Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Humans of Fairy Creek: A Variety Show at the Victoria Fringe


Humans of Fairy Creek: 

A Variety Show at the Victoria Fringe


Showtimes Aug 25, 30, 31, Sept 1, 2, 2023
7:30-8:45 pm
Bayanihan Community Centre
1709 Blanshard St (next to former Romeo's)
Victoria, BC

No on-site parking
*Masked event.*


$12 tickets available online at Humans Of Fairy Creek tickets  
and the Victoria Fringe Box Office at 1609 Blanshard St (fronts on Fisgard)
12-6 pm

Facebook event link https://fb.me/e/QpH5jBxL

Hear from those who were on the ground. 


An old-fashioned variety show threaded with the contemporary British Columbian realities of deforestation, climate crisis, and ongoing colonial violence. 

Talk show plus assorted musical acts, performances, and experiences. Hosted by ecofeminist activist and performance artist Tasha Diamant (clothed). Featuring a handful of the thousands of people trying to stop old growth logging in BC. In which the government and cops are the villains.

Watch this event for announcements of who will be in each of the 5 shows.

Artist and "company" bio


Tasha Diamant is a longtime ecofeminist performance artist and activist, cancer survivor, recovering academic, and mother. 

Before Extinction Rebellion, before Greta Thunberg, Tasha stood naked on the street monthly holding the Extinction Symbol. Her work has connected her body–all of our bodies–with vulnerability and mass extinction since the 00s. (For this show, she will be dressed.) 

The “Fairy Creek Blockade” of 2021 led to ~1300 often brutal and illegal arrests of peaceful people trying to defend the very last old growth ecosystems in BC. The BC government continues to enable old growth logging and prosecute nonviolent, mostly young people, criminalized for seeking to save their futures.

All audience members must also make a one-time purchase of a Fringe badge for $6.

Tickets at Humans Of Fairy Creek tickets and Intrepid Theatre Box Office, 1609 Blanshard.


**Please help me pay participants in the show. My ongoing artist/activist work is unpaid labours of love. Typically, I don't make enough from sales to pay for participation in the fringe, a loss I take on willingly for myself. The more tickets sold, the more I'll be able to pay participants. Consider making a donation.**

Content warnings:


Audience participation may be invited but no individual will be put on the spot.

Colonial violence including police brutality, sexual violence, and racist violence, will come up. Coarse language. Recommended for ages 12+.

*Masked event* 
Masks will be available if you don't have one.



CREDITS and FAIRY CREEK RESOURCE LIST below



☆ CREDITS 


*Some participants will not be publicly declaring their names because people trying to use peaceful civil disobedience to save their futures–when governments are climate deniers–are criminalized.*

In alphabetical order by first name:

Amalia Schelhorn: Dance piece with Gary Relyea singing "Old Growth Forests" and leader of Elders' Flash Mob. Amalia is a former first soloist with the National Ballet of Canada. She has been active in the Fairy Creek protests and was the first arrestee to be exonerated. She has been using massed community protest dances, flash mobs and solo performances to attract media attention to the crisis in BC’s old growth forests. Dance piece Aug 25, 30, and 31; Elders' Flash Mob Sept 1 and 2.

Anne and Gary Relyea are recently retired classical singers: Gary has performed leading roles with most of the opera companies of Canada (including Pacific Opera Victoria) and was a favorite soloist with Canadian orchestras. Anne found time to sing professionally during and since raising their three children. Since moving to Victoria nine years ago they have been lending their voices to inspire at Fairy Creek. They also sang as they were arrested and sentenced for blocking the TMX pipeline in 2018. They will sing at all five shows.

Gary's song is "Old Growth Forests" sung to the tune of "Old Man River" by Jerome Kern; words by Sophia Rosenberg

Anne's song is "Trees," music by Oscar Rasbach, words by Joyce Kilmer and Gary Relyea

Arnica Adams (stage manager/tech): Land defender who likes to play with cats and dream of liberation. Arnica has been inspired by so many stories from other land defenders in the past and is grateful to get to play a role in passing on tales as a result of that. Wherever there is a conversation about anarchy on the west coast, Arnica isn't far away.

