing in the weeks leading up to it, we reaffirmed some very important things. There is no justice for those Indigenous in these court hearings and proceedings. How could there be? These are the colonizer's courts. The laws of this so called country these courts uphold are rooted in and dependent on the continuing dispossession of land, the continuing genocide. We say again. There has not been, there cannot be, there is no justice on stolen land.  And so we find ourselves here. Where those that have committed horrific acts, acts that led to the destruction of a delicate and complex ecosystem, to the spawning beds of sockeye salmon, that singlehandedly put in grave danger the food source of all Indigenous Nations along the Fraser River Watershed…are taking court action against our Elders. Not only that, but they are taking court action against our Elders that will be and was, indeed successful. This court action that will criminalize them as they stand on their Land, out of love and in protection. This is an absurd situation. This is an unacceptable situation.  Injunctions are one of Canada’s last colonial instruments used to dispossess Indigenous Peoples of their Land. We are tired of the efficiency with which they continue to be granted. There are other ways we fight. There are other ways we win. We stand strong. We up hold up our Nations. We hold up our Women. We love our Mothers and we love our Children. We train our warriors and our Men. Then this time, we win.  #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 106 of the disaster we are still in Terrace. After a long day in court, we are exhausted. If Fasken Martineau's Kevin O'Callaghan's strategy was to intersperse long, tedious wanders through affidavit evidence with outright lies and misrepresentations being made by Imperial Metals about the Tl’abanot’in to confuse and shake our focus, it's not working. We are sharper, we are more alive, we are angry. We spend all day in court watching and listening one white man in a suit and gold pinky ring talk to another white man in a suit about things they have no knowledge of, they dismiss Elders and the exercise of rights and title and belittle the jurisdiction that exists on unceded and unsurrendered territory. Enough.  Tomorrow we will submit our arguments and they will be short and simple. This is not where we want to be and this is not where we will see any justice or any change. For the many that stood with us today, thank you. We had visitors from all over, including MADII 'LII CAMP, friends and family, accomplices and allies, who stood with us, in defense and in solidarity. Come stand with us again for our last day in court, Wednesday, November 26th. It won't be nearly as boring. We promise. Stand strong. Wear red. See you then! #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 105 of the disaster we are in Terrace. We are calling all of our allies, our accomplices, our friends and our families, our Nations and our communities. We need you. We will be gathering outside the courthouse tomorrow at 9:30am before the hearing that will start at 10am. We ask you to stand with us and in a show of solidarity, wear red. The matters before the court tomorrow are matters that will effect the Lands and Waters far beyond our territories and our Nations. This is a very important time for us. We are not in the colonizer's courts to ask for the colonizer's mercy, no we are in the colonizer's courts to ask they enforce their own laws, that the law addresses those actually committing crimes and further that the law, colonial as it is, leaves matters of our Nations to our Nations. This is an important time for us. This time we are building our Nations strong. This time we are building them unified. This time we have learned the lessons of all that came before us. We have our own laws. Our Land, our Water, our relatives, they are all connected as we are, to these laws. When these laws are disturbed, we as a Nation, further, we as a human race are put in grave danger. When these laws are disturbed, we become parasites. We become destroyers. We poison the airs and the waters. We leave nothing left for our grandsons and granddaughters and the seven generations that come after.  So tomorrow we will stand proud and stand strong. We will represent ourselves in the court room. We will say what we mean and we will say it with conviction and authority. There is no more time for pleasantries. We are rising above. We are moving quickly. We are defending our Territories.  #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 105 of the disaster we are in Terrace. We are calling all of our allies, our accomplices, our friends and our families, our Nations and our communities. We need you. We will be gathering outside the courthouse tomorrow at 9:30am before the hearing that will start at 10am. We ask you to stand with us and in a show of solidarity, wear red. The matters before the court tomorrow are matters that will effect the Lands and Waters far beyond our territories and our Nations. This is a very important time for us. We are not in the colonizer's courts to ask for the colonizer's mercy, no we are in the colonizer's courts to ask they enforce their own laws, that the law addresses those actually committing crimes and further that the law, colonial as it is, leaves matters of our Nations to our Nations. This is an important time for us. This time we are building our Nations strong. This time we are building them unified. This time we have learned the lessons of all that came before us. We have our own laws. Our Land, our Water, our relatives, they are all connected as we are, to these laws. When these laws are disturbed, we as a Nation, further, we as a human race are put in grave danger. When these laws are disturbed, we become parasites. We become destroyers. We poison the airs and the waters. We leave nothing left for our grandsons and granddaughters and the seven generations that come after.  