Lisa White-Kuuyang

Lisa White-Kuuyang recalls the touch of her clan grandmother’s hand, guiding her in gently peeling a handspan of bark from the mammoth red cedars used to weave traditional baskets of the Indigenous Peoples of B.C.’s Haida Gwaii. “Don’t take more than you need,” she would tell her. “We don’t want to harm the tree.”  Fifty years later, most of those giants — which can live a thousand years and grow to nearly 200 feet tall — are gone.  “I have watched our forests disappear my entire life,” Lisa laments. She and her family have fought for generations to preserve Haida artistic and spiritual traditions. Now, they must also fight to save the trees that give birth to those traditions.  Blockading logging operations, giving speeches, writing letters, creating video sand social media campaigns — Lisa speaks for her people, her ancestors and future generations that don’t have a voice, she says.