ELDER BILL JONES BOOK LAUNCH: Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother (with co-author Karen Moe)

What happens when a forest defence movement becomes something much bigger than a fight over trees?

In 2020, thousands of people travelled to Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island to stand together against the destruction of some of the last remaining old growth forests. For many, the blockades became a place of resistance, community, reckoning, and profound reconnection with the land.

For Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones, it became something even more personal.

“I was lost before I was born.”

These words mark the beginning of Bill’s lifelong journey of decolonization. During the Fairy Creek blockades, sitting in a tent through a West Coast storm, he experienced a profound moment of clarity:

“I know what happened!”

That moment of awakening has informed his life and teachings ever since.

Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother brings together Elder Bill’s personal story and ancestral knowledge with the voices, struggles, and lessons of the Fairy Creek movement. It asks us to look beyond the systems of exploitation and greed that have disconnected us from the living world and to remember another way of relating to the land.

…

Join us for an evening of stories, resistance, reflection, and creative expression, featuring:

📖 Live readings from Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother (ft. Bill Jones and co-author Karen Moe)

🌲 Guest speakers from the Fairy Creek movement, sharing first hand stories from the blockades and reflecting on what the movement continues to teach us

🔥 Grassroots storytelling about forest defence, solidarity, civil disobedience, and the people who showed up to protect the old growth

✍️ A creative writing workshop exploring our own relationships with land, place, resistance, memory, and belonging

💬 Community conversation about where we go from here and how storytelling can help build the movements we need

…

Fairy Creek showed us what can happen when ordinary people come together, take risks, challenge powerful systems, and refuse to accept the destruction of the places they love.

But movements are not only built through protests and blockades.

They are built through stories.

Stories help us remember.
Stories help us understand what has been lost.
Stories help us imagine what is possible.
And stories give us the courage to act.

“You were all Indigenous once.”

What might it mean to remember?

What might we rediscover if we listened more closely to the land, to Indigenous knowledge, to our elders, and to one another?

And how can we carry those stories forward into the struggles for old growth, biodiversity, climate justice, and a different future?

…

🌎🌲 Come celebrate the launch of Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother and join a community of people who believe that the stories we tell can help change the world.

Everyone is welcome. Bring your stories, your questions, and your creative spirit.

📍 [THE ROYAL NELSON]
📅 [OCTOBER 5th 2026]
⏰ [6-9PM]
🎟️ [10$ TICKETS / PRE-SALE AVAILABLE] https://www.theroyalnelson.com/events/listening-once-again-to-our-great-mother-book-launch

Thank you to our sponsors, Sierra Club and Save What’s Left, with who this event would not be possible ❤️

All proceeds from the event will go directly towards supporting Elder Bill Jones and helping make it possible for him to join us for this very special evening.