So tomorrow we will stand proud and stand strong. We will represent ourselves in the court room. We will say what we mean and we will say it with conviction and authority. There is no more time for pleasantries. We are rising above. We are moving quickly. We are defending our Territories.  #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 104 of the disaster we are traveling. We are in Likely gathering information on the cover up of Mount Polley, we are in Terrace getting ready for court things, we are on the Mountain facing off against RCMP, we are standing on our lands, we are resisting. What we fight is much larger than one pipeline, one mine, it is a system of dispossession, a genocidal capitalism, it has destroyed so much and it will only destroy more if we let it. It is this system that the RCMP enforce, the same system that is killing Indigenous women, stealing Indigenous children, incarcerating Indigenous men. It is this system we have never and will never accept. It is unjust. It is cruel. It is devastating everything in it's path. And so we grow our resistance strong. We sustain. Our resistance recognizes the People of this Land, the Natural Law that existed before colonialism ever did. Our resistance is creative, it is critical and it is not one issue, one moment. We know that it is built and inextricably connected to centuries of resisting, the grief of generations and the crimes of colonizing. So stand up for your Mountains, stand up for your Waters, stand up for your Forests, stand up for your Mothers. Know who you are standing with and know who you are standing for. Protect those around you. Don't stop. This is not the first fight and it will not be the last. It can't be until we are dismantling the systems that create this destruction, this death, this grief. It's time we got to changing things. Really. #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 103 of the disaster we are getting ready. Our documents are filed and it's time we get moving. The Imperial Metals' Interlocutory Injunction hearing will be heard on November 25 and November 26 in Terrace. It's confusing. There has been no blockade for over a month. It's winter. Our fight is not on the road anymore. We have to attend anyway. It's a strong and true stance the Tl’abanot’in have chosen to take. There is so much power in communities like this, unified, unyielding, on their land and of it, in protection of all that is living, all that is sacred, the Land, the Water, the next generations. This is the strong stance we all need to take. On Burnaby Mountain, at Madii Lii and Unist'ot'en. When the next native guy is getting harassed by the cops. The next time someone tells you Canada is a peaceful country. The next time the police are there to protect you. Take that strong stance. Remember this is stolen land. Fight hard and fight back.  We are fighting back. We are creating our own victories. We are drawing on the work of centuries of Indigenous resistance, we are building bigger, stronger things.  For now, we'll see you in Terrace. Court starts at 9am, November 25th and November 26th. Come witness. This is the colonial process. Wear red.  #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 102 of the disaster, we are busy. The upcoming court dates and the politics of posturing have us parrying thrusts, playing offence, putting work in. There has been some recent confusion about our recent happenings so we're taking some time for some clarity. The short version of the story: Imperial Metal's Red Chris Mine applied for an interlocutory injunction against the Klabona Keepers. The Klabona Keepers, in their defense and as members of the Tl’abanot’in clan, said they had Aboriginal rights and title. To their utter surprise the TCC showed up in court to ask for standing to say the Klabona Keepers have no right to express those rights. The Klabona Keepers answered well, yes, we do. The TCC then proceeded to apply for Intervenor status for the interlocutory hearing.  The deliberate creation of division in communities on the part of resource extractive corporations and colonial governments can be devastating. The wrong intentions, the misinformation starts spreading and people are fearful, people are angry, and suddenly, families are breaking, community ties are unraveling. All in the name of what? You can't eat money. The Tl’abanot’in are inspirations to all of us. Their strong stance on their Land is unyielding and relentless. The community and culture of resistance they and other frontline Indigenous land defenders create is dynamic and exciting. It's happening. This is the reclamation of self, of power and of history, this is the rising of Nations and this is the revolution. One act of resistance at a time, one act of community and kindness at a time, ties that build and ties that bind.  We did not throw the first stone, but we will defend ourselves against the avalanches trying to bury us. We will defend our women, our children, our families. Our Lands, our Waters, our salmon bearing streams. We are rising. #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 101 of the disaster we go to Wesmatic for our update.  VIDEO: IMPERIAL METALS RAP! Enjoy. We sure did!

