Support the writing of Elder Bill Jones' Life and Legacy!
Donation protected
Dear Friends of Elder Bill Jones, near and far,
My name is Karen Moe and I am an author and activist. In the summer of 2022, Elder Bill Jones invited me to collaborate with him to write his legacy, a 300-400 page book called: Flying the Coop: Fairy Creek and the Life of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones.
We've been working on the book since fall 2023 and we have just signed a publishing contract with Dundurn Press! We are almost half done writing. Dundurn wants to publish the book at the beginning of September 2026 so we have to have the first draft in by January 2026. The press wants to release the book before the deferral of the logging of the Fairy Creek Watershed expires on September 30th 2026 and, ideally, help to get the Watershed permanently protected!
Thank you so much from Elder Bill and myself to all of you who have donated which has enabled us to finish the first half of the book. However, we need help to finish the full manuscript by January 2026. It's a very complex book to write and Karen Moe needs to be able to dedicate all of her time to it and take more time off teaching. If you could donate and/or share this link, it would be so appreciated by Elder Bill, myself and the ancient trees and the still, necessarily in perpetuity, intact ecosystems.
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What follows is the description of the book in Elder Bill's words.
“This book will be a personal chronicle of my maturation and the completion of my experience as a colonized and desensitized person from my survival of residential schools where First Nations children were numbed and robbed of their personhood. During the Fairy Creek Blockades, I was able to finally totally realize myself and my self-worth, where I learned that my direction is to serve my Great Mother and be quiet in her realm, especially up in her old growth forest.
I feel that my Great Mother has let me live through the genocide of my people and realize what happened to us. When sitting in a tent during a storm up at Fairy Creek, I suddenly said to myself: “I know what happened.” I woke up from the great sleep. I want to tell this story.
I think this book will help me gather my thoughts of my experience at Fairy Creek, exchanging with our Great Mother and share what I discovered: that our Great Mother needs everyone’s help, both Indigenous and settler, and that we are totally dependent upon her and this earth and how, through helping her, she shows us the way. This book will show how our Great Mother is always there waiting for us.
At the Fairy Creek Blockade that began in August 2020, as the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, we re-flowered between five and seven thousand people to realize that they have their own personhood that was quashed by Western Culture: imperialist, colonial, economic culture. We planted the seed of self-realization there. One young man said to me after one of my talks, “Oh, we are here re-indigenizing ourselves.” Now, he is out in the world beyond Fairy Creek sharing the finding of himself so that others can too, beyond an economic culture of exploitation.
Like the old growth forest and the experiences of all of the Forest Defenders (the First Nations like myself who are against old growth logging and the settlers who came to help us protect the forests), this book will be a gathering place and an invitation for everyone to join us. It will be composed in the form of ‘wisdom weaving’ whereby, through my story, the colonization of our people will be woven into sharing what we have found and can always find through our Great Mother. This book will strengthen hope by guiding this world in its self-realization and help humankind get out of this current mess we are in as a species. I want to share this story as my legacy to my people and to the world before I die and, as my mother said, before I walk in the clouds until I am called again.”
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Please help share this GoFundMe to spread the word and finish this book by January 2026 so it will be published in September 2026, a book which will also be a manifesto to contribute to, in Elder Bill's words: “showing the world that we are going in peace and happiness knowing that we are the winners!”
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This is a YouTube video from September 11, 2021 where Elder Bill invited the RCMP to join us and, with his typical generosity and grace, shared his wisdom and humility with them. With your help, this is what Flying the Coop: Fairy Creek and the Revolution of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones will continue to do and, in so doing, continue to "re-flower" Indigenous and settlers to recover our Indigenous selves.
On September 11th, 2021, as he invited the RCMP to join us, Elder Bill turned to all of us and said: "My friends and I have flown the coop!" That's where the inspiration for the title of his legacy originated!
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Elder Bill with The Mother Tree. Thanks to Hugh Waller for this photo.
Elder Bill's health has improved and he hiked through Jurassic Grove this summer!
Elder Bill and I during our most recent interview at the site of the Pacheedaht long house where his Grandfather, Chief Charlie (Queesto) Jones, told him the stories he will share in his legacy and book. The long house was still there during Elder Bill's childhood, but it is now a campsite.
Thanks to Hugh Waller for this photo.
The Fairy Creek Watershed. I had the privilege to hike through this pristine eco-system in June 2021 while writing about Fairy Creek for my magazine, Vigilance Fierce Feminisms. For your interest, here are the articles I wrote.
Some other publications about Fairy Creek for Vigilance:
By Ben Barclay
By Gillian Ashley-Martz
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"I am writing this book in collaboration with feminist activist, author and survivor, Karen Moe. I met Karen during the Fairy Creek Blockades in June 2021. She was reporting on the blockades for her magazine, Vigilance Fierce Feminisms.
"Karen’s book, Victim: A Feminist Manifesto from a Fierce Survivor tells the story of the sexual violence she has survived and triumphed over. I see her experiences as parallel to mine. I feel that with her survival, she has been able to chronicle her experiences and give this world an understanding of how we can triumph. I want to do the same with my story to let the world know that we can find comfort and joy in this world that fulfills and completes us.
"I trust Karen Moe to tell all of mine, replete with its triumphs and all of the pain that myself and my people have survived and can work towards ending the trauma. She rebelled against her own patriarchal world and created her feminist revolution and that’s why I feel she is capable of doing the same with my experiences."
If you'd like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website:
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Elder Bill Jurassic Grove, Sooke, BC August 2023. Thanks to Hugh Waller for this photo.
Fairy Creek Blockade August 14th, 2021 approximately 250 Forest Defenders
led by Haida Matriarchs marched up Granite Main and, in so doing, helped take back
from the highway to River Camp from the RCMP and Teal Jones.
It's all about the numbers. In Canada, it's still possible to help save the planet.
The Old Growth Forest we are fighting to protect.
Red Dress ... This is one of the most profound art installations
I have ever seen. Approximately 100 red dresses were hung
in a clear cut on Granite Main, representing the deep
connection between the rapes and murders of Indigenous
women and the rapes and murder of the forests and the land.
Aunty Rainbow Eyze & Guiding Star June 2021.
The Forest Defenders of River Camp August 14th, 2021
Organizer
Karen Moe
Organizer
Nanaimo, BC