Belial (poet and activist): Their poem "Melancholic serenity" is read in the show.

Catherine McClarty: educator and business owner, was arrested at Fairy Creek in June 2021. Catherine is a mother of three young children and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for terminal cancer at the time of her arrest. She is one of three land defenders who are suing RCMP Community-Industry Response Group officers and the Attorney-General of Canada for excessive use of force during arrest. C-IRG officers’ negligence, use of torture, and unsafe methods of extracting them from devices during arrests in 2021 led to serious and lasting injuries. Speaking in the Aug 25 show.

Corina Fischer (she/they) production manager and creator of the sound piece, WOODSONG: What the trees heard (every night): Corina is a settler artist and activist living on unceded Lekwungen territory. After graduating from UVIC in 2021 (BFA Theatre) they visited Fairy Creek Blockade and performed WOODSONG: 1000 years, 1000 seconds for Old Growth; screaming for seventeen minutes atop a huge bleached stump. The Sound Piece they created for the Fairy Creek Variety show combines this performance with aural memories of their frontline blockade experience and arrest. They also worked on two other Victoria Fringe shows this year: creating and performing in New Earth Bandits on at Macaulay Point Park; and production designing Bad Dog, at the SKAM Satellite Studio.

Donna Clark: some of her touching videos from the 2021 blockade will be shown every night (@dcbreathes on Instagram). Donna is a Scottish-Irish settler hag on lands of Hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ & Skwxwú7mesh-speaking people. Photography, writing, video & dishwashing in solidarity against colonial capitalism.

Eartha Muirhead (poet and activist): Her poem "Us and Them" is read in the show.

Kimberly Croswell: "We don’t have to wait for some far-off revolution to happen in the future. We can live the revolution in the here and now.” Activist-scholar Kimberly Croswell, who will be a guest on the August 25 show, has been with the ‘Victoria’ Anarchist Bookfair Collective for 12 years and 9 years with the Camas collective. She participated in anti-Olympic protests and spent 4 years taking to the streets with the giant salmon puppet. Kimberly is a recent Ph.D. in the Faculty of Ed. at UVic. Her work addresses non-hierarchical shared leadership organisational structures. Her passion is shifting social consciousness by changing social relationships.


Magpie (they/them) Trivia in Medic Skit; voice of Sage in Moment of Silence (every night): Magpie is 22 years old, a queer settler who has been involved in blockading old growth logging on so-called Vancouver island since 2021, while simultaneously protesting for indigenous land rights and sovereignty. Previous to that they have been involved with local activism and community care. 

Mar Mar will be holding the Moment of Silence; singing Rhyth M's song Fairy Creek; also plays Wild in Medic Skit (every night): "Yo what up it's mar mar I spent some time at the blockade and saw some WHACK SHIT. People tell me I'm alright to look at and I speak good. Okay but have you REALLY heard about Fairy Creek?"

Q. Bachand
(they/them):
Q will be fiddling and singing Aug 30-Sept 1. qthey.ca

Rhyth M : words and music for "Fairy Creek," which MarMar sings after the Moment of Silence. https://rhyth-m.bandcamp.com/track/fairy-creek

Sarah Murphy: singer with the Elders Flash Mob, Sept 1 and 2.

Sophia Rosenberg: writer of the words Gary Relyea sings.

Sparrow (he/they) News announcer in News Item; Sparrow in Medic Skit; Josh Fischer's voice in Moment of Silence (every night): Sparrow is a queer settler anarchist involved in different struggles in the city. They dedicate most of their time to education and agitation through art. They are a university student studying social science.

Tasha Diamant (she/they): Producer, director, host.

Consultants: Leanne Brown; Rutabaga; Seairra; Sharon Davies

Intro: written by Tasha

Tall Trees: written by Tony Wrench in the 1980s, "inspired by Native American traditions." His band was called Prana.

