THIS IS PAMELA ANDERSON IN HER MOST EXPOSED ROLE YET
Pamela Anderson: she's a killer.
The new short film Connected, directed by acclaimed fashion photographer Luke Gilford, is a fabulous work of science fiction. The film, which physically premiered at Milk Los Angeles and was released online by Motherboard, recounts the tale of a spin instructor in Los Angeles named Jackie. She tries all manner of items that supposedly provide the key to enlightenment, listening to self-help podcasts (narrated by Jane Fonda), making juices and taking supplements, and lying in a mysterious hyperbaric chamber in a wellness center that happens to be managed by Dree Hemingway.
Jackie seems lonely and vulnerable, a wounded bird just looking for meaning in her life. This quest leads her to a retreat with Hemingway, where Gilford manages to intersect LA’s wellness culture and our increasing reliance on technology in a way that’s both sinister and beautiful, exploring a strain of science fiction that’s absolutely fascinating.
The hook? Jackie, an aging, slightly tragic woman who’s desperately searching to connect, is played by legendary sex symbol Pamela Anderson. And she’s fantastic.
Anderson has been famous for decades, but as she’s said, she’s never truly acted. She’s depicted on screen in a way that she’s never been before; there’s no red bathing suit, and the only time she shows any skin is in a tender scene where Jackie looks in a bathroom mirror, critically examining her body. “There’s some pretty ugly scenes in the film, but they turned out to be the most beautiful,” said Anderson. “I looked in that mirror in the bathroom and went, ‘Are you serious, Luke? Am I really gonna do this? I don’t have any light, like it couldn’t get worse than this. I think I’m gonna have a seizure. I feel like I’m in Target, what’s happening?’ And then I looked at him and he looked at me like, ‘Pamela, we’re here. We’re doing this.’”
Anderson was understandably nervous. But she pushed through and accomplished what is perhaps her finest work ever. “I saw just a little clip by mistake [during production],” she said. “It was very blue, and I thought, ‘Wow, that is such a beautiful image!’ It had nothing to do with me. I just felt something and I said, ‘I didn’t realize even the slightest emotion that you’re feeling can really transfer onto the screen, especially a big screen.’” It was a real breakthrough.
It’s certainly a new experience to see Anderson in this vein: stripped back, raw, while simultaneously more covered up and more naked than any Playboy spread she’s ever done. Gilford knew that he wanted to go for a disarming effect. “I’ve always been very connected to sex symbols—Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe,” he said. “Their allure is primarily as a sex symbol, and that makes me wonder what’s underneath.”
Gilford’s photo series, also called “Connected.”
So it was with Anderson, who was America’s most adored pinup during his childhood. Gilford told me that he’s fascinated by transformation, self-perception, and body modification, and that he knew he wanted to cast a sex symbol in a film exploring said issues. So when Anderson cut her trademark blonde locks into a pixie cut in 2013, Gilford took notice and saw this as confirmation that there really is more to Pam Anderson than meets the eye. He had his publicist send her a copy of Safe, the great Todd Haynes film starring Julianne Moore. “The logline of that film was, ‘A horror movie to the soul,’ and I wanted something really similar, but for now,” said Gilford. “Then it was about chemicals. [Moore’s] character was afraid of chemicals and the environment, which was actually an allegory for the AIDS crisis. At this point, I was wondering about how technology has affected our lives— and this eternal, existential search, longing for connection, and how hyper-connected we are, and this sort of inverse quality to this hyper-connected world that we’re in.”
“I EXPECTED HER TO BE THIS SORT OF CRAZY, PILL-POPPING PARTY WOMAN, LIKE A REAL HOUSEWIFE OR SOMETHING, AND THAT WASN’T HER AT ALL.”
Anderson responded immediately, and the two met for what was supposed to be a half hour-long meeting. They ended up spending hours together, going through “several bottles of wine,” according to Gilford. “I expected her to be this sort of crazy, pill-popping party woman, like a Real Housewife or something, and that wasn’t her at all,” he said. “She was really, extremely intelligent and down to Earth, and she was inspired by a lot of older films that I loved.” They connected over the Louis Malle classic Elevator to the Gallows, and a partnership was born.
