I hope you listened to Leanne Betasamosake Simpson reading. I’m am still gobsmacked by her brilliance and by the notion of a beaver dam as a ‘blockade’ and a communally constructed blockade that benefits countless communities. Wow.
A beaver dam: A blockade
Life-giving, generative, affirmative
A world-giving place governed by deep relationality and expansive, fantastical sharing of space
A network of life generating blockades that built and maintained the ecosystems that the Anashabic lived as part of for thousands and thousands of years.
Because when you really think about it, what WAS the community response to our beavers but a blockade? A shoulder-to-shoulder stand against the bad decision of by the city to trap the beavers and take them away from us. What was the November 7th meeting but a huge and noisy blockade that changed the course of history?
We became the blockade to protect the beavers blockade. That blows my mind. And rings so true. I cannot thank her enough or the imagery. I already listened three times and might again. So powerful.
One member of that brilliant blockade was Marlene Haws, who spoke up at the meeting, visited our beavers many time, and helped at our events and silent auction. I just read this morning in the JMA newsletter that she died in March. I am so sorry. She was the very definition of a community voice. Whether it was the historic society, the John Muir Association, the Kiwanis club, the sea scouts, almost no civic group in Martinez was untouched by her good humored pluck.
To say she will be missed is an understatement.