News Item: written by Tasha, Corinne Thiessen, and Sparrow

Medic skit: idea suggested by unnamed, devised by Magpie, Mar Mar, Sparrow, Tasha, and Corina

Us and Them poem: Eartha Muirhead

Moment of Silence: written by Tasha, Mar Mar and Sparrow
  • Iconic photo of Fungus taken by Josh Fischer @thornes_media on Instagram
  • Photo of Nolan and Sage taken by Mike Graeme @mikegraeme on Instagram

"Fairy Creek" song: Rhyth M


Debrief: written by Tasha and Corina Fischer

Resource List: created by Kimberly Crosswell and Tasha Diamant

Glossary of Terms: created by Arnica Adams, Tasha Diamant, and Corina Fischer

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I'VE FORGOTTEN ANYONE!

☆ FAIRY CREEK RESOURCE LIST* 

*not comprehensive but a decent start

Email contact for Corina Fischer traverseartstheatre@gmail.com
Email contact for Tasha Diamant tashadiamanthuman@gmail.com

Recent Reporting at Fairy Creek (Aug 2023)


Follow Brandi Morin @bmorinstories on Instagram

Follow Josh Fischer @thornes_media on Instagram

Follow Camilo Ruiz @roninswanson on Instagram

Follow Fairy Creek Blockade @fairycreekblockade on Instagram


Three Years Later: The Fight at Fairy Creek Continues, by Camilo Ruiz, Aug 14, 2023 (Read/subscribe to Camilo Ruiz on Substack https://camiloruiz.substack.com/ )


Creeker zines


Read all volumes and Creeker companion publications here https://creekerzine.wordpress.com/



RCMP / C-IRG


@abolishcirg  @thornes_media  @roninswanson  @bmorinstories  @arvinoutside (Arvin Singh)  @mikegraeme (Mike Graeme) on Instagram


Playbook for RCMP’s Wet’suwet’en raids provided by former U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, by Sidney Coles, Ricochet, Aug 17, 2023


RCMP watchdog concerned with delays in B.C. C-IRG probe by Brett Forester, CBC Indigenous, Aug 14, 2023


RCMP cited Standing Rock protests as 'evidence' to create controversial B.C. unit by Brett Forester, CBC Indigenous, Aug 3, 2023


226 of 260 Police Complaints Stemming from Fairy Creek Have No Named Officer, by Camilo Ruiz, Jan 22, 2022


The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally by Molly Murphy and Research for the Frontlines in Briarpatch magazine, Jan 5, 2022


Real climate action means defunding the police by Molly Murphy and Research for the Frontlines in Briarpatch magazine, Nov 3, 2021


INVESTIGATION: RCMP misled public about pepper spray incident at Fairy Creek, by Jimmy Thomson, Ethan Cox, and Brishti Basu, Capital Daily and Ricochet, Nov 1, 2021


Victims of RCMP Violence Speak Out / Expert Minces No Words / RCMP Silence, reported by XRTV Victoria and Mark Nykanen, may he rest in power, Oct 3, 2021


Inside the raid on Fairy Creek’s HQ: Violence, arrests and media exclusion, by Clay Nikiforuk, Aleisha Langmann, Ricochet, Aug 24, 2021


SPECIAL REPORT: Attack on Forest Defenders, & Fairy Creek reported by XRTV Victoria and Mark Nykanen, may he rest in power, May 9, 2021


More Government Machinations


Critique of “Inside the Pacheedaht Nation’s stand on Fairy Creek logging blockades” in The Narwhal, July 1, 2021 (and reply), by Tasha Diamant et al, July 22, 2021


Province co-ordinated with Pacheedaht over Fairy Creek statement, according to emails, by Jimmy Thomson, Capital Daily, May 18, 2021


@fedlobbot Federal Oil and Gas Lobbying Bot, It’s alive! Our new lobbying bot let’s you track oil & gas lobbying at your fingertips, try searching “fedlobbot” to see recent tweets without having an “X” account


@bcgaslobbybot and Gas lobbyists talked to province more than 750 times since election, Dec 8, 2021, Wilderness Committee



