Rueben George is a member of the sƏlilwƏtaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation), whose unceded ancestral lands comprise the city of Vancouver and Burrard Inlet in British Columbia, Canada. His memoir, written with Michael Simpson, “It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters and Our People,” is a powerful account of his spiritual growth and environmental activism.
Spiritual journey
George draws strength from his Nation’s spirituality and concept of oneness. “In our language, hƏńqƏmińƏm, we call this nƏćƏmat, which phonetically sounds like naut’sa mawt. When people are lucky enough to achieve a higher state of consciousness, what they are experiencing is nƏćƏmat,” he explains.
George notes that most people lack a feeling of oneness with nature: “It is sad to think that today we live in a society where many people don’t get to experience nƏćƏmat. People have become disconnected from the spiritual beings of plants, the animals, the fire, earth, water, and air, and even from other humans.”
In addition to his reverence for nature, family history inspires his activism. As a child, his mother, Amy George, spent five years in a Canadian residential school. These institutions for Indigenous youth date back to the 1880s and became mandatory in 1920. The Canadian government separated generations of children from their families, punished them for speaking their native languages and inflicted physical and emotional trauma. “My mother was raised in that kind of abuse, but she was strong enough to live through all of that and heal,” writes George.
Growing up in British Columbia, he, too, experienced racism. “I was ashamed of being Indigenous because of all the things that Canada had done to make us feel that way. I didn’t like who I was; I didn’t like how I was raised; I didn’t like being poor; I didn’t like how I was treated; and I related it all to being First Nations. Carrying that shame was hard.” As a teen, he struggled with substance abuse and violence. “That violence was a big part of the drinking period of my life. It was such self-destructive behavior: I was hurting myself, and the people who loved me had to witness it.”
But at 23, George entered a transformative period. He started praying with members of his family in sweat lodge ceremonies. He committed to becoming a ceremonial fireman, which became a healing practice for him and a way to help others in his community. “It is the fireman or firewoman’s responsibility to take care of people, so you have to have a good heart and a good mind as you make the fire,” he recounts. George was a ceremonial fireman for 14 years.
As part of his activism, he shared his community’s traditions: When the Tsleil-Waututh Nation worked with environmentalists to protect the waters of the Burrard Inlet, he invited leaders to join in sweat lodge ceremonies. “It brought us all closer and helped to create a beautiful movement and a community of resistance.”
Environmental activism
The Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMP) opened in 1953 to carry oil from Edmonton, Alberta, to Vancouver, BC. In 2012, Kinder Morgan Canada, owner of the pipeline, sought to expand its capacity. That same year, George and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation began working with a broad coalition of First Nations and environmental and local groups to oppose the expansion. His mother rallied her community, telling them to “warrior up,” and was one of dozens of protesters arrested in 2014 at Burnaby Mountain while trying to block TMP survey work. A federal appeals court found fault with the approval for the pipeline in 2018; the Trudeau government stepped in, purchased the pipeline and corrected defects in the approval process so the pipeline expansion could proceed.
George sees the government’s handling of the pipeline as another erasure of First Nations. “The Trudeau government throws words like reconciliation around while they work to keep us down and keep us silenced,” he explains. The TMP continues to be a major news story in British Columbia. According to CBC News, the expansion project is expected to open in May; the pipeline’s capacity will increase from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day.
Compassion and community
Despite this outcome, George continues to be hopeful for his community. In fact, compassion is a central theme of “It Stops Here.” George notes that not only colonized people need healing: “I pity the colonizers. On one side of the world, people are dying from material impoverishment, but on the other side of the world, people are dying from spiritual impoverishment,” he observes. “When I go downtown to the business district of Vancouver, I see people’s lack of connection with spirit, their lack of connection with their ancestors, and even their lack of connection with the spirit within themselves.”
George shines a light on the resilience of Indigenous people who have experienced generational trauma by sharing that his community has still managed to kindle the spirit of their traditions that he says they can use as tools to heal.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of First Nations people and the trauma caused by racism, residential schools and environmental policies in Canada. George’s memoir is an inspiring account of his own healing through ritual, nature and community.
Read more of the April 10–16, 2024 issue.