We want to take a minute to tell you an important story. Read on to learn about Cedar and Frog.
On the West Coast of Vancouver Island, the cedar tree is a forest relative who has been standing for hundreds of years and has been giving her gifts to the community since she sprouted. In return, the non-tree kin have taken care of the forest.
Cedar provides shelter, protection from the sun, material for tools, and as a forest elder shows many how to be a good ancestor.
Frog is a friend of Cedar. Frog’s ancestors made their home with Cedar, and they have been together through many generations. But, as the years have passed, things in the forest have changed.
Those who once cared for the forest have been forced to leave. And now, not far in the distance, Cedar and Frog can sense something coming. They can feel the forest floor shake as other trees fall in the distance. They can hear the mechanical whir and grinding of tools made to cut down the forest with great speed.
“You must leave and get far away from here,” Cedar says to Frog. “Quickly, before it’s too late.”
“I do not want to leave you,” Frog responded.
But Frog had no choice.
“Goodbye, my friend.”
The loss of Cedar is felt deeply by many. Frog, Bat, Raven, Butterfly, and people alike grieve for all the lost trees. With the falling cedars, relationships across the human, flora, fauna, and funga divides are severed. The Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation feels this loss in their cultural practices and ways of being.
Since 1846, the B.C. government has handed over forestry management to forestry companies who only see the trees within as a resource to be extracted. This has resulted in the loss of thousands of culturally modified trees and has cut old-growth forests nearly bare.
The MMFN are taking action to protect their unceded territory guided by their core values of hisuki?is cawaak (everything is one), ?iisaak (respect with caring), and ?uu?aaluk (taking care of).
MMFN has launched a legal challenge that aims to advance an Aboriginal title claim to protect their territory from unsustainable forest practices that continue to decimate old-growth forests and culturally modified trees, like cedar.
A win for MMFN would bring jurisdiction back to the people who know their land best, and has the potential to return to a relationship of reciprocity with cedar and all the more-than-human kin who still live in the forest.
You can learn more about Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation and their legal challenge on their campaign page.
