#FlashbackFriday
Autumn 2021.
Warming up & chatting with #HereditaryChief Sonny Wallas (David Hanuse), Chief Ye-kue-klas of [Gwat’sinuxw (Quatsino)] nation.
He was sharing with me about feeling bullied/outnumbered by band council folks who are dishonouring their ancestors/betraying Creator & his work with culture & language preservation.

Wallas’s great-grandfather was James Wallas—coauthor of #Kwakiutl Legends. He was the former hereditary Chief of the Quatsino #FirstNation of the Northern #VancouverIsland #Kwakiutl.

Learn more:
https://himwitsa.com/products/kwakiutl-legends

https://hakaimagazine.com/news/northwestern-vancouver-island-likely-escaped-the-ice-age/

Chief Sonny's #Indigenous #linguistic# work:
https://as.amphilsoc.org/repositories/2/resources/3432

https://www.quatsino.org/history

https://www.asparagusmagazine.com/articles/indigenous-communities-on-vancouver-island-are-healing-forests-for-the-future

#IndigenousElders #KnowledgeKeepers #LanguageKeepers #CutureKeepers #NativeWisdom #Decolonization #VancouverIsland #PortHardy #TraditionalChief #NativeChief #BCFirstNations #UNDRIP #LandBack #VanIsle #PacificNorthwest #Cascadia #PNW #NativeLanguages #Frontlines #Blockade

Tsahaukuse, George Quocksister Jr. is a #HereditaryChief of the #Laichkwiltach Nation and the son of Elizabeth and George Quocksister. He is a passionate advocate for the protection of #WildSalmon as a crucial part of his culture and the food security of his people, and is working to ban the practice of #SalmonFarming on the west coast. He lives in Campbell River, BC.

This is from our 2020 #DiscoveryIslands flotilla protest & restocking patrol with George & 2 other BC Indigenous Chiefs(Darren Blaney & Bill Wilson) from North Island regions.

The fight to get fish farms out of BC waters started in the late 80s & continues.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/video-appears-to-show-disfigured-farmed-salmon-1.4261637

#VancouverIsland #BCIndigenousChiefs #NativeChiefs #IndigenousLeaders #BCFirstNations #NativeBC #IndigenousBC #NativeLeaders #FishFarmsOut #DirectAction #WildSalmonAlliance #ProtectTheWild #WildFirst #SaveWildSalmon #DemandMPAs #BCpoli #CDNpoli #OceanGuardians #SalmonPeople #KeystoneSpecies #ecology #WildlifeConservation #ProtectEcosystems #environmental

* #Canada is still a fucking #racist #colonial corporation. 🤬

#Wetsuweten #HereditaryChief will serve a 60-day jail sentence under house arrest for disrupting #pipeline construction through Wet'suwet'en traditional territory in northern #BritishColumbia in October 2021.

#ChiefDtsahyl, also known as Adam Gagnon, was convicted of criminal contempt for publicly and willfully defying a court order to stay away from Coastal GasLink's pipeline construction.

According to the judgment, Chief Dtsa'hyl appeared in social media videos and called the court injunction obtained by #CoastalGasLink "bogus as hell" because the Wet'suwet'en owned and had #jurisdiction over the territory through which the pipeline was being built.

Chief Dtsa'hyl testified that as a leader, he had a duty to protect Wet'suwet'en land, water, burial sites, and historic trails from the degradation of pipeline construction. He said his actions against Coastal GasLink upheld the traditional Wet'suwet'en law of trespass.

The court heard that Chief Dtsa'hyl is 68 years old and has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 lymphoma.

Character references submitted to the court describe him as a loving, supportive, compassionate and courageous man.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7251161

#UNDRIP #BCpoli #CDNpoli #Landback #CorporateGreed #GreedKills #BCNDP #BCNewDeathParty #BCNDPEcocide #BCNDPisKillingUs #ColonialExploition #WhiteSupremacy #IndigenousRights #IndigenousSovereignty #BCgovernment #Injustice #UncededNativeLand #StopEcocide #NativeLandDefenders #IndigenousLeader #GovernmentCorruption #KKKanada

Met Bill & wife in Campbell River 2.5 years ago, on small wild salmon flotilla to protest fish farms in Discovery Islands. He told me about this Ottawa trip:

'It was 40 years ago, #Kwagiulth (#Kwakwakawakw ) #HereditaryChief Bill Wilson (Hemas Kla-Lee-Lee-Kla), and father of Canada’s first #Indigenous #AttorneyGeneral , #JodyWilsonRaybould (Puglaas), helped #negotiate and #draft the first #amendment to #Canada ’s then-new #constitution .

https://globalnews.ca/news/9552104/bill-wilson-legacy-fight-indigenous-rights-40-years-negotiating-constitutional-change/amp