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George said the lack of Indigenous presence at the Ottawa summit was “highly offensive.”

Photo by Nick Procaylo / PNG

In Burnaby, the protest site was quiet on Sunday morning, but in a makeshift outdoor kitchen, several people were gathered to share the warmth of an open fire, and pass around a sweetgrass and tobacco smudge in an abalone shell.

Hank Bee, a Mamaliliḵa̱la member of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation, drummed a rhythm on a deer hide drum.

“These ceremonies are not just for display or to show we’re still here,” he said softly. “We are here. We are going to fight for our traditional land and territories.”

Bee had strong words for Trudeau. “He is just like his father, a forked-tongue speaker. Lies to British Columbia. I’m so sick of it. This is our home. We are going to fight for it.”

Although Trudeau said Sunday that the federal government had successfully negotiated agreements over the pipeline with 43 Indigenous bands, 33 of them in B.C., Bee said it wasn’t enough. “There are over 150 bands here in B.C. We all should be included.”

The frustration he feels is about more than the pipeline.

“I am not just fighting the oil companies,” said Bee, “I am fighting the fish farms. We want our livelihoods back.”

Photo by Nick Procaylo / PNG

Bee’s cousin, Norma Louie, who bounced her six-month-old son Ares on her hip, said she had come to fight for her family’s traditional way of life.

“When I was a little girl growing up in Alert Bay, my granny would always get fish, up to 500 or 1,000. We would harvest and can them for the rest of the year. Today, I am 25 years old and I’m holding on to my one can of fish that was given to me. I’m holding on to it for a special occasion. What has happened?”