Elder Bill Jones (Pacheedaht, Tseshaht) is known as the voice who helped inspire the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history — the Fairy Creek blockades to defend some of the last remaining old growth forest in the world.
It was the forest that connected him to the Great Mother enough to find healing from residential school trauma, and it was the forest protectors who gave him the honourary title “Elder.”
Jones reflects on his path, and describes his younger self as “a standard logger. I was supposed to be a tough guy, head honcho and all that baloney. I was also having trouble with alcohol. It took me from 1968 until 1980 to quit drinking. And that was mostly through prayer and meditation.”
“My grandpa would say to me, ‘Sonny, you don’t go up to the forest to cut it down. You go up there to be quiet, and if you want, you pray and you meditate. But mostly you just be quiet and sit down.’”
Jones chuckles, saying he used to pretend he was going hunting, to spend the day up the mountain. His grandfather taught him, “‘When you do that often enough, you’ll leave the forest and you will know what to do and what to say without thinking.’ I didn’t realize that until after the fact,” he says, “when I finally walked in the forest and let myself go in quiet, that I started to change.”
Hope is more of a quiet plane that we come to in our life
Jones’ father taught him similarly to sit by the water’s edge to find guidance through quiet. “We wind up not having to think, and not having to manipulate situations. We will simply know how to manage them, through the flow of our Great Mother.” He learned about letting go and allowing the Great Mother to guide his life.
Jones emphasizes the importance of cultivating a calm, intuitive state of being rather than relying on force or aggression. He contrasts this approach with the destructive cycle of denial, deprivation, and depraved behavior he says has shown itself “in Hitler, in Trump, and also in some loggers. They were nurtured in a way that deprived [them] and denied their needs,” he says, “and they become depraved and demented. They say, ‘We have to cut it, though. We need to keep the mill running.’”
The experience of interconnectedness means “You can conquer our greatest evil – male selfishness,” Jones says. He links patriarchy and capitalism, explaining, “The whole concept of capitalism is based on greed that stems from selfishness, that stems from an inadequacy that a person is trying to fill and protect. This creates a system of denial that leads to a world of ‘let’s pretend,’ whereby we never ever get close to the truth.”
Elder Jones teaches us that by returning to the land and spiritual practices, Indigenous people can find healing and become good leaders for their communities. But there needs to be land – intact forests, undisturbed places – to return to.
The BC Government has extended temporary protections in the Fairy Creek watershed until September 30, 2026, and that gives Jones some hope. “I would like our band council to just pass a resolution saying that we’re not logging it, we’re leaving it.”
For Jones, hope is not an expectation to wait for, or a wish. It’s also “not full of heart-pounding and resolve and motivation, gung-ho charge. For me, hope is more of a quiet plane that we come to in our life. We are calm, anything that comes to us doesn’t disturb us or make waves, and we are able to intuitively know what to do. I feel that our teachings have to go that way, but it’s very difficult to change people’s minds or make them listen.”
“There is hope, but you have to constantly go to the forest or go to your place of solace. You will always find a way.”
Odette Auger (Sagamok Anishnawbek) is an award-winning independent journalist and storyteller living on Klahoose territory in the Salish Sea. Follow her work at www.authory.com/OdetteAuger
Chronicles of the Forest
Scholars at Concordia University conducted a series of interviews with Bill Jones over the course of a year. They distilled his thoughts and ideas into a book, Chronicles of the Forest: From the Walbran to Fairy Creek, What the Forest Needs, Our Heart Needs. Read or download it for free at
www.watershedsentinel.ca/billjones
Activist Injustice
In January 2024, logging company Teal Jones filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages from Bill Jones, the Rainforest Flying Squad, and more than a dozen individuals. The Times Colonist reported that the civil claim accused them of conspiring to “use unlawful means to conduct blockades” in order to cost the logging company money. Several of the named defendants, including Angela Davidson (Rainbow Eyes), rejected the claim, declaring that their only goal was protecting old growth forests at Fairy Creek.
“Elder [Bill] Jones has said so beautifully that it’s been a conspiracy of love – that’s the only conspiracy at play,” said Davidson, a deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada who is appealing a 51-day jail sentence for her role in the Fairy Creek blockades.
While Teal Jones’ claim against Jones and other Fairy Creek protectors is currently on hold, its 2021 lawsuit remains in play. The earlier lawsuit, which named the Rainforest Flying Squad and “persons unknown,” resulted in an injunction against interfering with logging at Fairy Creek and led to the arrest of over 1000 forest protectors.
