Please see here

A Court Held in Contempt

Also, here’s the link to the original source of the first article (it wasn’t public at the time it was posted here.)

here’s a comment I left there:

Zoe, thank you so much for writing this.

The Courts intent to make an example out of Harriet was one of the most senseless and irresponsible things I’ve ever heard of—sadly, something we’re hearing more and more of, in this magical world of business land (elders being punished…) And her passing on at this time was avoidable, if the courts acted with integrity.

I think Harriet’s story should strike a deep nerve with activists, because her life teaches us something critical – that standing up for your people, for the land, doing what is right—- it is part of our lives, part of what makes us human.

All too often, the work of activists comes second to ‘living within the buildings we seek to tear down.’ It’s like a hobby for so many – something to do during the commercials.

But Harriet, like most Indigenous People, did/do not have the luxury of choice, because doing nothing means losing your history, your identity, your Customs and Language.

Of course, for most activists in the West that doesn’t sound so bad – I mean what Customs and Traditions do we have, that’re ours? and what language, but the most bastardized of all? And what history, but one of endless violence and endless death?

This is where activists in the West must turn to themselves and ask what it is they have worth holding on to. If you care for nothing you’ve inherited then you must make something worth keeping – something that future generations can benefit from. Maybe it’s nothing more than giving respect to the homeless people on the streets, people who are broken from Residential schools and foster homes. Maybe it’s putting aside our desire to be a part of something and admitting that we are – each and everyone of us from the land, and so compelled to act in accordance, to protect and defend that which we come from.

Afterall, a legacy is not just a bucket of bolts we are expected to swallow. A legacy is something we inherit through birth – something we alone have the power to either learn from or repeat.

In other words, it doesn’t matter what we are given. What matters is what we do with what we have, even if we ‘have’ nothing—

With love and respect to you, Harriet, her family, and her People – I’d like to end by saying that, eventhough she was an activist – she was Human first, Squamish second, Woman third, Grandmother fourth —activist fifth.

Thanks again, Zoe

Ahni

Thankyou!!
Kat Norris
Coordinator Indigenous Action Movement