Kalani Mah/Staff reporter
On Thursday February 29 I got the amazing chance to interview Tasha Faye Evans.
The interview prompt I gave her was “what is a life experience that impacted or changed your view of life?”. Evans answer was “when I was 19, I was taken to an old growth forest that had huge trees and emerald, green waters, I still get shivers thinking about going there to this day since its my favourite place”.
The forest Evans had been taken to was called Walbran valley and the specific area of the forest she had been taken to was in the heart of the forest.
During the time Evans had been taken to the forest the Carmanah and Walbran valley protests had taken place to stop the clear cutting of old growth forests. Unfortunately, the protesters had lost their fight and the heart of the forest had been largely clear cut to send the wood to Japan.
After the forest had been clear cut Evans and her boyfriend at the time took the left-over wood scraps and built a cabin in the freshly clear-cut area and ended up spending lots of time at the cabin they had built.
Although when Evans had gone to the forest with her boyfriend, not only had she built a cabin she had also spotted an old cedar tree taller than a building and at the top sat a sculpture of a lady waving her hands to the sky. Infront of the tree there was the whole clear-cut section but behind was a whole area of old growth forest. Evans ended up giving this sculpture the name “lady of the trees” that symbolized a grandmother tree.
Through this tree she felt the message to go and find out more about her great grandmother which turned out being that her great grandmother was born on cedar road which was right near the old growth forest and her great grandfather was one of the ones who had clear cut that area.
From this experience she felt so much disgust that people have such little empathy for forests and don’t cherish trees. This led Evans to taking action in ways to protect old growth forests and inspired her to embrace her Indigenous roots.
Evans has now walked through life built on the perspective that we are all part of one system and we each have a sacred responsibility on this earth.
Since then, this event has inspired her to write her own story, create plays and perform dances surrounding her Indigenous background. She has even made specific pieces dedicated and inspired by this event such as her play “She Stands Still” and her dance “Cedar Woman” which you can see on her website.
Evans finds this place so beautiful and inspirational moving her through life off the foundation of this tree and forest she even took 23 other artists to live at the cabin in the forest for two weeks to do different varieties of art and to connect with each other and mother nature.
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