Group extinguishes Stanley Park sacred fire but pushes back against Musqueam chief – BC [Video]

A woman who has been tending what she calls a “sacred fire” in Stanley Park is pushing back against a local First Nations leader who has questioned her claim to the area.

Brenda Silvey calls herself a matriarch of the land, and her supporters say they’ve been holding ceremony with support from hereditary leaders.

She has kept the fire alight near the park’s totem poles for more than a month to protest the Vancouver Park Board’s operation to remove dead and dying looper moth-affected trees.

Over the weekend, Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow challenged Silvey’s presence, telling Global News the Musqueam have no matriarchs or hereditary chiefs.

“It’s very upsetting … for an individual to come into our territory and use those terms is not very much appreciated by our community,” he said.

“Musqueam doesn’t have a matriarch system, we have matriarch families but not as a community and having sacred fires, we …