Hello Cool World’s Katherine Dodds co-authored the book with the project’s co-founders, Squamish Nation Hereditary Chief Bill Williams/telàsemkin-siyam and photographer Nancy Bleck/Slànay Sp’ákw’us.

A unique collaboration, Uts’am/Witness has brought together members of the Squamish Nation, wilderness advocates, artists, the Roundhouse Community Centre and the general public. The popularity of this project has demonstrated the desire for community involvement and the vibrant hope for such coalitions to effect positive change at the political, community and individual level. And it has worked.

What was originally a modest grassroots summer project transformed into a movement that has just celebrated 15 years and has directly touched ten thousand participants and numerous others who have seen the public results of the project. Uts’am/Witness completed the work it originally set out to do, which was to protect the area now known as Kwa Kwayexwelh-Aynexws, Wild Spirit Places. As such, the format of the camping weekends has come to an end. However, the legacy of this project is just beginning.

The time has come to inscribe this history in the form of a book that will provide a lasting document. We are at a critical time in our collective histories. We have never needed a book like this more.