Protecting the Land While Healing Yourself

What does it mean to protect the land while healing yourself?

In this powerful episode of the Matriarch Movement Podcast, Shayla Oulette Stonechild sits down with Reuben George, writer, activist, Sundance Chief, and grandson of the legendary Chief Dan George, for a deeply moving conversation about land, lineage, ceremony, and healing.

A member of the Tsleil Waututh First Nation, Reuben has dedicated much of his life to defending his Nation’s unceded territory. For more than a decade, he helped lead the fight against the Trans Mountain Pipeline, advocating for Indigenous rights, environmental protection, and future generations. His journey is chronicled in his national bestselling book, It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People, co written with Michael Simpson.

Healing Through Ceremony

But this conversation goes far beyond activism.

Reuben reflects on the lasting impacts of residential schools and the intergenerational trauma carried within his family. He shares how, at the age of 25, ceremony became the catalyst for his sobriety and transformed the direction of his life. Through that journey, he found a spiritual framework rooted in three guiding principles: enlightenment, reciprocity, and responsibility, values that continue to shape both his personal healing and his work as a land defender.

Land Defense and Economic Sovereignty

Together, Shayla and Reuben explore what it took to build the Tsleil Waututh Sacred Trust’s legal case against Kinder Morgan, the importance of economic sovereignty for Indigenous Nations, and why choosing the right business partners is an extension of Indigenous values. Throughout the conversation, Reuben offers a powerful perspective that colonization succeeds by disconnecting people from spirit, and that reconnecting to ceremony, culture, and the land is essential to reclaiming wellness.

Bringing Ancient Wisdom and Modern Healing Together

The episode also ventures into an often overlooked area of healing. Reuben speaks openly about his work with psychedelic assisted healing, including his collaboration with Dr. Gabor Maté. Together with his team, he has helped guide hundreds of residential school survivors and community members through ceremonial healing experiences that thoughtfully bring together ancient Indigenous teachings and modern therapeutic approaches. Their work focuses on meeting trauma with compassion and addressing it as it emerges, rather than allowing it to remain buried.

A Conversation That Stays With You

This is a conversation about far more than resistance. It is about remembering who we are, honouring those who came before us, and understanding that healing ourselves and healing the land are inseparable.

Whether you’re interested in Indigenous leadership, environmental justice, personal transformation, or the power of ceremony, Reuben’s story offers wisdom that resonates far beyond a single movement.

Resources

Book: It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People by Reuben George and Michael Simpson
https://www.amazon.ca/Stops-Here-Standing-Waters-People/dp/0735242801

Film: Medicine
https://medicine.movie