It’s been a fulfilling work relationship for both Anderson and Gilford. “Luke’s so young, so he knows better than all these dinosaur filmmakers,” said Anderson. “He really has this rebel idea and he can agree with everybody. So I really trust him and I really trust that he knows what he’s doing and I’m just so grateful to work with him. He’s such a visionary.”
“Connected”
Exploring elements of aging in Hollywood and its connection to (or lack thereof) technology were of interest to both parties. The character is both foreign and familiar to Anderson, who isn’t looking for much connection through technology; last year, she got rid of her phone for about six months, only using it to speak to her children, who attend boarding school in Canada.
“It’s funny: when I look at the film, I don’t see me at all,” she said. “Which is really bizarre, because anything I’ve ever done has been just basically a cameo or playing myself. Even Baywatch was just me. They wrote the character about me and about my experiences. So I really haven’t had an opportunity to play a character outside of me.”
“Of course, you always draw from experience and I am the same age as the character. I’m going through similar things. I’m alone, I don’t have my kids, they’re growing up and they’ve moved on. And it really is an emotional time for women when they start looking in the mirror and see, you know, you’re changing, you’re getting older, what does that mean for me? Am I gonna be alone the rest of my life?”
“I TOLD LUKE, ‘I CAN’T DO THIS FILM IF I’M MARRIED. I CAN’T BE IN THIS [HEAD]SPACE IF I’M DOING THIS FILM.’”
Anderson felt that she needed to be in a certain emotional place before doing the film. “I told Luke, ‘I can’t do this film if I’m married. I can’t be in this [head]space if I’m doing this film.’ So it worked out that I got a divorce and we did the film right after, and it was really therapeutic for me because a lot of [the issues the film covers] were on my mind, about the choices I’m making for the wrong reasons.”
Her character is constantly reaching for something that might be emotionally helpful, therapeutic, freeing. As a Southern California native, I thought one of the film’s greatest strengths was how it tackles the underlying darkness of LA’s cult of self-improvement. Gilford was born and bred in California, and understands its allure and inherent fallacy.
“Connected”
“Pamela represents California culture in a really interesting way,” he said. “On the one hand, California represents this obsession with youth and beauty that’s quite shallow, and around the world that’s associated with California. California also represents this sort of existential longing for deeper meaning, and wellness culture. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that those two things coexist in places like Malibu. Those two things lead to a very specific kind of alienation that I wanted viewers to feel in the film.”
I’ve always been an Anderson fan. She’s charming and passionate about causes that matter to her, especially animal rights and veganism. After speaking with her, it was especially clear that she deserves solid, intelligent work like Gilford’s. And she wants to keep going. “I feel like now I got the bug,” she said. “I want to do more and I want to expand it more, because now I really have the opportunity to apply myself to anything.” But there is no straight career path. “I have no plan. That’s kind of my plan. David LaChapelle always says I’m the least ambitious person, and the least calculated person. But I do want to do some great things.” Films with LaChapelle and Franco are next up, as well as a continued collaboration with Gilford.
“Movies”
The 1960s-style photos seen here come from another project with the director, called “Movies.” It’s an ongoing series, inspired by films that both Anderson and Gilford love. “We just started telling each other stories about this woman’s life: her trauma, her pleasures, her highs, and her lows,” said Gilford. “Throughout the shoot, we started acting things out together for me to capture in a single photo. It’s a really fluid and experimental process that we’ve developed through creating these different characters.”
“For a while, Pamela represented this one type of character: this sort of cartoon image of this blonde bombshell Barbie doll,” he said. “So now it’s been really fun for us to create [these] kind of other characters that are much more complex and nuanced and layered.”
“There’s this kind of curiousness people have about me, and these people that have shown interest in working with me,” said Anderson. “I’m on these people’s radar, and a lot of young filmmakers I find are looking to me in a different way than my peers look at me. They’re looking at me like, ‘There’s a human being behind this person.’”
Milk presents limited edition prints of Luke Gilford’s untitled portraits from two new series of photographs, “Connected” and “Movies,” featuring Pamela Anderson.
BY JOCELYN SILVER Prints are now available for purchase online at the Milk Gallery Store.
