Melanie Brown

Photo by: Joanne Teasdale

“Salmon are everything. They provide sustenance for us. In many ways too, salmon have been teachers. I’ve just grown as a human in ways that I think are really important to grow as a human, and I feel like it’s because of my salmon life that I’ve been able to do that. I’ve been able to bear witness to the salmon themselves; the lives that they lead, but also all of the items connected to salmon that cause us to care about our values. I think that the Pebble fight is a perfect example of that. The salmon have helped us all gain clear focus around what is important and how important salmon are. It was a weird pathway, but at the same time, I feel fortunate that even though those of us who are involved in the no Pebble fight have had to endure a lot of uncertainty and undue stresses because of it, we are all better people for having gone through what we have in order to protect the amazing habitat of Bristol Bay that supports these salmon. I really do think that the no Pebble Mine fight has caused everything to be more clear, at the conscious level, and I’m grateful for that as hard as the fight has been."
—Melanie Brown, Indigenous Life Artist

Read more of Melanie's stories and statements: