All aboard magical canoe that carries voices of land and loss
Canadian First Nations elder Cecil Paul's canoe is, of course, a metaphorical one, evocatively described in his seminal Stories From The Magic Canoe Of Wa'xaid. Cecil cautions before we set out from Kitamaat in British Columbia: 'The currents against it are very strong, but I believe we can reach that destination, and this is the reason for our survival.'
Cecil's own survival – and his inspiring fortitude and forgiveness – verges on the miraculous. Born in the Kitlope, he was ripped from his parents and community in an attempt to 'Canadianise' him. Under a Canadian apartheid, he was imprisoned for sitting in a theatre seat not designated for 'Indians'. Battles with alcoholism and other demons descended, before Cecil found redemption in the battle he inspired to save the Kitlope – which he described as 'the largest unlogged temperate rainforest in the world' – from development. His canoe sent ripples around the world.
READ MORE: Scottish ice cream parlour known for its 'Italian craftsmanship' among UK's best
My journey with Cecil begins by the Crab River. Here the MV Swell, our expedition boutique small cruise ship, crosses from traditional Haisla territory into the Xenaksiala lands where Cecil was born. Maple Leaf Adventures (www.mapleleafadventures.com) are deeply sensitive and respectful with First Nations culture, our onboard naturalist Ethan Browne performing a small ceremony as we enter.
Canadian Ethan explains, 'The special place we are going to is no doubt a beautiful part of British Columbia, but it really only comes alive in the cultural context of the First Nations, who have called this place home since time immemorial.'
I think I'm ready for the Kitlope, but no-one really is. I finish Cecil's book as we overnight at the mouth of the river. I wasn't ready for how triggering it is. His descriptions of being hit by teachers for speaking his native tongue echo with my schooling when I was slapped with a ruler for speaking Scots.
Also pinging my synapses is the familiarity of the vast, arresting beauty of the Kitlope. This elemental landscape of vaulting mountains, tree-shrouded emerald slopes and cobalt waters transcends Sir David Attenborough's purring in a BBC documentary. It also looks a lot like Scotland's Great Glen.
The similarities in the struggles of those who lived here before the British Empire descended are even more striking. Tales of people being torn from their homes and families devastated are all too familiar to a Scot. The arduous struggles to retain language, culture and a semblance of dignity painfully so.
I wake early to finish Cecil's book on deck as a bald eagle fights his own battles with a dozen haranguing gulls in a corner of Canada alive with flora and fauna. Then we are off, 11 passengers and six crew. Half of the crew have never been up this ultra-remote river. All aboard feel privileged to be here as we leave the cocoon of our luxurious ship to forge upriver through currents, logs and ghosts on a brace of small RIBs. And we all fear we might not make the lake as the river becomes shallower and shallower.
The journey is a testing one for the crew battling the shallows and currents, but spectacular too. The hills close in more and more as we feel smaller and smaller. Then we sight a local, the beloved animal the First Nations peoples see as a guardian of the forest. Bears occupy the foundation rung of the replica G'psgolox totem pole we see on the left bank of the river, supporting everything else. Cecil fought hard to have the original totem pole returned from Sweden.
It looks like we won't make the lake, though, as the water level plunges below two feet. Perilous for a propeller. But then, just as the rain eases, six hours after setting off from the mouth of the river, what Cecil called 'the theatre' unfurls in all its glory. Imagine Loch Ness with no villages, no houses and no hulking electricity pylons. Kitlope Lake proves as magical as the canoe that has brought us here.
We raft up together in the cobalt waters of this breathtaking natural amphitheatre. Ethan reads from the book about bathing your eyes and ears in the water so that you may see life afresh, becoming kinder to others on your unique life journey. We share the experience of cleansing in the cool water, then reflect in the Kitlope's deafening silence.
Cecil felt the Kitlope's raw natural power – 'Our people say that you will not leave that place unchanged … something touches you.'
