In this episode of Habibti Please, Nashwa was joined in person by Wet’suwet’en Matriarch, activist, filmmaker, chef, and community organizer Marlene Hale, in Montreal last May. Marlene is the founder of Our Decision, Our Future, now evolving into Beyond the Ballot, and is currently working on a documentary film examining systemic racism, land defense, and Indigenous resistance across so-called Canada. The conversation centres Matriarchy as a lived role, shaped through mentorship, listening, and accountability to land, people, and future generations. Moving between Wet’suwet’en feast house protocols, food sovereignty, climate justice, youth political organizing, and Bannock as pedagogy, Marlene offers a grounded vision of leadership rooted in care instead of hierarchy. Rather than treating matriarchy as symbolic or historical, this episode understands it as active governance, survival, and responsibility, carried through everyday practices and intergenerational relationships. This episode offers many learnings. Marlene generously explains that becoming a matriarch is not automatic or symbolic, it is a lifelong process of being mentored by grandmothers, mothers, and aunties. Knowledge is passed through observation, correction, and presence, beginning in childhood and continuing throughout life. She also describes feast houses as places where governance is learned through protocol, seating, service, and respect. Young people learn by watching elders closely, understanding roles, and asking questions when guided to do so. As mentioned in the episode, I first met Marlene in May 2025 during a rally at Montreal’s Cabot Square to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Although I have long been honoured to do work with and alongside Indigenous people I had rarely heard the kinds of connections Marlene made to pipelines and Missing and Murdered Indigenous women. Marlene connects resource extraction projects and, increased violence against Indigenous women. logging roads, and man camps to broader forms of harm: disrupted animal migration, food insecurity, environmental risks These are not separate issues, but interconnected outcomes of extractive systems. Marlene reflects on how families once lived off the land year-round through hunting, fishing, drying, and berry picking,canning while today, forest fires, industrial development, and ecological destruction have made those practices difficult, forcing people far from their territories. To close we talk about a project Marlene spearheads Our Decision, Our Future and how it grew into Beyond the Ballot Box after witnessing deep political alienation among young people. Voting, she emphasizes, is only one step, while real democracy requires ongoing accountability to youth whose futures are most at stake. Throughout the conversation, Marlene stresses that Youth and Elders. Elders create time and space and experience; Youth bring urgency serious issues and imagination, and each share stories. Marlene returns often to awareness: ofLand, Food Systems, and people, and as a form of survival and responsibility in a rapidly changing and often hostile political environment. Film & Ongoing Work Marlene is currently filming a documentary film grounded in years of organizing, The film examines systemic racism across health, education, justice, and environmental systems, while situating Wet’suwet’en struggle within global Indigenous movements. Furthermore, since the pandemic hit,she has been raising awareness through her weekly webinar series, “Marlene Webinars Solidarity Action Group”. She has created this space for youth, elders, activists and more to share news and support each other through the many issues to its depth. Follow & Support Marlene Hale ● Website: www.ourdecisionourfuture.ca * https://chuffed.org/project/126670-our-decision-our-future ● Instagram: @OurDecisionOurFuture ● Bio: Marlene Hale - Our World ● Webinar: Marlene Solidarity Webinar ● Film: chefmaluh.ca Video Interviews, Talks & Panels Baking Bannock & Battling Environmental Racism with Marlene Hale. POP Symposium – Day 3: Marlene Hale & Stefan ChristoffThe Artist’s Role in Indigenous Land Struggles. Marlene Hale Solidarity Update. Additional Talk on Indigenous Struggle & Resistance. Wet’suwet’en Chef, Turned Activist in Quebec Ready to Take on the Politicians.(APTN News – video) https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/wetsuweten-chef-turned-activist-in-quebec-ready-to-take-on-the-politicians-to-get-answers-for-her-people-in-b-c/ Further Reading & Viewing A curated list to deepen the themes of matriarchy, Indigenous feminism, land defense, food sovereignty, and political accountability discussed in this episode. Indigenous Matriarchy & Women’s Leadership Reid, Teela. “The Power of the First Nations Matriarchy: Warrior Women Reckoning with the Colony.” Griffith Review.https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/the-power-of-the-first-nations-matriarchy/ Murray, Roxann. “The Healing Power of Matriarchs.” YES! Magazine, 2024.https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2024/04/22/women-native-healing-matriarch “Indigenous Matriarchal Traditions: A Tribute for Women’s History Month.” Owamniyomni.https://owamniyomni.org/2024/03/21/indigenous-matriarchal-traditions-a-tribute-for-womens-history-month/ Hale, Marlene. “The Making of a Matriarch.” BILD-LIDA.https://bild-lida.ca/blog/uncategorized/the-making-of-a-matriarch-by-marlene-hale/ Indigenous Feminism, Care, & Knowledge Practices Tuck, E., Stepetin, H., Beaulne-Stuebing, R., & Billows, J. (2022).