Pamela Anderson on Activism, the Baywatch Movie and the End of an Era at Playboy
Pamela Anderson and Hugh Hefner at the Playboy mansion in October 2015. Ellen von Unwerth/Courtesy of Playboy
'How did Hefner get away with it? Because of his generosity. The mansion was full of intellectuals. It wasn’t sleazy.'
When Pamela Anderson came to the U.S. from Canada to pose for Playboy in 1989, she thought she would be here for one photo shoot and then leave, she tells TIME. More than 26 years later, she’s been on the cover 14 times, most recently on the January/February issue that marked the last time the magazine would include nude photographs. She also embarked on an acting career that included a starring role in the lifeguard drama Baywatch, and has become an outspoken advocate for PETA and other charities.
TIME caught up with Anderson on her commitment to activism, her thoughts on feminism and whether we’ll see her in the upcoming Baywatch movie.
TIME: You’ve been a strong supporter of animal, human and environmental rights through your foundation and your work with organizations including PETA, Sea Shepherd and Cool Earth. Why is philanthropy so important to you?
Pamela Anderson: I’ve always been an activist. I grew up in the woods on Vancouver Island. My parents taught me to be respectful of the planet. I had a grandfather who was really into fairy tales and mythology; he used to dance on treetops, like really outrageous things, so that was always a part of my childhood. I’ve had this affinity for animals from a really young age. I had an aunt who was deaf who was like the Pied Piper of feral cats. I don’t know how she had all these cats around her all the time. And I really felt like people who are so sensitive to animals—usually because of some kind of trauma in childhood or something that makes you have this all of a sudden affinity with animals—I feel like you can trust them.
People would bring me birds with broken wings; I had a cat that walked sideways (which is really funny looking back; I’ve never seen it since. But I’ve had all sorts of misfits gather around me my whole life—people, animals, whatever you want to call them. It was part of my natural life.
And then when I was on Baywatch, and I was in 150 countries, and I was getting so much attention for really unimportant things. I felt like I needed to share that attention with something more meaningful. So I reached out to PETA and said: Give me something meaningful to talk about when I’m giving press conferences about my personal life.
I founded my foundation 15 years ago, but I didn’t make it active until the Cannes Film Festival a couple of years ago. I thought: There’s a real disconnect between me as a public person and the real human being behind that image. So I felt like it was really important to tell my story. That’s when I talked about some of the abuse I faced as a child. And I let people know I’d been an activist for 20 years.
I’ve met all these great artists and mentors along the way, like Vivienne Westwood and Julian Assange and just tons of interesting, really amazing people. I actually met a lot of people at the Playboy mansion when I first came to America. I felt like that was my university. I went there and I met the best artists, musicians, actors, philanthropists, activists and people who spoke about politics and art and culture. It was really an important part of the scene back then, and I’ve been reflecting on that now that Playboy is making this big change, and we’re coming to the end of that era.
You recently were on the cover of the last nude edition of Playboy. What do you think of the magazine’s decision to stop publishing nude images?
It’s bittersweet for me. It was such an innocent, sexy, girl-next-door time. I know the magazine is switching gears, and Hugh Hefner is coming to the end of his life, which will mean the end of an era for sure.
He always said: “You are part of the Playboy DNA. You are the type of girl that I made this magazine for.” He used to always be so proud of me when I did anything—“You’re the first Playmate ever to be on Disney!” “You’re the first Playmate to be knighted!” It gets funnier. And you know, it was such an innocent time.
Even back to the Studio 54 days. Even though it was sex, drugs, rock and roll, it was a playful time. There wasn’t this darkness associated with it. Everyone was covered in tin foil and glitter.
We were pretty girls running around in lingerie, and there were these very interesting, chivalrous men who were so exciting to talk to about politics and activism. And reading the articles is really part of Playboy. It had great articles on a lot of interesting topics. It had a real political voice. It was part of the sexual revolution.
I know there were a lot of feminists who were against Playboy and against Hefner. But I felt so empowered by Playboy and by being a playmate and just knowing the people that I knew when I was there.
