Strawberry's fourth arrest
Strawberry is among the first to be arrested this day at barricades blocking loggers from the ancient forests at Ada'itsx. She was leading the chant "no more RCMP on stolen native land" just prior to this arrest and was the only person the photographer saw to be hog-tied.
Strawberry was arrested 10 times at Fairy Creek. At first, she hesitated to join due to a "neurological disease that triggers seizures and causes mobility problems," as she described it to me. When I first interviewed her she had slipped through the police exclusion zone and been carried two km up the mountain on the back of her new ally, Water. Strawberry said that her "lived experience of colonial systems has had a deep impact on myself and my family. I fight for my loved ones and all future generations to come. It’s my duty to be in solidarity with all Indigenous people in the fight for Indigenous justice, rights, and sovereignty."
Shy-Anne Gunville (Strawberry) was placed on the ground in the hog-tied position for about 15 minutes and then transferred into a tarp for further carrying down the road. She sat up in the tarp like this the whole time, as opposed to lying back into it, following her arrest at barricades blocking loggers from the ancient forests at Ada'itsx.
Strawberry was arrested 10 times at Fairy Creek. At first, she hesitated to join due to a "neurological disease that triggers seizures and causes mobility problems," as she described it to me. When I first interviewed her she had slipped through the police exclusion zone and been carried 2km up the mountain on the back of her new ally, Water. Strawberry said that her "lived experience of colonial systems has had a deep impact on myself and my family. I fight for my loved ones and all future generations to come. It’s my duty to be in solidarity with all Indigenous people in the fight for Indigenous justice, rights, and sovereignty."
Ready for pepper spray
Strawberry (smiling on the left) prepared for arrest #8 in a 'blob' blocking loggers from the ancient forests at Ada'itsx. A large group of police has just arrived and is walking towards the blob, behind the photographer. Prior to this moment the blob had been sitting on the floor with arms and legs intertwined, singing, for two hours while a smaller group of police contained them.
Strawberry was arrested 10 times at Fairy Creek. At first, she hesitated to join due to a "neurological disease that triggers seizures and causes mobility problems," as she described it to me. When I first interviewed her she had slipped through the police exclusion zone and been carried two km up the mountain on the back of her new ally, Water. Strawberry said, "I fight for my loved ones and all future generations to come. It’s my duty to be in solidarity with all Indigenous people in the fight for Indigenous justice, rights, and sovereignty."
Red dresses installed in a clear cut at Ada'itsx. Clear cuts are where forests have been entirely cleared, leading to the bleaching and diminishment of soil quantity and quality. Indigenous land defenders at Ada'itsx installed red dresses in clear cuts to show that extractive industries are connected to violence against Indigenous peoples, especially Indigenous women, and thus connected to the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIWG2S). One review (Mahony, Jacob and Hobson, 2017) found that the homicide rate between 2001-15 for Indigenous women was six times higher than for other women.
In the final 2019 report, Chief Commissioner Judge Marion Buller said that this disproportionate violence is “caused by state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies," noting "substantial evidence of a serious problem demonstrated in the correlation between resource extraction and violence against Indigenous women." Industry work camps were implicated.
Rainbow Eyes' 2nd arrest
Rainbow Eyes atop a machine used in the logging of forests of Ada'itsx. She and a small group of allies chained themselves to the machine to prevent it from leaving the depot. She was last to be arrested, chanting and drumming for two hours on top of the machine.
Rainbow Eyes was arrested five times at Fairy Creek. On the fourth, bail conditions stated she could not return to Ada'itsx during the injunction, which still stands as of 11 January 2022. After the fifth she was placed under house arrest, the only such case I know of at Ada'itsx. The drum she carries in this photo was seized by RCMP on this day and released on November 3rd following a court process. The title 'Creator Time' comes from an interview with Rainbow Eyes after her third arrest, when I asked what her plan was now that she had been arrested so many times, and what might be the source of her courage. She only said "we're all on Creator Time". Rainbow Eyes recovered form cancer in 2020.
Rainbow Eyes arrested by RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT). Rainbow Eyes and a small group of allies had anchored themselves to the machine to prevent it from leaving the depot to log the forests of Ada'itsx. She was last to be arrested, and I observed her chanting "thank you for helping us teach the police" for two hours alone before the arrest.