More Police Violence


Follow @defund604network  @defundvpd  @wpgpoliceharm on Instagram


Victoria Police Sexually Assault Teens and Ignore Assault on Woman: “Freedom”, by Tasha Diamant, Feb 9, 2022


The Court Cases (and more)


Follow Fairy Creek Blockade @fairycreekblockade on Instagram

Follow Rainbow Eyez @aunty_rainboweyez on Instagram

Follow Donna Clark @dcbreathes on Instagram

Follow Arrest Stories podcast on Spotify


More Fairy Creek-Related (important sources that haven’t been mentioned yet)


Joshua Wright on Instagram @joshuawrightfilm


Read/subscribe to Cassie Loewen on Substack https://thisislion.substack.com/


Read/subscribe to Kelly Tatham on Substack https://loveandthemultiverse.substack.com/


Sign up for the Elders for Ancient Trees excellent newsletter, contact: oldfolksforoldgrowth@gmail.com


Connecting Some Dots


Instagram accounts to follow that haven’t been mentioned yet


The Destruction of the Earth is a Crisis of Masculinity by Tasha Diamant, Sep 12, 2021 (reworked from a piece written in 2014)


Some Independent Media 


The Breach

Briarpatch

Indiginews

The Maple

Ricochet

The Tyee


Anti-Colonial/Decolonization Resources


Accomplices Not Allies, by Indigenous Action Media http://www.indigenousaction.org/accomplices-not-allies-abolishing-the-ally-industrial-complex/ 


Against Reconciliation, by Tawinikay

https://fromembers.libsyn.com/against-reconciliation-decolonize-means-no-state


Reconciliation is Dead, by by Tawinikay

https://itsgoingdown.org/reconciliation-is-dead-a-strategic-proposal/


Settlers on the Red Road: On Indigeneity, Appropriation, and Belonging, by Tawinikay

https://itsgoingdown.org/settlers-on-the-red-road-a-conversation-on-indigeneity-belonging-and-responsibility/


Defining Decolonisation: An Interview with Gord Hill

https://archive.org/details/GordHillondecolonization


Colonization and Decolonization A Manual for Indigenous Liberation in the 21st Century by Zig Zag

https://warriorpublications.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/colonization-decolonization.pdf


Community Organising, Safety & Support


Resisting Calling Out Culture, by Vikki Reynolds

https://dulwichcentre.com.au/resisting-calling-out-culture-leaning-in-with-respect-and-dignity-by-vikki-reynolds/


Leaning in as Imperfect Allies, by Vikki Reynolds

https://journals.gmu.edu/index.php/NandC/article/view/430/364


Healing in Action, by Black Lives Matter

https://blacklivesmatter.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/BLM_HealinginAction-1-1.pdf



Anarchist Theory and History


Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy & Women's Liberation, 2 Chapters

http://victoriaanarchistreadingcircle.ca/index.php/2019/02/01/feb-12-the-geopolitical-history-behind-rojavas-revolution/


Starhawk: Dreaming the Dark, Chp 1

http://victoriaanarchistreadingcircle.ca/index.php/2019/08/19/aug-27-starhawk-dreaming-the-dark-chpt-1/



Anarchist Media Repositories


North Shore Counter Info 

https://north-shore.info/publications/


BC Blackout

https://bcblackout.wordpress.com


*Thanks to the Camas Infoshop for providing some links to this project


Lukwungen & WSANEC territory Land Protection & restoration:


Salmon Habitat & Killer Whales At Increased Risk Due to Ongoing Malahat Expansion: W̱SÁNEĆ Nation Member Protests: https://wsanec.com/w̱sanec-nation-members-protest/?fbclid=IwAR0VcLwI94rrjT_SXvVDIQek04xHlWfVhYGwwGo5vLAVCujESfjbU2uo_Wo


PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ (Blossoming Place) is a native plant nursery, community school garden, restoration project, and the home of the PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ Native Plants and Garden Education Program: https://crdcommunitygreenmap.ca/location/pepáḵeṉ-háutw̱-blossoming-place


Friends of Bowker Creek Society; People and communities working together for urban watershed renewal : https://bowkercreek.org