There’s this desensitization now. With everything on the Internet, there’s just no such thing as the girl next door anymore. Everyone’s taking selfies and shooting pictures down their blouses at a very young age. And their self worth is based on how many likes and followers they have. I hope it’s a phase, and that it passes. I’m not a fan of social media or gadgetry. I feel like human interaction is missing. That face-to-face interaction, or even conversations on the telephone seem intimate now.
I don’t know what’s going to happen with the magazine, but I’m really glad I was part of the original. My son actually said to me: “Mom, they’re not shooting any more nude photos in Playboy.” And I said: “What?” And then my dad called and was reminiscing about all the times he’s met Hefner and come up to the mansions and said: “I can’t believe they’re not going to do this anymore.”
I remember finding the first Playboy in my dad’s basement and thinking: “Wow these women are beautiful. Is that what I’m going to look like when I grow up?”
Hefner also recently announced that he’s selling the Playboy mansion…
He’s selling it, and he gets to live there until he’s no longer, and that’s smart! Because who wants to be fighting over the Playboy mansion when he’s gone?
The next phone call after my dad hung up with me was Hef. He said: “You’re the only one—from Marilyn to Pamela.” I was like: “What?!” You know when I moved here from Canada, I didn’t think I would still be here. I thought I would be here for one photo shot and then leave.
In the last photo shoot, I was crawling across the grass in front of the mansion, and then I just said: “I have to do something really fun.” And I just rolled down the whole hill, with shoes and boobs and hair flying everywhere. It was funny. I never thought I’d be shooting Playboy again, but I did! And now it feels like, that’s that.
Is there any one memory from Playboy that stands out?
Whenever Hefner walked into the room, he was such a bright light, such a charismatic being. Just the way he looked at you, he just made you feel so special. Anytime I was going through a tough time, Hef would always call me. He’d send me these letters—typed letter with his signature.
I remember going through a divorce and going up there and seeing Smokey Robinson and me looking at him and saying: “I know. I did it again. I can’t believe I’m going through another divorce.” And he looked at me and goes: “Darling, you’re a romantic, you just keep trying. Don’t stop trying.” And I said to myself: “If Smokey Robinson thinks it’s OK, you’re right, I’m just a romantic. I’m going to keep trying.”
I had a lot of advice from people who were just fantastic people. And knowing Bettie Page and just everybody that you can’t believe is real are real human beings up there, having fun, but also concerned about the world and not just each other. That’s what I feel the difference is. It’s the end of an era, but it’s also an era to look back to, and we have to know our history to know our future.
Hefner, how did he get away with it? He’s the only one. Right? How did he get away with it? Because of his generosity. The mansion was full of intellectuals. It wasn’t sleazy.
Some people say nude photos can be destructive to women; others say they’re empowering. What do you think? Would you consider yourself a feminist?
I don’t want to call myself that. But I feel like I’ve taken all my female attributes into my own hands and used them for good.
My kids have also fought a few battles over me. When they were teenagers and their friends would say: “I’ve seen your mom naked,” they would get a little pop in the jaw from one of the kids. I had to go to the principal’s office a few times, because they’re very protective.
But as they got older, they look back and think: “I see what you’ve done now, Mom. I’ve see how you’ve used your image for good, and I’m proud.”
I turned to Brandon, and I said: “How do you feel bout me posing for Playboy again?” And he said: “You have to do it! It’s the last one! You have to do it! We’ve already fought all the battles. It can only be you, Mom.”
OK, there I go. I got permission from my kids.
You recently announced that you had been cured of Hepatitis C. What did that mean to you and what would you tell people diagnosed with it today?
When I was diagnosed with Hep C, I was told I only had 10 years to live, and that was 17 years ago. About five years into that I was told that, you can live your whole life with this disease. It’s not a sexually transmitted disease. You can have monogamous relationships. You’re more likely to die of something else, I was told. And then 10 years into it I was told, I did biopsy, I had no liver damage and people told me, keep doing what you’re doing, there’s going to be a cure one day. And as I’m seeing people die along the way, I’m keeping my hope alive to. I had no cirrhosis, no liver damage. I’m a health person, I live a vegan lifestyle, I’m not saying I’m an angel, but I was pretty healthy.