Rainbow Eyes was arrested five times at Fairy Creek. On the fourth, bail conditions stated she could not return to Ada'itsx. After the fifth she was placed under house arrest, the only such case I know of in the Fairy Creek Blockades. The title 'Creator Time' comes from an interview with Rainbow Eyes after her third arrest, when I asked what her plan was now that she had been arrested so many times, and what might be the source of her courage. She said "we're all on Creator time." Rainbow Eyes recovered from cancer in 2020.
Rainbow Eyes stands in front of a 1.5 tonne 'Cookie,' a slice from the stump of a 900 year old Douglas Fir tree that was installed in front of the door to the BC Parliament. Rainbow Eyes was one of the leaders of the movement to defend ancient forests at Ada'itsx from logging, the so-called Fairy Creek Blockades. In this photo she holds a traditional drum along with strips of cedar, sage and sweetgrass. This photo is taken after Rainbow Eyes' fifth arrest at the Fairy Creek Blockades; after the traumas shown in the previous photo. On the fourth, bail conditions stated she could not return to Ada'itsx. After the fifth she was placed under house arrest, the only such case I know of in the Fairy Creek Blockades.
The title 'Creator Time' comes from an interview with Rainbow Eyes after her third arrest, when I asked what her plan was now that she had been arrested so many times, and what might be the source of her courage. She said "we're all on Creator time." Rainbow Eyes recovered from cancer in 2020.
Water's fifth arrest
A land defender known as 'Water' is arrested and carried out by police on a tarp.
Water had been anchoring himself to the barricades with arms linked to others. These tactics, while non-violent to others such as police and industry workers, frequently placed the individuals themselves at significant risk of injury from both the hard-block device as well as during their extraction from it. BC Supreme Court Justice Thompson, in his Sept 28 2021 ruling that revoked the injunction, described protestors at the blockades as "good citizens in the important sense that they care intensely about the common good."
Justice Thompson's ruling was stayed (over-turned) in a Court of Appeal 10 days later by Justice Stromberg-Stein, who cited the potential economic harm to industry if there were no injunction in place as the reason for her decision.
Ready for peppery spray
Land defenders, including Water and (off-camera, Strawberry) in a 'blob' blocking entrance to the ancient forests at Ada'itsx. The blob has been sitting on the floor with arms and legs intertwined, singing for two hours while a group of police contained them from both sides, blocking entry and exit. Water is among them, awaiting what will be arrest number 13.
Land defenders kept masks and goggles because pepper spray, including eye-rubbing and mask-pulling, had been used by police on sitting and 'blobbed' demonstrators multiple times in previous weeks. In his September 2021 ruling that cancelled the injunction, BC Supreme Court Justice Thompson noted "one series of images shows a police officer repeatedly pulling COVID masks off protesters' faces while pepper spray was about to be employed."
Land defenders face a large group of police both in front and behind them. The photograph is framed poorly because the photographer was pushed while taking the photo by police officers stating "move, or you will be arrested."
The Canadian Association of Journalists had earlier strongly condemned the arrest of journalists at Fairy Creek, stating “the utter contempt the RCMP has shown for the law, as it relates to the vital role journalists play in a free and democratic society, is both unacceptable and unjust. The harassment of journalists at the hands of the RCMP throughout the enforcement of this injunction has been wholly arbitrary." BC Supreme Court Justice Thompson noted similarly "disquieting lapses" in the discipline of the RCMP and their "impairment of the freedom of the press to a marked degree."
The photographer was arbitrarily arrested and released without charge twice at Fairy Creek before this day.
The Fairy Creek Blockade was one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history with over 1000 arrests. The blockades sought to end the logging of endangered ancient rainforests.
Many stories could be told about Fairy Creek, a complex and freighted grassroots movement in the context of Truth and Reconciliation following the genocide and resurgence of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island. ‘Come for the trees, stay for the decolonization’ emerged as more than a catch-phrase. Indigenous land defenders explained how exploitation of the land is inseparable from ongoing violence to Indigenous bodies, communities, and cultures. The red flags here connect the movement to the missing and murdered Indigenous femmes (MMIWG2S), for which resource extraction industries have been implicated.
