Public invited to Stein Wilderness Festival
A three day festival will be held in the alpine meadowlands of the Stein Watershed Wilderness on the Labour Day Weekend, August 31 to September 2, 1985. Hosted by the Lillooet Tribal Council, the gathering will provide a setting for both native and non-native peoples to express opposition to the proposed logging of the Stein Valley. It will also be an opportunity to reaffirm common ties with nature and with each other. Chief Perry Redan, Director of the Lillooet Tribal Council says: "For the Stein Wilderness, for our Cultures, this festival will be a step toward survival."
The Stein Wilderness is an important part of the traditional territory of the Lillooet People; and as such nurtures their heritage, culture, and sacred trust. The festival will provide a forum to affirm and reaffirm ties with all portions of the land and its natural forms: earth, air, water and wild beings. Native leaders and elders will join their voices with those of others who are more recent inhabitants of this continent but still share with them a recognition and respect for Nature's Laws. Their voices will blend with those of poets, philosophers, economists, wilderness architects, and others in a call for co-operation toward a new order in which harmony with the earth prevails and forms the basis for successful re-inhabitation.
The Lillooet Tribal Council, representing the eleven bands of the Lillooet People, has resolved that no development shall occur within the confines of the Stein River Wilderness Watershed without the consent of the tribes holding aboriginal title to the area. They now ask all peoples to join with them to blend voices in a proclamation of intent. Make this festival a spark in the rekindling of a new/old order predicted upon the understanding of and respect for the laws of the natural world. Join your voices with those of others calling for proper watershed management, parks creation, air and water quality consideration, wilderness preservation, proper planning in forestry and mining, and sanity, sanctity and wisdom within our own watersheds and minds. The Lillooet Tribal Council invites you to join with them, their leaders and elders, in a song of thanksgiving for all of Creation and our places within it.