Then my doctor called and said: “There’s a cure.” And I said: “Really?” And then a friend of mind did it and he was really cured. And I ended up getting the treatment for – because I have type 3 so it’s not the most curable, it’s a little rarer, it’s not the one that most people have and so they said this would work for me. I had to take two pills a day for 12 weeks and then go get tested. And I went and got tested and it’s gone. It worked. I don’t have Hep C anymore.
I got 20 years back in my life, and I’m totally committed to my activism and what I want to do. It lit a fire under me that I feel really grateful for.
Do you have any thoughts on the upcoming Baywatch movie?
I just got a call that they’re offering me a part in it, like a cameo or something. I don’t know if I’ll do it. I don’t know how that benefits me in any way. I just feel like I’m doing so many other great films and things that are really interesting. But I’m really honored by the way they want to honor me; it’s kind of an homage to me. I may make an appearance in it.
I’m not a fan of films that are films of television series, because I think it was so great the way it was. We all thought we were doing incredible work. Looking back, it’s kind of funny, you could watch it with the sound off. But it’s beautiful. We didn’t know we were being sexy. We were just in athletic bathing suits rescuing people, and we thought it was serious stuff. So a spoof on a spoof—I just don’t know how they’ll get that charm. But we’ll see. I was excited they called.
What’s next?
I have my little premier of my short film I did with Luke Gilford, who is David Lynch’s protégée. And I just feel so grateful that he saw something special in me. It’s a very vulnerable, character-driven role. It’s unrecognizable. So I’m very excited about him and our collaboration.
Lots of young people – directors and others who are hovering around me right now working on movies and things like that. So I think I’m ready to do some filming and get into my writing and just stick with all my activism, everything I’m doing with Sea Shepherd and PETA and Cool Earth and Climate Revolution and all these great charities. Also women’s charities, rights for girls, National Women’s Domestic Violence Hotline. I raised $200,000 for them in the last year and a half, which is really important to me as well, to make sure people have places to go that are struggling.
But you know, they’re auctioning off my old engagement ring, which is kind of funny. The money it took to pay for that engagement ring will save half the rainforest Papua New Guinea, so I’m starting to go through my storage and think, what can I sell? What can I get rid of and give to someone who knows what to do with it? This is more important than me holding on to something I’ll never wear again. It’s fine with the man who gave it to me.
Connected
Pam Anderson Gave Up Her Cell Phone for a Fax and Landline for a While
It’s been 24 years since Pamela Anderson made her splashy acting debut as the bouncy buxom blonde Baywatch lifeguard C.J. Parker, who at the very least rescued one-piece bathing suits from unsexiness. Since then, Anderson has continued to cavort before the cameras — who can forget Barb Wire? Not to mention that one co-starring her then-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee (who also, by the way, exposed her to hep C). She did some more TV (VIP, Stacked, the animated series Stripperella). Lately, Anderson has assumed a more discreet profile — even getting a pixie cut — and focused on her activism, speaking out on behalf of organizations such as PETA and the M.A.C Cosmetics M.A.C AIDS Fund. This month, however, Anderson is dipping her toes into new waters, playing Jackie, the lead role in up-and-coming director Luke Gilford’s short art-house film “Connected.” Starring alongside Dree Hemingway, who plays a self-help guru (with additional narration by Jane Fonda), Anderson plays a SoulCycle instructor, pedaling along on her personal journey.
What about Jackie, your character in “Connected,” appealed to you?
Pamela Anderson: I really related to her because I felt like a long time ago, 20 years ago, I had the perfect life. I came to America, I got this job on Baywatch, I was really popular, I was married to someone I was really in love with, I was having children, and you never think that that's going to go away. Even though, of course, I didn't lose my children, as they get older, you realize they don't need you as much anymore, and I’m left asking, What am I doing? Am I going to jump into all these health-food gimmicks and hypobaric chambers and oxygen? Am I going to get into all these things that women of this age seem to do in hopes of trying to find themselves again?
Is this a new, fully grown-up “Pamela Anderson”?
