Meares Island remains without the scars of clearcuts today. The blockade was also an important early struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and against logging which would continue into the 1990s in the larger Clayoquot Sound area.
The logging crew declined the invitation and left. The blockade continued for months and on March 27, 1985, the court sided with the Tla-o-qui-aht in an historic 3-2 decision.
First, he read a statement asserting the Tla-o-qui-aht’s title to the island. Then he asked them to join him for a meal. “You’re welcome to visit our park,” Martin recalled saying years later. “But leave your saws in the boat.”
Following the declaration of the tribal park, MacMillan Bloedel approached the island’s shore on Nov. 21, 1984, Moses Martin, then the elected chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht, greeted them.
Despite opposition, the BC Government in November 1983 said that it would open up roughly 90 per cent of Meares Island to logging.
The island is the territory of the two Nuu-chah-nulth Nations and they and residents of Tofino opposed the logging, Meares Island being where Tofino drinking water comes from, among other issues.
Logging company MacMillan Bloedel announced their intention to log Wah-Nah-Jus Hilth-hoo-is (Meares Island) in 1979.
Carl and Joe Martin, nephews of Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Moses Martin, outside a protector cabin built to house blockaders on Meares Island in the mid-1980s. The effort to protect Meares Island was among the opening salvos in British Columbia’s so-called War in the Woods.
On this day in 1984, Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht First Nations declare Wah-Nah-Jus Hilth-hoo-is (Meares Island) a tribal park.
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On his way home from the UK he stayed in New York with an aunt in the aftermath of the Watts riots and the assassination of Malcolm X. While there, he read Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, which inspired him to read Fanon's other works.
The two leaders were court martialed and jailed but both were released on appeal in 1972. Rex Lassalle was radicalized while in his military training in the UK, experiencing racism and being asked to produce "a written military appreciation of how to wipe out a Mau Mau enclave".
Lassalle and Shah, together with other junior officers, took control of the Teteron Barracks. When the mutineers tried to leave Teteron, they were fired upon by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. The mutineers held Teteron for 10 days, while engaging in negotiations with the government.
His repression was unsuccessful in its intents. When the Trinidad and Tobago Army regiment was summoned to the capital, Port of Spain to help enforce order about half of the army, led by Rex Lassalle, Raffique Shah and other junior officers, refused to take up arms against the citizenry.
Williams further cracked down on the Black Power demonstrations by introducing the Public Order Act, which greatly impinged upon civil liberties to reduce the popularity of protest marches.
Prime Minister Williams passed a Sedition Bill, outlawing texts such as Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ along with the works of Frantz Fanon and Che Guevara.
Following the student uprising in February of 1970, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago declared a state of emergency on this day in 1970 to try to contain the Black Power Revolution.
Police remove placards from the bandstand in Woodford Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on 22 April 1970. The square was a popular gathering point for Black Power activists in the city. (Copyright AP Photo)
On this day in 1970, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Williams issues state of emergency in response to the Black Power Revolution, and a small group of soldiers mutiny.
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Written during a time when the linguicidal law banning Hawaiian language instruction in schools was still enacted, her dictionary helped bridge the divide between the traditional generations and the generations coming of age from the Red Power era to now.
Her monumental dictionary was a life's work and her linguistic coauthor wrote "She is the expert in Hawaiian. This is her dictionary, a monument to her. My task has been the humble one of technician."
In public school she was hit on the head for speaking her language and punished by only being given bread and water for lunch. She published more than 50 scholarly works and translated many important Hawaiian stories while working for the Bishop Museum for a long career.
Raising in the traditional way by her grandmother, Naliʻipoʻaimoku, Pukui spoke ʻŌlelo Hawai'i fluently and began translating while still in her teens.
Known for her meticulous and dedicated work for the preservation of ʻŌlelo Hawai'i, she is particularly remembered for her 1957 Hawaiian Language Dictionary.
Pat Nāmaka Bacon and her mother Mary Kawena Pukui performing hula. Pukui was born in April 20, 1895. Photo courtesy of Bishop Museum.
On this day in 1895, Hawaiian scholar, author, composer, hula expert, and educator, Mary Abigail Kawenaʻulaokalaniahiʻiakaikapoliopele Naleilehuaapele Wiggin Pukui is born.
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The treaty in 1740 granted Nanny and her followers 500 acres, and they did unfortunately agree to not harbor any further fugitive slaves. This clause would cause a lasting rift between the formerly allied Maroon community and enslaved Black community.
Their tactics were guerilla warfare. The maroon soldiers were so proficient at disguising their location that the British would circulate tales of trees in the forest becoming alive and cutting one's head off.
They led many slave rebellions and raids on plantations. Nanny was highly successful at organizing plans to free slaves. During a period of 30 years, she was credited with freeing more than 1,000 slaves, and helping them to resettle in the Maroon community.
These communities led fierce resistance to English colonialism and slavery for many years. The First Maroon War is considered to be from 1728 to 1740, and Nanny of the Maroons was one leader of the windward maroons, now honored as the only female National Hero of Jamaica.
In 1655, Great Britain took the island of Jamaica during the Anglo-Spanish War. When the Spanish left, they "freed" a large amount of enslaved peoples who greatly boosted the existing numbers of maroons.
Maroon communities of escaped formerly enslaved peoples existed in Jamaica from the time of Spanish colonialism and control of Jamaica. In particular, the Windward Maroons were majority from West Africa, Akan groups who escaped slavery and intermarried with Taíno, or island Arawak peoples.
A bust of Nanny of the Maroons
On this day in 1740, the British are forced to sign a treaty with Jamaican maroon leader Nanny.
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#tdih 1943, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Jewish resistance fighters held off Nazis for 28 days.
Read words ⬇️of Szmul Zygielbojm. He alerted Allies to Nazi’s crimes against humanity and later Jewish resistance in Warsaw.
Despite his pleas, Allies stood by. 💔
www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/wa...