Anushka Nagiir Testimony

Anushka Nagji, also known as  Anushka In-Repair, is a poet, law graduate and political activist.  Anushka, who identifies as a settler to so-called \u27Canada\u27, also identifies her family\u27s lineage and heritage from Gujarat, India.  Anushka has been involved in many protests in solidarity with various First Nations peoples of Canada; including Mount Polley, Unist\u27ot\u27en Camp and is currently residing within the Nunavut territories

Johnny Jones Testimony

Jonny Jones talks about what it means to be Lil’wat, and how the Lil’wat Nation has never unceded their territory, allowing them to fully govern their land, asserting sovereign right and title over the Nation. He recalls that since the age of 5, his family, elders and community leaders imbued in him the cultural and spiritual responsibility to take care of the land. Buy the age of 16, he was awarded ‘watchmen status’, where it would become he and other watchmen’s life’s work to watch over and care for the land. Today, in coordination with the Land and Resource Department of the Mt. Currie Band Office, Johnny works as ‘Cultural Technician’, where he records and monitors culturally significant sites, so that intruders can legally be kept 50 meters from the areas. Jonny reflects on the Lil’wat Nations’ many court cases, where the Nation defended itself against industrial companies looking to expropriate precious resources and destroy the land.  From protecting ancient burial sites and culturally significant pictographs, to protecting trees from clear cutting, the desire and the birthright responsibility to protect the sacred land, has and will always be the first and foremost priority

Anushka Nagiir \u27Indigenous Environmental Activism & the Law\u27

Anushka talks about her motivation and journey to become a lawyer and political and environmental activist. She briefly discusses her Indian ancestry and her parent’s journey from Budruk, India to East Africa, eventually settling in Dubai where Anushka was born. Anushka’s family immigrated to Canada, settling in Calgary, Alberta where other extended family members were living. She reveals what it felt like being an immigrant and that if it weren’t for her extended family in Calgary, her family would have felt much more isolated and marginalized. Anushka remembers the constant racism, inspiring a self-directed examination of Colonialism, social inequality, marginalization and systemic racism. Anushka received a Political Science degree, immersing herself in community outreach and social activism, eventually moving to British Columbia where her passion for social justice became more solidified. Anushka received her Law degree where once again she was inspired to look beyond the rhetoric taught in University, examining the disconnect between Aboriginal law and Canadian law, which disrespects and ignores constitutionally enshrined sovereign Aboriginal land rights and title. Anushka discusses her involvement with British Columbia indigenous communities and her decision to focus her legal representation supporting populations facing social stigma, systemic racism and oppression. Anushka discusses her involvement with the Secwepemc community where the Mt. Polley mining disaster occurred. This disaster was the largest environmental mining disaster in British Columbia’s history. Anushka joined forces with the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society, vocal opponents to mining and resource extraction corporations coming into their territory to steal resources and pollute the land. &nbsp

Buster Adams \u27Traditional First Nations Fishing\u27

Buster Adams is a elder from Lytton First Nation discussing the history of fishing in Lytton his community

Don Staniford \u27Norwegian Salmon Farms\u27

Wild salmon activist Don Staniford was being deported on this day, January 27 2012. Staniford was being sued in the Supreme Court by Mainstream Canada, a division of Cermaq of Norway, for comments made on his website Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture.  Staniford states that the Norwegian government has an incestuous relationship with salmon farming in Norway because Norwegian government leaders have salmon farming interests. Oil and gas exploration is Norways leading industry next to aquaculture and so therefore the Norwegian government has vested interest in Enbridge pipeline and oil and gas exploration.   Staniford mentions the work of dr. Alexandra Morton who made the correlation to salmon farms to ISA (Infectious salmon anemia) and sea lice and describes how deadly salmon farms are to wild salmon stocks, as well as the ecological pollution created by salmon farms due to chemical hormones and antibiotics

Kanahus Manuel, \u27Indigenous Environmental Activism\u27

Indigenous environmental activist Kanahus Manuel is from the Secwepemc Nation in British Columbia, Canada. In her testimony Kanahus discusses the ongoing issue of resource extraction corporations creating large financial profits, while the territory\u27s indigenous inhabitants receive no monetary compensation-even though the corporations themselves have no legal right or jurisdiction over these indigenous unceded territories. Kanahus talks about her inherent right to be a custodian of the land, both through physical proximity to it, and fighting for justice within the Canadian court system itself. Kanahus has long been a community leader and environmental activist, most notably outspoken about the Mt. Polley mining disaster, British Columbia’s largest mining disaster in history, occurring on August 14 2014. The mining operation’s tailings pond walls breached, spilling 25 million cubic meters of water and approximately 8 million cubic meters of toxic waste, jeopardizing or completely eliminating local area inhabitants. Wild salmon is the lifeblood of the Secwepemc people and wild salmon require fresh clean river and lake water. This unfortunate and completely unnecessary mining disaster threatens the very existence of the wild salmon, severely compromising the entire Secwepemc community plus the local wildlife that rely on the salmon for food. Kanahus draws a parallel between violent corporate resource extraction practices, and the ongoing rape and sexual abuse of Indigenous populations, stemming from patriarchal control actualized through the Indian residential school system.&nbsp

Lorna Munro Testimony

  Lorna Munro is a Wiradjuri poet, activist and multi disciplinary artist. She has been strongly influenced and nurtured by her activist parents and mentored by many other members of the Aboriginal Blak Power movement. An active member of her community since age 13, Lorna calls the Redfern/Waterloo areas of the inner city of Sydney home. She honours her teachers and elders by passing on what she was taught and is currently developing and facilitating art/poetry programs and tours interpreting the history of her local area with young people along with her work with the Red Room Company

Cecilia Point Testimony

Cecilia Point talks about her Musqueam heritage, the values she grew up with, her mixed ancestry and how her family came to live in the Musqueam area. Cecilia also talks in depth about c̓əsnaʔəm, the Musqueam seasonal village her community lived in along the Fraser River in what is now South Vancouver. Cecilia tells the story of a developer implementing a construction site on the midden in 2011. The Province did not properly consult with the Musqueam band, so digging on the property commence after permits were issued. As soon as the Musqueam heard what was happening, there was an out crying of support from the community to halt the digging process that had begun. Unfortunately, during the process of the dig, human bones were unearthed and lay in buckets on the property. Cecilia states that the Province refused to stop the digging and were responsible for issuing multiple digging permits to the developer. Soon Cecilia states she was appointed by the community to be a spokesperson to the media and government, stating she took the call to heart. Even when the community held a press conference, started a petition and marched in solidarity, nothing was done to stop the digging by the Province. After 200 hundred days, thankfully the digging permits were no longer issued and the digging stopped. Then the Musqueam were able to remove the skeletal remains and have a proper ceremony for them in community longhouse. The Musqueam were able to purchase the property and want to make it a commemorative community focal point, honouring the village of c̓əsnaʔəm and the people who lived there