I'll be speaking shortly after 1pm. Please come & chat before or after & signup to volunteer for my upcoming community art for #Palestine#solidarity event ✌️🎨🇵🇸🍉💗
Usually I go out New Year's morning to a wetland and start my year bird list out right, but this year, between work and getting back to running, it'll be a slower start. My #birdsof2023 list starts with a quick park walk this morning:
I found this #free#WineGrapes patch 3 years ago & made note to return each year to #harvest more #fruit 🍇 Took us about 10 minutes to pick a bag of #grapes 😁
I underestimated the harvest weight yesterday; we got closer to 8lbs in the bag I'm holding in the photo!
In the 1960s and '70s, cops were brutalizing #Indigenous people in the #PNW ...for fishing.
But fishing is a treaty-protected right. People stood up for it. Elders call this era the Fish Wars.
In 1974 the issue went to the Supreme Court. After 3 years of discovery and pretrial, Judge George Boldt heard the case and ruled that the state of #Washington must respect the Indigenous right to fish.
The Boldt decision changed the landscape. It turns 50 next month.
I've restocked my #LittleFreeLibrary 😁📚
It's the only #LFL on Kamloops Ave in #Saanich 👍 If you're in my area, swing by & grab some #free#books or #DVDs or #CDs from my free community sharing library.
Ever wonder why when you were a kid in Oregon, you learned about the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes of the Eastern USA but nothing about local Native Americans? Why you learned about the pioneers crossing the plains on the Oregon Trail, but nothing about what they did once they arrived?
...Or maybe you didn't even notice how much was left out until this very moment, reading my words?
Here is the missing piece.
"Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley" by David G. Lewis.
Fair warning, this book made me so upset that I cried. Not at the author, he's done an excellent job. At the astonishing cruelty, violence, and dishonesty shown to native people by (many) white settlers. At how little they asked for, and still didn't get. At how little is left of the ecosystems that sustained people and wildlife and were carefully maintained by native people. At how much astonishing wealth has accrued to those who stole from natives, even to the modern day.
Land acknowledgement statements are not enough! If you are a white person in Oregon, you need to read this.
These are the 2 pots of #hostas that I use as #edibles - the others I don't harvest for cooking. Those ones are split & put into different garden areas. If you enjoy asparagus & endives - you'll enjoy cooking & eating young hosta shoots too. They taste similar to those veggies.
Selkirk Trestle, walking & cycling bridge - spans from Banfield Park to Selkirk waterway paths on other side of waterway.
Views from the dragonboat. From today's practice. I'm with new #ParaDragonboating pilot program, run by #FairwayGorgePaddlingClub on Jutland. Our team name: Storm the Gorge.
Some of the #NatureTrails that I explored around the #forested property yesterday. It smelled so good in the forest. I heard so many different wildlife calls. Forests are my happy places ❤️🌲🌲❤️
Nature is my spiritual temple.
America built its first "concentration camp school," or Indian boarding school, on the Yakama reservation in 1860.
Now, the state of #Washington has appointed five #Indigenous leaders to a Truth and Reconciliation Tribal Advisory Committee, which will investigate the state’s history of Native boarding schools.
Power was out for almost 24 hours, and we're remaining cautious through tomorrow's expected ice and wind. For now, it's SO nice not to see our breath indoors anymore! And did you know boiling water is a goddamn miracle? I've never loved cup noodles (or wanted a camp stove) so much.