Well, I do feel like this is chapter two, that's kind of what I call it. I have no regrets about chapter one, but this is definitely a different time for me. I don't think I'm reinventing myself on purpose. It's almost like I don't know if I was playing a character up to this point, and now this feels like, there was this perception of me that was almost like a cartoon character at one point, and I just started feeling like I was taking it personally, and you can't take that stuff personally. It has been a hurdle to overcome the perception people have when they think of me or hear my name. They have a lot of opinions or what they think is the truth about me.
For many people, you have this visibility as a sex symbol from a particular place and time. I wonder how the objectification that you experienced, centered so much upon your body, came to bear, not only on your understanding of Jackie, but also just in terms of who you are today. The role you play in “Connected” really pushes to the fore a lot of questions about women in society and the expectations that are placed on them. Do you think you’re a feminist icon?
Well, I don't think we should label things like that, as it just becomes another hurdle to overcome. I really believe the way that I came into this Hollywood world, through Playboy, and all the objectification that came with it, I made those choices. I felt the power to be able to use my sensuality and my sexuality. I was very safe. I knew where to draw the line. I feel that I embrace all my feminine qualities and I enjoy them. I think that women are equal to men. We all have our own strengths and roles. And to be honest, I'd rather be a woman than a man!
What do you think it means to be "connected" in this digital age?
Funnily enough, a while back, I actually “disconnected.” I took my computer and my phone away. You could only reach me through my home phone and fax line. It was a social experiment, and it turned out to be the best time of my life. But to be "connected," it can kind feel like you’re being thrown to the monster.
I think the uncertainty for Jackie in “Connected” stems from the question, “Am I going to be alone the rest of my life?” She’s faced with this situation where she’s thinking, My husband's left me, my children think his wife is cooler than me because she's young, she goes to Coachella, and from out of that loneliness, that desire to be part of something, she finds technology to be a useful tool. So I think that where the movie is interesting is in how it depicts this woman, who was not raised in the digital age, using technology to figure out how to belong.
Do you go to SoulCycle?
You know, I went SoulCycle just for this role? I'd never been to SoulCycle before. And I went and I looked around at the women with the big lips, you know, like on the bicycle, pumping away. And I said to myself, Where are they going? They're going nowhere!
We’re on the road to nowhere …
Exactly, On the road to nowhere. They're not going anywhere. Then they pick up their little Gucci bag, and they head out to their Mercedes, and they go home and see their husband, or maybe go home alone, thinking that's their only connection.
And probably staring at their phones.
You know, I don’t think we're as connected as we think we are. Maybe, in one way or another, we are all adopting a certain robotic mind-set, and the scary thing is, you don’t need to be into sci-fi fantasy to believe that — it’s not even futuristic, it’s now. by Joseph Akel
PAMELA ANDERSON LAUNCHES VEGAN & ANIMAL CRUELTY FREE MAKEUP LINE WITH CELEBRITY MAKEUP ARTIST ALEXIS VOGEL
Beauty icon and philanthropist Pamela Anderson teams up with celebrity make-up artist Alexis Vogel to create the limited edition make-up kit, Pamela’s Bombshell Collection available now on www.alexisvogel.com. Ten percent of proceeds will be donated to The Pamela Anderson Foundation.
Anderson and Vogel’s relationship spans over 20 years collaborating on many of the stars most famous magazine covers, fashion shoots, television and film appearances. Vogel has helped Anderson create her most iconic bombshell looks over the years which fans have continually asked how to replicate.
The Collection is 100% vegan and animal cruelty free and will be offered in two shades: Pamela Pink & Pamela Nude. The kit will be available for $199 ($260 retail value) and will include: Stay Pout Liquid Lip Stain, Lip Defining Pencil, Pro Lipstick, Luminous Gloss, Fill’Er Up Eve Primer, Retro Cake Liner, Pudgy Pencil, 2-Timer Pencil, Velvet Shadows, Velvet Shadows, Glow Dust, Shadow Shaper w/ Case, Instruction cards and Large Pro Clear Drawstring Bag.
“I love being a woman, and all that entails. Alexis has always been a mentor to me. We met while shooting one of my early Playboy covers – the Dan Aykroyd Conehead cover. We both love make-up and the femaleness of life. Goddess energy. Girl power. So these are our little secrets and the tricks we learned over the years, now anyone can achieve the perfect bombshell look at home,” Anderson says.