PKOLS-Mount Douglas Conservancy: https://pkols-mountdouglas.ca/wp/


Rock Bay Creek Society: https://www.rockbaycreek.ca


Rithets Bog society: https://rithetsbog.org


Greater Victoria Green Team (invasives removal/habitat restoration): https://greenteamscanada.ca/our-green-teams/greater-victoria-green-team/

Meadowmakers project (yard rewilding): https://pollinatorpartnership.ca/en/meadowmakers


Habitat Aquisition Trust (volunteer to save native plants from development sites): https://hat.bc.ca



Fairy Creek Glossary of Terms


Hard Block


A hard block is a means of preventing resource extraction from continuing, generally by blocking or disrupting roads which resource vehicles would otherwise use. Hard blocks generally include a person in a difficult to remove position or locked-in position.


Soft Block


A soft block is a means of disrupting resource extraction roads with small- to medium-sized debris.


Tripod


A tripod is a form of hard block that is composed of three logs fastened together, erected in a tripod shape, with a person at the top.


Sleeping Dragon (or Dragon)


A dragon is a form of hard block which is composed of a pipe that has pieces of rebar through it, allowing the user to “clip in” via a chain and carabiner, locking themself to the inside of the pipe. This pipe was often sealed in concrete, resting at the bottom of a trench. 


Lorax


A lorax is a hard block that is composed of a log that has had a hole drilled through, allowing the user to lay on the log and lace their arms through the holes, clipping in like the dragon.


Friendship Bracelet


A friendship bracelet is a piece of mobile PVC pipe where a person is on each side, they stick in an arm, they are locked together inside the pipe.


C-IRG or Community-Industry Response Group*


A government-sanctioned, no-accountability, militarized arm of the RCMP dedicated to enforcing climate collapse. A secretive national force formed in BC in 2017 to police land and water defense movements in so-called Canada. Some of the worst kind of villainous, ghoulish, domestic-abusing scum that the planet has to offer. 


Harsha Walia, former executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association: “C-IRG in particular is an arm of policing whose entire mandate is to protect state and capital interests in resource and energy sectors by criminalizing Indigenous land defenders. There is no clearer example of the seamless nexus between corporations, the government, and the police.”


*In Nanaimo court in June of this year, a former C-IRG officer testified that the C-IRG is now called the CRU. However, there is no information about CRU on the RCMP’s website. The only information on their website still uses the name C-IRG.


Green Guys


The green guys are the more militarized and highly trained of the C-IRG, often using tactical equipment. They’re the ones who do some of the more difficult extractions like removing people from tree-sits, tripods and cantilevers. These were the creeps who did more of the covert operations, such as destroying camps and belongings, including people’s vehicles; stealing possessions and dumping water supplies; and terrorizing peaceful, nonviolent forest protectors camping and in blocks, especially at night.


Blue Guys


The “less militarized” version of the C-IRG and other RCMP, wearing the traditional navy blue, are slightly more public facing. They do most of the enforcement. They would make up false boundaries and call them “exclusion zones,” even though a judge ruled such tactics unconstitutional.


Among other nefarious intimidation and pain-compliance tactics–such as grabbing women’s breasts and genitals and twisting their nipples–it was blue guys who carried out the pepper spraying of peaceful, nonviolent forest protectors. They pepper sprayed directly in people’s eyes and genitals. 


Both Green Guys and Blue Guys, as well as other RCMP and contractors/workers, used machines such as power tools and excavators in extremely unsafe ways causing, in many cases, debilitating and lasting injuries. Blues, other RCMP, and contractors/workers also destroyed camps; food and water supplies; and belongings, including people’s vehicles; and stole possessions.


Grey Guys


The Division Liaison Team (DLTs) wear grey outfits and are the people whose role it is to be a “personable” intermediary between police and activists. They are real cops and can do all the usual cop stuff but they play the role of “good guy.” Activists have their own Police Liaisons (PLs). DLTs chat with the PL, but also with other activists, often trying to figure out a weaker link. They also use negotiating strategies with the PLs to help make the police's job easier.