Getting the No Enbridge Message Out in Skidegate

Artists and community came together in Skidegate recently to create a colourful sign with a clear message: “Haida Gwaii United Against Enbridge.”  An impromptu session, the painting was sparked by a group of individuals disheartened by Harper’s recent approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline. The group got the materials together to get started and artists Corey Bulpitt, Fanny Aishaa, and Rob Geary heard about it and volunteered to help out. With the support of the Skidegate Youth Centre space, the artists led participants in the design and spray painting of the banner. The Haida Gwaii Against Enbridge banner saw it’s first public appearance in the march at Hospital Days in Queen Charlotte.

Production Under Way at Haidawood Studios

AP – Masset, BC – The crew of Haida Raid 3 is hard at work on sets and cardboard creation at the Haidawood Studios in Masset, Haida Gwaii.  As you can see from the photo here, the characters are starting to get restless.    The more they hear about the threat of supertankers posed by the Northern Gateway pipeline, the more they start protesting around.

Thanks to all the volunteers from the community who have been helping make this happen.  Looking forward to seeing the whole production up in time to respond to the Harper government’s blessing of another destructive mega-project…

Gwaai Edenshaw Pendants Available to Support Anti-Tanker Animation

Haida carver Gwaai Edenshaw has released photos of the detailed bronze and silver pendants that he has cast from the masks of characters from the Haida animation Haida Raid 2.  These pendants are rewards for the Indiegogo campaign to support the production of the animation’s sequel, Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters.

The new animation will feature music from Alida Kinnie Starr with Jason Alsop from the Haida Hippies.  Haida Raid 3: Save Our Waters takes aim at the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project with a style unique to Haida Gwaii (In Haida Raid 2, Raven flew in and hacked the Enbridge mainframe!).

Please check out and support the Haida Raid 3 Indiegogo campaign and help K’alts’idaa K’ah and the producers meet their goal:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/haida-raid-3-save-our-waters

Gwaai will also make a gold pendant for as a higher level reward if someone goes for that level of support!

 

Kinnie Starr Joins Haida Raid 3 Indiegogo Campaign

Haida Raid 3 needs your support!  This stop motion animation project is a home-grown Haida and non-Haida production — Puppet Activism that takes on Harper and his cronies on the Northern Gateway Pipeline and the expansion of oil tanker traffic on the Northwest Coast.  A collaboration between K’alts’idaa K’ah (Laughing Crow) Productions, a storytelling society founded by the Haida carvers Jaalen and Gwaai Edenshaw and Dr. Ken Leslie, an educator and neuroscientist, Haida Raid 3 will feature music from Juno winning musician Alida Kinnie Starr.  This year’s theme, “Save Our Waters” is a song from Kinnie that brings into focus what’s at stake in this new round of threats to our ocean from large-scale industrial development.

The collaborators in Haida Raid 3 have launched an Indiegogo campaign to support their work and we invite you to check it out.  It has many different levels of rewards for your contributions, including bronze, silver, and gold castings of the characters in the production to Haida prints and stickers. Please help raise funds to make this project a success and send a clear message to the government that we want a healthy coastal economy not an industrial disaster waiting to happen!

Check out the Haida Raid 3 Save Our Waters Indiegogo campaign at:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/haida-raid-3-save-our-waters

Douglas Channel Watch Launches New Website

Facing the massive, extremely well funded campaign machine of Enbridge Northern Gateway, local Kitimat group Douglas Channel Watch has launched a door-to-door campaign of their own to oppose the Northern Gateway Pipeline in the upcoming Kitimat plebiscite.  Incredibly, their district has removed financial caps on campaigning for the plebiscite and allowed temporary workers not from the region to vote in the poll.  For more details on this stacked “democratic” process and Enbridge’s invasion of Kitimat, please read the Vancouver Observer’s article “Surreal Enbridge political campaign underway to sway Kitimat to “vote yes” to oil pipeline.”

You can view the Douglas Channel Watch website at dcw.nationbuilder.com.  Their new website hosts a petition as well as a means to donate, get in touch and support their work.  Congratulations and good luck DCW!

Nations United Against Enbridge T-shirt Campaign Launched at All Native Basketball Tournament

The Haida delegation at this year’s All Native Basketball Tournament brought T-Shirts with them promoting unity amongst First Nations on the coast. Members of Haida Gwaii CoASt screen printed the Tees in Masset to get a strong message out that we don’t want the pollution of our waters brought on by supertankers.

Watch for more T-Shirt and sticker campaigns in the upcoming months.  Let’s get the word out that we don’t need tarsands bitumen travelling through our waters. We want healthy salmon, killerwhales and people!