Pamela’s Bombshell Collection is available for purchase:
Pamela Bombshell Collections
http://www.alexisvogel.com/pamela-bombshell-collections.html
I DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR OPPOSING THE SLAUGHTER OF SEALS. By Captain Paul Watson
I DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR OPPOSING THE SLAUGHTER OF SEALS.
By Captain Paul Watson
In 1975 along with David Garrick I initiated and led the first two Greenpeace campaigns to oppose the horrific massacre of baby seals on the East Coast of Canada.
In 1975 David Garrick and I communicated with Native American and Inuit leaders about our intentions in opposing the commercial seal slaughter. Native American leaders had no problem with this campaign then because there was not a single Inuit or any Native American person involved with the commercial slaughter of seals.
In March 1976, we intervened against the Norwegian and Canadian seal slaughter off the coast of Newfoundland. We stopped large factory ships and opposed White men on the ice who were armed with spiked clubs. We intervened again in March 1977 this time alongside French actress Brigitte Bardot. There was no concern expressed at that time from any First Nations people. In fact many First Nations people supported us.
A few years earlier in March 1973, David Garrick and I were part of the occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement. We were both very sensitive to Native American cultural values and one thing that was definitely not a part of any First Nations culture or traditions was the mass commercial slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seals by White people off the Eastern coast of Canada.
In addition I myself was raised in an Eastern Canadian fishing village and I was personally offended and concerned about this obscenity they call the seal hunt as far back as 1960 when as a child, I saw a baby seal killed with my own eyes. I swore then that I would forever oppose this cruel and cowardly atrocity – the clubbing to death of helpless harp and hood seal pups. I have never changed my mind about my opposition to this slaughter and I have opposed it with an angry passion for over a half a century.
I left Greenpeace of which I was a co-founder in 1977 and established the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and I returned to oppose the killing of seals in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1995, 1998, 2005, and 2008. I was the first Captain to ever bring a ship into the ice to directly intervene against the commercial ships and I am proud of the fact that we contributed to the collapse of the commercial markets in 1983 and again in 2008.
After the 1983 campaign, the market for Whitecoat pups was shut down by the European Union but the hunt revived again in 1995 and the market collapsed once again in 2008 after the European Union banned all seal products.
In 1985 in an attempt to revive the slaughter the Canadian government introduced a new strategy. That strategy was to promote seal fur with a deliberate tactic of intentionally associating the commercial East coast seal slaughter with indigenous Northern Native cultures despite the fact that not a single Inuit person was employed with, or was a part of the Canadian commercial seal hunt. However in exchange for subsidies and due to political manipulations, the Inuit agreed to this association. It has not been to their benefit.
But the ploy worked for Canada and the fur industry.
It was a trap that Greenpeace blindly walked into for the very simple reason that there was no one in Greenpeace with the knowledge of the early Greenpeace seal campaigns. They had forced us all out, and the people that had taken over did not see seals or even whales as a priority.
In 1985, Greenpeace made the embarrassing announcement of apologizing for ending the hunt. They said they did not realize the damage it would cause to the Inuit by having baby seal products banned in Europe. This was absurd because the Inuit had not killed a single white coat pup ever. The pups are born on the ice off the East coast of Canada and the only traditional indigenous people of Newfoundland, the Beothuks are extinct, killed off by the same government that promotes the killing of seals.
The government’s strategy of association benefits the fur companies – not the Inuit.
The European Union excluded the Inuit from the ban but Canada and the Inuit insisted that the indigenous hunt remain connected to the commercial hunt. This connection did not exist before 1985 and it began purely for political reasons.
With the Inuit leadership willing to demonstrate solidarity with the White commercial hunters, the Inuit voluntarily included themselves in the ban on all seal products.
Greenpeace however in the last few years has had a reason to support sealing. They seized on the sealing issue as a means to recruit support amongst the Inuit in their opposition to Arctic drilling. All fine and good but not necessary since many Inuit already oppose Arctic drilling although many others have struck deals with the oil companies.
