FAIRY CREEK BLOCKADE

The Fairy Creek Blockade began in August 2020 and peaked in the number of land defenders and actions taken around 2021-2022 before its decline in 2023.

The blockade aimed to save one of Vancouver Island’s last remaining old growth forests.

The next series of images are from the month I spent there in the summer of 2021.

With over 1,100 arrests and numerous injuries, thousands of people cycled in and out of what could only be described as a small village in the forest. Equipped with rotating “jobs,” everyone who came—no matter for how long—had a role to play in its ecosystem. Tasks ranged from running the kitchen, standing guard for police, or locking your arm into a “Sleeping Dragon” and putting your body between the machinery and the trees. Multiple small bases were also dispersed along the logging roads and clear cutting zones brought upon by Teal Jones.

It seemed like a black and white story, with a clear divide between who was good and who wasn’t. But the longer I stayed there, the more I realized it was nuanced, and that maybe I should not be there at all.

The land being logged was in the Pacheedaht Nation, an Indigenous nation with a long history of logging. Logging had become their main source of income, allowing for better internal school services, quality of life, and housing for their community. Stopping this logging also meant infringing on their autonomy—their right to choose how to manage their resources. Not everyone in the Pacheedaht Nation agreed. But who was I to be participating in this? Who were any of us?