#Oct7Proclaim Quotes and Contacts – Idle No More
Quotes and contact information for interview of regional Idle No More Action leaders:
1. Suzanne Patles, cell: 902-317-6040 email: suzanne-monique@hotmail.com
Member of Eskasoni First Nation and spokesperson for Elsipogtog First Nation Anti-Fracking Blockade in New Brunswick, Canada, Mi’kmaq territory:
“The time has come for us to emancipate our Nations; it is time for us to assert our sovereignty. We must protect our water, and we must unite together to sever the chains of colonialism. Our fight is for the water, for our Treaties, for our Rights, and for our People. Let’s unite and proclaim our right to our voices and speak out against corporate greed and environmental genocide. We are stronger when we stand together.”
2. Clayton Thomas-Muller, Idle No More National Campaigner based in Ottawa, Ontario, cell: 613-297-7515 email: creeclayton77@gmail.com
“Today, Idle No More challenges Canada’s and all colonial powers’ neo-liberal economic agenda, an agenda fundamentally based on the continued oppression and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples from our lands and resources. We have chosen this day, the 250 year anniversary of the British Royal Proclamation. We are using this founding document of this country and its anniversary to usher in a new era of reconciliation of Canada’s shameful colonial history, to turn around centuries of neglect and abuse of our sacred and diverse nations.”
3. Norman Matchewan, Algonquins of Barriere Lake, Quebec, cell: 819-441-8006 email: matchewann@gmail.com (french-speaking)
“Indigenous people have seen the wealth taken from our lands in the form of minerals and clear-cut logging, we have felt first hand the environmental, social, and spiritual costs that corporations and the Quebec and national governments have externalised onto us and our way of life. We are answering Idle No More’s call for action today and slowing traffic on hwy 117 to educate people about this historic Indigenous-led global day of action.”
4. Michael Horse, actor & activist of Idle No More Solidarity San Francisco Bay Area. Pennie (handler to set up interviews), cell: 510-390-0386 email: pennie@gatheringtribes.com
“This struggle is not just a Native struggle. This is a struggle for the future of humanity and all of the creatures upon Mother Earth. It is so important that people address the urgent issues affecting life upon earth, if not for themselves, for the future generations of children to come. Proclaim where you stand on October 7th.”
5. Nina Was’te, Idle No More founder and organizer, Lakota/Dakota/Cree based in Manitoba, cell: 204-588-3658 email: ninawilson101@gmail.com
“The time has come. Water is something we cannot negotiate, something we cannot compromise. It is seemingly abundant, but in reality, it is in grave danger and my duty as a woman is to defend our water and to protect life… water is life. We must exemplify nation-to-nation among our people because that day is coming when we will need those alliances on the Prairies.”
6. Russell Diabo, founder of Defenders of the Land, member of Kahnawake Mohawk Nation, Quebec, Canada, cell: 613 296 0110 email: rdiabo@rogers.com
“Canada has a long standing plan to terminate the collective Inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty rights of First Nations. By taking advantage of First Nations poverty and maintaining the colonial Indian Act as an instrument of control, Canada seeks sign-on from First Nations to final agreements that compromise and terminate their constitutionally protected and internationally recognized lands rights, Treaties, and the right to self-determination as Peoples!
7. Ta’Kaiya Blaney, BC-based Sliammon First Nations 12-year-old youth activist (contact Anne Blaney, her mother, to set up interviews), cell: 778-989-5240 or 604-988-1624 email: blaneyanne50@gmail.com
“There has been no bill of sale and Indigenous people have not ceded our lands, territories, and rights to Canada. By trampling and blatantly ignoring our Indigenous rights and culture, Canada is breaking international law established in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The current ‘leaders’ and decision makers of Canada are denying and nonchalantly attacking our rights and therefore our future without a second thought. Being the children of a land and culture, of which we have sustained ourselves from for thousands of years, we are paying the price of industrial and human annihilation, we are suffering the consequences: We will say no more, we will be Idle No More.”
8. Cherri Foytlin, Idle No More – Gulf Coast, cell: 334.462.4484 email: foytlinfam@cox.net
“Idle No More – Gulf Coast wishes to express our undivided solidarity with the Mi’kmaq Nation. The history of alliance between Gulf Coast residents and the Mi’kmaq people can be found as early as 1715 when the Acadians (Cajuns) and the Mi’kmaq banned together to resist the colonial expansion of the British during the dark years of the Acadian Expulsion. It is in honor of these allies, many of whom live along the Gulf Coast today, and in deep respect of the people of the Mi’kmaq Nation as they too defend their sovereignty, sacred waters, and ancestral lands that we extend our support and pledge conformity of action.”
9. Arthur Manuel, founder of Defenders of the Land, member of BC-based Secwepemc Nation, cell: 250-319-0688 email: artmanuel.7@gmail.com
“The Royal Proclamation of 1763, section 35(1) of the Canadian Constitution 1982, and the failure of Canada and the provinces to come to any agreement with Indigenous Peoples on Aboriginal constitutional matters under section 37(1) of the Canadian Constitution 1982 entitles Indigenous Peoples to self-determination under Article 1 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
10. Judy DaSilva, member of Grassy Narrows First Nation, Treaty 3, Ontario, Canada, founder of Defenders of the Land, cell: 807-407-2809 email: judy.dasilva62@gmail.com
“Mother Earth has been kind and patient with us, and we have stretched her loving resources beyond her limits. Now is the time to stop this destruction and devastation on her and give kindness and respect back to her or there will be no healthy future for our children or grandchildren.”
11. Crystal Lameman, Beaver Lake Cree Nation Member and Tar Sands Campaigner, cell: 780-337-9262 email: lameman@ualberta.ca
“On this day we assert our rights to self-determination and land title as per the CDN constitution. I’m here as a frontline woman for the Tar Sands, whose nation is currently involved in one of the country’s highest profile litigations against the Canadian and Alberta governments for the over 17,000 treaty violations on our land – encroachment of industry and we say no more!”
12. Cameron Fenton, Director, CYCC/CCJC, cell: 604-369-2155 email: cycc.director@gmail.com
“Youth from PowerShift BC are taking action today in solidarity with First Nations to protect the air, water, and the climate. Stopping rampant fossil fuel expansion and climate destruction is what brings us together, by working with communities on the frontlines, justice is the goal.”
13. Princess Daazhraii Johnson, Gwich’in Nation, Fairbanks Alaska, cell: 907-687-0440 email: princesslucaj@gmail.com
“For me personally, today is about respect and equality for Alaska Native people and for the land and animals which sustain us all. We, as Indigenous People, are playing an enormous role in protecting critical masses of land and encouraging a shift to alternative energies. We are also exercising our voice through media and government more than ever before and this empowerment is crucial to enacting positive change on a large scale.”