Greenpeace is now saying that the alliance with the Inuit is the reason that Shell Oil recently retreated from the Arctic. This is a great fantasy for fund-raising efforts but the truth is that Shell Oil retreated because of declining oil prices that made further efforts not profitable. If anyone should get the credit for forcing Shell Oil out of the Arctic is would be OPEC.
What Greenpeace Arctic director Jon Burgwald did is unforgivable in my mind. He openly endorsed a commercial sealing operation by promoting and accepting a gift of a seal skin vest from a Danish company that supplies seal products to a commercial market in Europe and Asia.
This company Great Greenland Fur Tannery just this month laid off five Greenland Native women seamstresses and outsourced their jobs to Greece and Poland. What this company does cannot in any way be defined as indigenous sealing.
In addition supplying wealthy people with expensive seal fur products in Dubai, Tokyo, and Copenhagen cannot be defined as traditional, cultural or indigenous. Parading white models on fashion runways sporting trendy dyed seal fur is not a part of Inuit culture.
The only connection is the small fraction of the profits paid to hunters for the skins. The bulk of the profits go directly into the pockets of Europeans like Lars Berg of Denmark, the CEO of the Great Greenland Fur Tannery
If an Inuit person kills a seal and makes a coat or jacket from the seal pelt and sells it directly to any person in Greenland and receives 100% of the price of that coat, such a product could be called indigenous. However if an Inuit hunter kills a seal and sells the pelt to a company and receives less than 5% of the final retail price for that product that is called exploitation.
Jon Burgwald and the Greenpeace leadership today have no right to apologize for our campaigns with Greenpeace in the Seventies. They have their jobs because of what we established back in the Seventies and the seal campaign was a major factor in building Greenpeace into the brand it is today.
Neither David Garrick or myself ever received a salary or a wage for our efforts with Greenpeace between 1972 and 1977. Not one penny. We were volunteers and we were motivated by a sincere desire to shut down the massacre of seal pups.
None of these Greenpeace apologists today were there. They did not see the clubs smashing the skulls of seal pups, they did not see the hot blood steaming on the ice, they did not see them being skinned alive nor hear their screams. The did not see the anguish of shocked mother seals desperately trying to nurse the skinned bodies of their babies. They did not experience the beatings we received or the days in jail, the fines we paid, the extreme weather conditions we endured, the threats against our lives, so it is really quite easy for them to apologize.
But if Greenpeace today really believes that our campaigns in the Seventies and early Eighties were a mistake and that Inuit communities really did suffer hardships because of what we did, they should do more than apologize with mere hollow words. They should turn over the tens of millions or dollars and euros they raised to oppose sealing to these same communities they profess to have sympathy with. After all Greenpeace brings in hundreds of millions in contributions and has tens of millions in the bank. They could easily deliver reparations to Inuit communities – if they wanted to, if they were sincere.
But they are not. Instead they want to use the Inuit in the same way the Fur companies exploit First Nation cultures, because they want something.
The Inuit should respond by saying, well if you want us to have an alliance with Greenpeace and if you are truly sorry for the “mistake” you made, how about ponying up some mega-bucks to back your words.
I however will not apologize. I went to the ice and fought for the seals because I wanted to end the suffering and the exploitation, and I oppose the fur industry with every fibre of my being. I have studied the history of the fur trade and the damage this bloody business did to both Native American cultures and to the numerous species of animals that were ruthlessly exterminated and diminished.
When I saw Jon Burgwald wearing a Sealskin vest and sporting a seal fur coat, I confess to feeling like I wanted to vomit. He betrayed all that we once stood for and he spat in the face of the founders of the organization that now pays his salary.
If his is the new face of Greenpeace it is a face of insensitivity, insincerity and opportunism.
Greenpeace needs to remove him as an employee.
Captain Paul Watson
Founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Established (1977)
Photo: Paul Watson rescuing a seal from Norwegian sealers in March 1976 off the coast of Labrador
Captain Paul Watson and I in Paris
Speaking about Climate Change
The Oceans are dying.
90% of fish are gone.
We need to leave the ocean alone for 50 years. Allow to regenerate itself. So that generations ahead of us will survive.
This is what we must do for the human race.
Please read;
OCEAN, solutions to climate change, by Captain Paul Watson