It does. I head downstream with a greater respect and deeper knowledge of the First Nations people and of the beauty of this wild and wildly beautiful corner of British Columbia. I also hear the distant ghosts of the Scottish Highlands blowing in the Kitlope breeze. And I think of people who have been stripped of their lands – and dignity – the world over.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
North Wales Chronicle
15 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Glastonbury says chants by Bob Vylan ‘crossed the line' as police assess footage
The performer Bobby Vylan led crowds on the festival's West Holts Stage in chants of 'Death, death to the IDF' on Saturday, before a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap suggested fans 'start a riot' at his bandmate's forthcoming court appearance. A joint Instagram post from Glastonbury and Emily Eavis said: 'As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. 'We will always believe in – and actively campaign for – hope, unity, peace and love. 'With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer's presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs. 'However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. 'Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.' Health Secretary Wes Streeting said chants of 'death' to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at Glastonbury were 'appalling' and that the BBC and festival have 'questions to answer'. As police examine videos of their comments, Mr Streeting told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: 'I thought it's appalling, to be honest, and I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens.' He said what people should be talking about in the context of Israel and Gaza is the humanitarian catastrophe and the fact that Israeli settlers attacked a Christian village this week. He added: 'The fact that we saw that chant at a music festival, when there were Israelis at a similar music festival who were kidnapped, murdered, raped, and in some cases still held captive, whether it's a Palestinian or an Israeli, whether it's a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim, all life is precious. 'All life is sacred. And I find it pretty revolting we've got to a state in this conflict where you're supposed to sort of cheer on one side or the other like it's a football team.' Asked if the BBC should have cut the live feed, he said the broadcaster has questions to answer, but that he did not know what the editorial and operational 'challenges' are of taking such action. Avon and Somerset Police said video evidence would be assessed by officers 'to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation'. On social media, the Israeli Embassy said it was 'deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival'. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the scenes 'grotesque', writing on X: 'Glorifying violence against Jews isn't edgy. The West is playing with fire if we allow this sort of behaviour to go unchecked.' The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it would be formally complaining to the BBC over its 'outrageous decision' to broadcast Bob Vylan. A spokesperson said: 'Our national broadcaster must apologise for its dissemination of this extremist vitriol, and those responsible must be removed from their positions.' A BBC spokesperson added: 'Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan's set were deeply offensive. 'During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.' Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has spoken to the BBC director general about Bob Vylan's performance, a Government spokesperson said. Bob Vylan, who formed in Ipswich in 2017, have released four albums with their music addressing issues to do with racism, masculinity and class. Kneecap, who hail from Belfast, have been in the headlines after member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence. The group performed after Vylan's set on the West Holts Stage with O hAnnaidh exclaiming 'Glastonbury, I'm a free man' as they took to the stage. In reference to his bandmate's forthcoming court date, Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Moglai Bap, said they would 'start a riot outside the courts', before clarifying: 'No riots just love and support, and support for Palestine'. In the run-up to the festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, several politicians called for the group to be removed from the line-up and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said their performance would not be 'appropriate'. During the performance, Caireallain said: 'The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn't want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer.' He also said a 'big thank you to the Eavis family' and said 'they stood strong' amid calls for the organisers to drop them from the line-up.
Spectator
19 minutes ago
- Spectator
Glastonbury has become a sinister festival of anti-Semitism
They're chanting for the death of Jews at Glastonbury. Yesterday a swaying mob of faux-virtuous poseurs blithely howled for 'Death, death to the IDF'. They'll say they were being political. 'It was an anti-war cry, not an anti-Jew cry', they'll insist today, as the hangover lifts and the horror of their noisy clamour for the death of those they hate finally dawns on them. But such thin excuses won't wash, not this time. That's what Glastonbury felt like yesterday: a woke Nuremberg rally It was the punk rap act Bob Vylan that appeared to whip the crowd into a frenzy of Israelophobia. The lead singer first got them chanting 'Free, free Palestine', the mandatory holler of every bourgeois youth who's determined to prove his virtue to his peers. Then he upped the ante. 'Death, death to the IDF', he barked, and the audience went with it. Like a Pavlovian pack, they mimicked the rocker on stage and shrieked for the violent demise of the army of the Jewish nation. Let's speak frankly – our moral crisis is too pressing for pussy-footing. 'Death to the IDF' means the death of Jews. First, because the soldiers of the IDF are predominantly Jewish. But more importantly because this is the force tasked with defending the Jewish homeland from the armies of anti-Semites that surround it. The IDF is the only thing standing between the Jewish State and its genocidal obliteration by the apocalyptic bigots on its borders. The death of the IDF would be the death of the world's only Jewish nation. Untold numbers of Jews would perish in the event of this thing dreamt of by the preening middle classes of Glastonbury. 