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On Day 100 of the disaster we are working. With this kind of a battle, there are new things we are slammed with every day. We make adjustments. We find strength in building Nationhood instead of building legal arguments. It's an exciting time for our friends in Iskut. There's so much at stake in all of this. While all of this is happening, today we remind ourselves of some crucial facts about this fight, about Imperial Metals and Red Chris Mine: 1. Imperial Metals has yet to do any meaningful clean up of the catastrophic Mount Polley tailings dam failure in Northern Secwepemc territory that unleashed millions of litres of tailings into the world. The toxic heavy metals are where they landed, exposed to air and leached with the rain and snow, continuing the mass effects of the disaster itself. 2. Despite this disaster, despite the fact that Red Chris Mine's tailings dam is of the same design, designed by the same company and managed by the same personnel, Imperial Metals is continually granted permits by the province and is expecting their last one at the end of December for a mine operational by January, 18 kms away from Iskut community. 3. Imperial Metals has never asked for and has never received the consent of the rightful title holders of the areas it encroaches on and destroys, not in Secwepemeculecw and not in Tl'abanot'in territory 4. Todagin Mountain, site of the Red Chris mine, is home to the largest concentration of Stone sheep in the world and overlooks the nine pristine lakes of the Iskut/Stikine Headwaters. 5. It's a tonne of ore milled for a gram of gold. The rest is waste, the rest is tailings, the rest will stay in the environment, cycling through the ecosystem, bioaccumulating for centuries.  The province and the corporation will not stop until we stop them. If we can stop Red Chris Mine, we can stop anything. No mines. No pipelines. No plunder and pillaging. We will protect the sacred headwaters and in turn, the sacred headwaters will protect us. #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 98 of the disaster we are weighed down. While we have resolved to disentangle ourselves as much as possible from the court process, it continues to be foisted upon us in very serious and often very overwhelming ways. Fasken Martineau's Kevin O'Callaghan and company's conduct through their representation of Imperial Metals Corporation has amounted to a complete abuse of court process. Kevin and his friends, in consistently relying on our physical distance and lack of representation to push through orders and injunctions in court against those asserting and acting out Aboriginal title and rights, is exploiting an already imbalanced legal system in a way that is counter to its own principles of fundamental justice.  We are served affidavits and evidence, binders and orders, we are forced to consent where we cannot respond or represent. Fasken Martineau has made every application in court through an official short notice procedure that should only be used in serious cases of urgency. We have been unable to, because of our physical distance and our lack of representation, respond to these applications and so the court process continues to be stacked against us in serious ways. There has been a clear and intentional denial of access to "justice" even in these colonial courts and we are exhausted. Imperial Metal's Red Chris Mine insists it is expecting its last permit to begin operations by the end of this December. We go to court on November 25 and 26th to hear their interlocutory injunction order. It is proven again and again, that there is no justice on stolen land. So find your affinity, find your communities and your families. Ask each other what justice means, let's go out and act out these things. There is nothing left for us in watching and waiting. #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 97 of the disaster we are remembering. We go to Ancestral Pride for todays update. #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere

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On Day 96 of the disaster we are back online! The internet disappears in this beautiful Northern community. We spend our days reading, meeting, playing cards, and thinking. It is important that the work we do be an active thing, not always a reactive one. And so, we gather knowledge and we gather information. We talk about the struggle and that it can only be overcome through community, solidarity and decolonization.  Humans are fantastic creatures. We can conceive of our pasts, presents and futures. This means we effect the future, each of us, shape the future. This is a great power and it comes with a great responsibility. We are not passive beings. Everything we do or don't do effects the world around us and the world at large. And every breath we take, we can choose whether or not our effect will be a positive one or a negative one. This is more than compost son! This is asking the harder questions. This is questioning everything this so-called country and your existence within it is, and has stood for, or more accurately, stood on. This is decolonization. A world where white is not right and money can't buy whole governments, where the economy is not based on dispossession and where bullets can't buy silence. This is not just defence but offence, sacrifice and imagination. We are better than this so-called Nation. Our existence and our unyielding stance will be our liberation. So tear down the walls. Build up your families and your Nations. There are a thousand and one ways to live better than this one.  #imperialnomore #blockadeseverywhere