The table in this old trapper's cabin is set, welcoming visitors at the halfway stop of a day hike route.

The cabin was in use in the 1940s, its residents owing their success in part to the nearby freshwater spring, which provides cool, clear water, even when surrounding ponds are frozen in winter.

The site is well-travelled, but also respected. The trappers who lived here didn't set that table, or patch up holes in the windows and roof. This park hasn't been a trap line in decades, but no one has knocked the cabin down in that time. On the contrary, it has become a the destination of this trail, a place to visit and take a break, a sign in the depths of the woods that people were here, people belonged here, and in some ways they still do.

I just wrote this as a response to someone asking for advice on running negotiations during university occupations. Posting it here for other’s information, and as a personal thing for re-reflecting on later. I possibly will expand on it later.

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So I’m just one of the people that was involved in the occupation. There were some internal divisions about how to handle the negotiations and I was…