What if nations stood united…

On September 21 we filed out of Lennie John's house into the cool predawn light.  We were laughing, sharing the excitement of seeing something unprecedented and momentous.  Qaamina Hunter lashed his large carved masks to his boats. Eighteen feathers for his grandchildren, 5 for his children.  One mask shed tears in the shape of whales.  Sacred cedar boughs were lashed to the rails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we sped over the dark waters we wondered. Was the huge metal big agri-industrial pen system gone?  Had it left under cover of darkness? Had we missed witnessing its retreat?  My eyes cruised the water and shoreline, but as we got closer I saw that nothing had changed.  The bay called Yaakswiis remained bisected by aluminum walkways, sectioned into 10 squares of water.  Anchors held the pens over Yaakswiis's seafloor. 

 Within days 100,000s of Atlantic salmon were scheduled to begin raining feces down on this piece of seafloor…for the next 20+ years.  Corn, chicken fragments, fish from other oceans, chemicals to pink-up the flesh would sink to cover the life that call Yaakswiis home. 

Piscine reovirus, sea lice, urine, mucus would change these waters into an industrial waste flush.

 Yaakswiis remained in shackles.

We waited for six hours, hopefully scanning the horizon for any sign of Cermaq. But Cermaq never sent the barge to pull the anchors.  Cermaq never sent the tug to pull the facility away.  I looked at the people in the boats around me.  What would they do?  They had been living in soggy tents for 11 days on the pen, standing between the living world and the corporate world.  Exhaustion, disappointment, stress, anger and fear swirled, breathing in and out. 

Lennie sped for the nearest farm at Ross Pass and made it clear he wanted to speak with the Cermaq head office.  After that they took his call and it became clear Yaakswiis would not be freed that day.

          

                    Lennie John speaks to Cermaq from Alexandra Morton on Vimeo.

A thousand people live in the village of Ahousaht. It is a place of complex pathways of communication and protocol, where lineages weave together the fabric of an ancient society.    For me, a visitor invited to add my support to the work they planned, what happened next slipped beneath the surface, out of sight, like a diving whale.  Ripples, upwellings, the tip of a fast-moving fin told me something powerful was in play.

Leadership has deep roots in Ahousaht, reaching deep beyond memory, but also holding space for Ahousaht to survive today.  There was no point in asking questions, I don't think there are words in my language for the full dimension of the communication that occurred.  Corporate contract collided with ancient laws. 

 

The next morning there was only one boat, Lennie's Sweet Marie, and so we had to draw a form of straws as to who would be the five to go.  It was one of the hardest moments of this action.  Standing in the face of something huge binds people together, we didn't want to leave any behind. 

As we scampered down Miller Channel in the fleet little boat, the skeleton of the salmon farm remained untouched. It appeared unbent by the will of the people of that land, the anchors spread eagle across the beautiful bay.

We turned away and stopped across the channel, where we could barely see the farm.  We would not give Cermaq the opportunity to complain that we were too close.

Lennie spoke into his VHF radio mic,  I need eyes on the water… anyone see a tug and barge please come back to Sweet Marie."  Sure enough one guy spotted a tug under way towards us.  Hope sparked among us.  Sacheen looked startled by its sudden appearance, before shrugging it off, too many battles lost to protect her lands.  That tug could be going anywhere, no point investing in hope.

Then a barge lumbered out of Ross Pass in the driving rain.  The cement blocks that Cermaq could not drop because Ahousaht said "no" were still on deck.  

Then the tug appeared steaming north past Ahousaht!!!

… and the ropes to the anchors came away from the pen…

and the tug dragged the abomination away.

 

It was done.

Yaakswiis was freed… the shadow of Cermaq salmon cages were dragged off her, no salmon would swim in endless circles here until slaughter… sea lice would not boil over to eat young wild salmon leaving the Atleo River, bright lights would not lure Ahousaht herring to feed corporate share holders that would never be satisfied.

Oh the smiles in that little boat were so beautiful!  Our hearts were stretched with joy…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     I actually saw Joe James Crow smile! 

 

 "Look at what a handful of warriors can do… image what a nation united  could do." Lennie John.

The Norwegian company, Cermaq, thought it could use Ahousaht territory without consent of the people. They were mistaken.  They are also doing this in Dzawada'enuxw territory in Kingcome where they are tripling the size of the salmon farm in a small bay called Sir Edmund, without consent of the people.  This farm could be the reason the Kingcome herring have failed to rebound despite 30 years of no herring fishery.

Cermaq has been bought by Mitsubishi.  While Cermaq has made a mess, perhaps Mitsubishi will take a smarter approach and work with First Nations, retire salmon farms in critical wild fish regions and work to diversify with herring roe on kelp, chum salmon fisheries, land-based aquaculture… Using the BC coast as a sewer for the Norwegian way of farming Atlantic salmon is no longer acceptable. It is disgusting, and their tactics have brought shame to Norway.  Using trinkets, and trade beads, in the form of children sport team uniforms, money to enhancement groups, etc… they try to buy social licence, but people have seen through them.   

We are standing on a dying planet and unless we adapt our relationship with our planet to consider the impact of everything we do over the next 7 generations, we condemn our children to a painful extinction process.

Once again I ask you to tell Norway their dirty business is over in BC SIGN PETITION HERE

See below the support from other nations and villages for the bravery of the Ahousaht.