Erstellt am: 30. 9. 2016 - 16:57 Uhr

Caribou Legs - A First Nation Warrior

Brad Caribou Legs Firth is running from the west to the east coast of Canada with a cause and I caught up with him for a chat.

Brad Firth

Caribou Legs in the province of Quebec, Canada

Brad Firth, who goes by the name Caribou Legs, is running from one Canadian coast to the other Canadian coast, on a mission to get attention for missing and murdered indigenous women.

The exact number of indigenous women that have gone missing or have been murdered in Canada over the past 30 years is in dispute, some estimate 500 missing women, and other citing statistics of over 1000.
Most of the cases are never investigated by the Canadian authorities and Caribou Legs wants to change that.

Caribou Legs

Interview with Caribou Legs

Riem: Why are you running from coast to coast in Canada?

Caribou Legs: There’s a couple of reasons why I’m running across Canada raising awareness around health and wellness, worries about violence. My sister died due to a domestic violence incident. So, as a result of that, I wanted to raise awareness around her death, bring it to the platform of murdered and missing indigenous women, to bring my pain and suffering, my grieving and loss into that.

Riem: Where are you now? How far have you gotten?

Caribou Legs: Well, I’ve run across eight provinces from Vancouver to Quebec and I’m just outside of Quebec City, probably two hundred kilometers so I’m very close to the New Brunswick border which is about maybe, another one hundred kilometers or so to go.

Riem: So, if you look at Canada and you think about it, you’re nearly three quarters done?

Caribou Legs: Yup. I think, about six thousand kilometers I’ve run out of the seven thousand, five hundred kilometers length from coast to coat.

Riem: That’s amazing. Hey Caribou Legs! Can you please describe to the listeners what your face looks like?

Caribou Legs: I have war paint. If you look at traditional warrior war paint in history, that’s what my face looks like. My face has lines, white paint, and I have dark black paint over my eyes, covering my eyes, and then I have red, bloodshed lines down both my cheeks representing all the bloodshed that’s been given to the women by these men out there. I carry that. It’s very astonishing to a lot of people, when they look at my face because it’s never been done before in Canada. Never before has a warrior run across the length of Canada honouring the women, raising awareness for the women, speaking for the women as a man.

Riem: When we write each other, you sign of with ‘all my relations’. What is that?

Caribou Legs: In the circle of life, we’re all related, we’re all connected. The Plains Cree, they have a word for that. It’s called “Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ” and it means ‘we’re all related’. All life, down to the ground, inside the ground, in the air, the birds, the animals, the trees, the fish. The Cree believe, the Ojibwe believe, the Mowak believe that we’re all related, everything is interconnected. So, it’s always appropriate, when you’re living in the circle of life, respecting all life, to address that. Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ- ‘we’re all related’ is just a form of respect, regardless of what’s going on out there in the world, all the bloodshed, all the wars. I just hope that all the ignorants out there...when people are blatantly disrespectful towards me, I don’t really take it personally. I acknowledge their rudeness, their cruelty and don’t actually take it on. I kind of feel sad for people who are kind of lost or inept around compassion. That doesn’t mean that someday they can’t overcome that and become more compassionate and friendly and kind to their fellow brothers and sisters.