I’m convinced racism, white supremacy, homophobia, sexism... these things are never going to go away. So, we gotta fight back.

We’ve been told to quietly respond, out of view, and our voices will be heard. They haven’t been. So we kneel, and that’s bad, too. We raise our fists. Oops, that’s too much.

In summer of 1990, I camped out with others in solidarity with my indigenous aunts & uncles fighting for their ancestors in Oka. The army was the hired goon of the Quebec government and provincial police. They stabbed us while they rounded us up. I was 17.

30 years later, we are fighting for the protection of our land & forests in the BC mountains from invading & dirty pipelines. The citizenry tears down our peaceful barricades, scream at us that we don’t belong and that we were conquered by the white man and should know our place.

Of course we sympathize with our brethren in the US. Inter-generational trauma is real. 100’s of years of stolen people sold on stolen land. Indigenous people were genocided, black people were property. We somehow survived physically, but psychologically we are broken.

Some people say they don’t see colour, or they treat everyone equally. That’s all well and good, but it’s your neighbours who don’t see us as equal, and say so. That’s the problem. There’s more of them. And they’re emboldened now.

They told us to become lawyers, doctors, business owners, etc., but when we did that we still weren’t respected. Our women & girls still go missing, they are murdered. I will never forget Pamela George.

Colton Boushie was shot in the head point-blank. Shooter said he didn’t do it and that the gun fired on its own. The adage is “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” This must be the only instance where the gun actually killed someone on its own, the white man not to blame.

The man who killed Colton Boushie was acquitted in his death by a jury that didn’t not include a single indigenous person.

The deaths of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tina Fontaine, Leo LaChance, Neil Stonechild... these are events that we are shaped by. They penetrate our psyche, and become a part of us. They affect us, and infect us. They contribute to our trauma.

Once they’re inside, they’re almost impossible to shake off. We drink, we do drugs, we self destruct, we do bad things... to express the trauma. These are thing we do to ourselves, and we pass these on to our children. This becomes inter-generational trauma.

All of this simmers inside for quite a while until an event takes place that releases the tension and explodes into violence & destruction. It’s going to keep happening over & over again. It’ll stop when we’re all dead.

I’m 47 now, but I’m still going to yell & scream, raise my fist, and join my sisters & brothers in solidarity. I’m going to continue to photograph what’s happening around me, and paint my culture. I would love to set a police car on fire.

I’ve been very intrigued and really impressed with the student protesters in Hong Kong this past year & half. They’ve created more effective and efficient ways to protest. It’s kind of an advanced destruction. Chaos that’s controlled. But it’s a young person’s game now.

I enjoy chaos as much as I enjoy calm. Or I should say I did. I’m too old to enjoy chaos for extended periods. I prefer calm even if I can thrive in chaos. I’m looking forward to enjoying calm.