“Visiting as an Indigenous Feminist Practice.” Gender and Education.https://poche.mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/4740723/2022-Tuck,-E.,-_Stepetin,-H.,-_Beaulne-Stuebing,-R.,-_-_Billows,-J.-2022.-Visiting-as-an-Indigenous-feminist-practice.-Gender-and-Education,-1-12.pdf “An Indigenous Feminist Commemoration of Canada 150.” University of Winnipeg — Weweni.https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/indigenous/weweni/past-wewenis/an-indigenous-feminist-commemoration-of-canada-150.html Palmater, Pamela. “#MeToo and the Secrets Indigenous Women Keep.” The Walrus.https://thewalrus.ca/metoo-and-the-secrets-indigenous-women-keep/ Law, Governance & Indigenous Feminist Frameworks This section brings together Indigenous feminist scholarship that interrogates how law, governance, and state systems shape and often enable violence against Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people. These works are essential for understanding why extractive projects, policing, and jurisdictional gaps continue to produce harm, and how Indigenous feminist legal thought offers pathways toward accountability, relational governance, and land-based justice. Deborah McGregor — Indigenous Feminisms, Environmental Justice, and the Law In this work, Deborah McGregor advances Indigenous feminist approaches to law and environmental governance. McGregor demonstrates how settler legal systems and extractive governance models marginalize Indigenous women’s authority, responsibilities to land, and knowledge systems, while reproducing colonial and gendered violence. Her work is foundational for understanding how environmental decision-making, resource extraction, and legal regimes intersect with the MMIWG2S crisis.https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/scholarly_works/2924/ Cherry Smiley — Indigenous Feminism, Colonial Violence, and Resistance In her doctoral research, Cherry Smiley offers a rigorous critique of how colonial governance, state feminism, and liberal legal frameworks obscure and perpetuate violence against Indigenous women. Smiley centers Indigenous feminism as a site of political resistance, challenging racialized and patriarchal narratives while foregrounding Indigenous women’s leadership in struggles against sexual violence, disappearance, and state harm.https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/990510/ Pipelines, Man Camps & Violence Against Indigenous Women Content note: The following resources discuss colonial and gender-based violence, sexual violence, disappearance, and murder of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people. We share these readings to deepen understanding of the structural conditions that create harm and to honour the leadership and analysis of Indigenous communities. This set of readings explores how resource extraction projects, particularly pipelines and associated “man camps” intersect with the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people (MMIWG2S). Together, these pieces show how extractive economies, colonial jurisdictional gaps, and temporary industrial workforces create conditions that heighten risk and violence for Indigenous communities. Selected Readings & Resources • Pipeline of Violence: The Oil Industry and Missing and Murdered Indigenous WomenThis legal and human rights analysis examines how oil and pipeline projects intensify violence against Indigenous women through jurisdictional failures, lack of accountability, and the social impacts of extractive economies on Indigenous lands.https://lawblogs.uc.edu/ihrlr/2021/05/28/pipeline-of-violence-the-oil-industry-and-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women/ • Pipeline Fighters – Missing & Murdered Indigenous Persons Resource HubA community-based resource linking pipeline resistance with MMIWG2S advocacy. This page connects extractive infrastructure to patterns of violence and offers pathways to further reports, inquiries, and Indigenous-led organizing.https://pipelinefighters.org/resources/indigenous-resources/missing-murdered-indigenous-persons/ • Pipelines, Man Camps and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada (Al Jazeera)This feature centers Indigenous voices describing how pipeline construction and transient work camps have led to increased harassment, intimidation, and violence in nearby communities, echoing findings from Canada
