As the oil cleanup continues in the waters of the Salish Sea around Vancouver’s harbour, we think back just two weeks ago when First Nations people gathered at T’Sou-ke to learn and talk about what would happen if…

The Marine Safety and Risk Reduction Summit on March 25-26 (to be featured in the May edition of the  Salish Sea Sentinel) had Transport Canada, the Coast Guard and other presenters getting involved in serious discussions with First Nations’ experts. But the words of Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones still reverberate:

“There’s one person that’s excluded out of any rights at all. And that’s our Great Mother. Politicians have made sure that corporations are represented as persons and our Great Mother is not. That to me is a very hurtful slight on our Great Spirit.

“And I think that one day when we go down that river, we must realize that we need to assert to our politicians and lawmakers that indeed our Great Mother, the Great Spirit, is a person who has rights and privileges because the Great Mother, the Great Spirit, have made us.

“When we recognize that, then we know our hands are joined again to our Maker.”