'We didn't think of that', some will say today, as shame intrudes into the sick joy they derived from praying for the death of other human beings. Well, to borrow a slogan beloved of you people: 'Educate yourselves.' The seriousness of what happened at Glastonbury cannot be overstated. I'm struggling to think of any other recent event in the UK where a mob has called for the death of human beings. Where a crowd has agitated with macabre elation for people to die. I guess there were those small, mad gatherings of Islamists a few years ago, where some held up placards saying: 'Behead those who insult Islam.' But Glasto's roar for the death of the young Jewish men and women of the IDF felt worse. For here we had privileged youths issuing mantras of death. Here we had a festival that's meant to be about peace and love ringing out with a din-like demand for the destruction of human life. Imagine how Glasto's Jewish attendees will have felt. Or Jewish viewers at home – the BBC live-broadcasted the sick death chant. A majority of British Jews identify with the Jewish nation, and yet here were their Gentile compatriots openly fantasising about the death of that nation's youthful protectors. What a sickening sight. The question that hangs darkly over Glastonbury's death dreaming is this: why the IDF? Why not 'Death to the People's Liberaton Army', which visits such horrors on the Uyghur people? Or 'Death to the Rapid Support Forces', the psycho militia that has caused tens of thousands of deaths in Sudan over the past two years? Or, indeed, 'Death to Hamas', that reactionary, racist army that started the war in Gaza with its fascistic pogrom of 7 October 2023? A pogrom that involved mass rape and murder at a music festival not unlike Glastonbury. We all know why. It's because hating the Jewish State is all the rage among the activist classes. Singling out the Jewish nation as the most bloodthirsty nation is what passes for 'politics' on today's left. They damn this tiny country as the greatest menace to humanity, as a Nazi-like entity, as a nation so swimming in sin and blood that it deserves to be erased, 'from the river to the sea'. Tell me there isn't bigotry here. Tell me it doesn't echo the older, darker damnation of the Jews themselves as a bloodlusting people, the poison in the well of humanity. For me, that's what Glastonbury felt like yesterday: a woke Nuremberg rally. With their gleeful cry for the death of Israeli soldiers, for the destruction of the army that defends the Jewish homeland, these people sounded more like the moral heirs of Oswald Mosley than Sylvia Pankhurst. It was a like a gathering of Guardianista versions of Unity Mitford essentially saying, 'F**k the Jewish nation'. Glastonbury has apologised. The festival said it was 'appalled' by what unfolded. But there's no doubt that this felt like a turning point. The mania of Israel-hate stood exposed before the world. The true nature of the bourgeois cult of Palestinianism, with its virulent hostility not only to Israel but to the West itself, was clear for all to see. We glimpsed, briefly, the threat that the delirium of Israelophobia poses to Jewish security, to the values of our own civilisation, and to all that is decent. These people have had the stage for too long – it's time for the good among us to stand up.
Glasgow Times
32 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Glastonbury says chants by Bob Vylan ‘crossed the line' as police assess footage
The performer Bobby Vylan led crowds on the festival's West Holts Stage in chants of 'Death, death to the IDF' on Saturday, before a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap suggested fans 'start a riot' at his bandmate's forthcoming court appearance. A joint Instagram post from Glastonbury and Emily Eavis said: 'As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. 'We will always believe in – and actively campaign for – hope, unity, peace and love. 'With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer's presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs. 'However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. 'Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.' Health Secretary Wes Streeting said chants of 'death' to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at Glastonbury were 'appalling' and that the BBC and festival have 'questions to answer'. As police examine videos of their comments, Mr Streeting told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: 'I thought it's appalling, to be honest, and I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens.' He said what people should be talking about in the context of Israel and Gaza is the humanitarian catastrophe and the fact that Israeli settlers attacked a Christian village this week. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the BBC and the festival have 'questions to answer' (Lucy North/PA) He added: 'The fact that we saw that chant at a music festival, when there were Israelis at a similar music festival who were kidnapped, murdered, raped, and in some cases still held captive, whether it's a Palestinian or an Israeli, whether it's a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim, all life is precious. 'All life is sacred. And I find it pretty revolting we've got to a state in this conflict where you're supposed to sort of cheer on one side or the other like it's a football team.' Asked if the BBC should have cut the live feed, he said the broadcaster has questions to answer, but that he did not know what the editorial and operational 'challenges' are of taking such action. Avon and Somerset Police said video evidence would be assessed by officers 'to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation'. Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap performing on the West Holts Stage during the Glastonbury Festival (Ben Birchall/PA) On social media, the Israeli Embassy said it was 'deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival'. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the scenes 'grotesque', writing on X: 'Glorifying violence against Jews isn't edgy. The West is playing with fire if we allow this sort of behaviour to go unchecked.' The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it would be formally complaining to the BBC over its 'outrageous decision' to broadcast Bob Vylan. A spokesperson said: 'Our national broadcaster must apologise for its dissemination of this extremist vitriol, and those responsible must be removed from their positions.' A BBC spokesperson added: 'Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan's set were deeply offensive. 'During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.' Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has spoken to the BBC director general about Bob Vylan's performance, a Government spokesperson said. Bob Vylan, who formed in Ipswich in 2017, have released four albums with their music addressing issues to do with racism, masculinity and class. Kneecap, who hail from Belfast, have been in the headlines after member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence. The group performed after Vylan's set on the West Holts Stage with O hAnnaidh exclaiming 'Glastonbury, I'm a free man' as they took to the stage. In reference to his bandmate's forthcoming court date, Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Moglai Bap, said they would 'start a riot outside the courts', before clarifying: 'No riots just love and support, and support for Palestine'. In the run-up to the festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, several politicians called for the group to be removed from the line-up and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said their performance would not be 'appropriate'. During the performance, Caireallain said: 'The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn't want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer.' He also said a 'big thank you to the Eavis family' and said 'they stood strong' amid calls for the organisers to drop them from the line-up.