Settler environmentalists sought to make space for Indigenous Sovereignty, one way being to "put their bodies between RCMP and Indigenous people." And so there were moments like the one here.
Photojournalists are denied entry while police remove land defenders. These areas were named 'exclusion zones,' with police warning 'anyone entering will be arrested.' This exclusion zone was approximately two hundred meters wide.
A coalition of media and press freedom organizations won a court challenge opposing exclusion zones in July 2021. BC Superior Court Justice Thompson had said "I exercise my discretion to make the order sought by the media consortium...the RCMP will be reminded by the presence of this additional language to keep in mind the media’s special role in a free and democratic society, and the necessity of avoiding undue and unnecessary interference with the journalistic function"
Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) president Brent Jolly called the ruling a “watershed moment.”
Exclusion zones were still present as of November 2021, after Justice Thompson's September 28 ruling that noted a "serious and substantial...impairment of the freedom of the press."
A land defender eats a meal while isolated within an individualized exclusion zone. They were previously blockading the road and locked into a sleeping dragon. The road was subsequently widened by industry contractors, using an excavator that passed one meter from this person's head, enabling vehicles to pass. Police then decided it unnecessary to extract them. The yellow line was set up around them by police, and protestors, media, and others within the area were warned not to aid this individual or offer water or food under threat of arrest.
An excavator photographed from inside a police car as it passes by. In the background is a clear-cut on the hillside. Excavators are frequently used in forestry, and were frequently used by police to remove land defenders (as the next photo in the series shows). The excavators in these photos were both owned/contracted by the logging company seeking to remove land defenders from the area. In almost a year documenting the blockades, the photographer never saw more than one excavator at a time in the area. It is likely that the same excavator is in both photos.
The photographer was not under arrest at the time of this photo being taken, but given a lift by police 7km down the mountain.
A land defender with an arm locked into a 'Sleeping Dragon' hard block installed into a large log blocking the road. They had been locked in by the right arm, upto the elbow, for unknown hours - journalists were not permitted to ask questions. An enforcement team took approximately one hour to extract them from the log.
These tactics were widespread but placed the land defenders at significant risk of injury, especially during their extraction. BC Supreme Court Justice Thompson, in his Sept 28 2021 ruling that revoked the injunction, described protestors at the blockades as "good citizens in the important sense that they care intensely about the common good." This ruling was stayed (over-turned) in a Court of Appeal 10 days later by Justice Stromberg-Stein, who cited the potential economic harm to industry as the reason for her decision.
Land defenders sit on the ground, arms-linked, singing. They were pulled from the blob and removed from the area one by one during a four hour period.
Photographed from 200m away, behind the exclusion zone shown in the next photo. Photo journalists were threatened with arrest if they made an attempt to enter.
Activists slide the first part of the Caycuse Cookie onto a truck. It was removed by chainsaw from the stump of an 800 year old Douglas Fir tree estimated to have been felled two years prior.
The supporting structure was made by hand and chainsaw over eight days using materials salvaged from the area.
Unstaged photo.
Police contemplate the Caycuse 'Cookie', a slice from the stump of an 800 year old Douglas Fir tree, that blocks the road into the Caycuse cutblocks - areas of ancient forest that have been marked for logging.
The police are part of RCMP C-IRG, the Community-Industry Response Group formed in 2017 "to provide strategic oversight addressing energy industry incidents and related public order, national security and crime issues," as defined on the website.
The Caycuse Cookie along with other 'hard blocks' stopped industry from entering the cut-blocks for two months, between March to April 2021. Immediately before this photo was taken, an activist named 'The Machine' was anchored into it by one arm upto the shoulder. As legal observers, police liaisons and non-arrested protestors were pushed out from the area, I observed many saying goodbye and pressing their heads to it. The RCMP media liaison on site had called it "an important symbolic entity."
A group of Indigenous youth, matriarchs, and Two-Spirit face off with police inside the Caycuse exclusion zone. Approximately 150 people joined them in pushing through the exclusion zone at Caycuse, the first such challenge of an exclusion zone in the course of the Fairy Creek Blockades.
RCMP were successful in removing all land defenders from the exclusion zone that day. One week later, a second exclusion zone was retaken at Waterfall camp, and held by land defenders for several months.
