Tony Hillaire’s Inspiring AGILE Leadership in The Face of the Devastating Loss of Tokitae

Every so often there is a stunning display of leadership that is so arresting we must pause and absorb it.

Tony Hillaire, Chairman of the Lummi Nation, had such a moment this week in the face of the devastating loss of Tokitae, the orca whale who died in captivity just as she was slated to be returned to the northwest waters where she was captured nearly half a century ago.

“Tokitae, the oldest orca in captivity, has path to freedom after 50 years” the international press proclaimed when it was announced she would be returned to her native waters.

She spent most of those 50 years performing for visitors to the Miami Seaquarium where she lived in the smallest enclosure in North America. Poor water quality gave her skin infections and she was occasionally fed rotten fish.

Orca captures started in the 1960's when an orca was accidentally captured in a fishing net. The $8,000 sale price and high demand to see orcas drove mass captures and in 1970 the notorious Penn Cove capture happened.

Men used boats, planes, and explosives to round up and take young orcas from the wild. Their screaming was audible above water. Four died in the ordeal. Their bodies were sunk to cover the crime.

The capture was so traumatic for those who witnessed it that it sparked a nationwide outcry eventually leading to the outlawing of orca captures. Still, they remained in captivity.

Between 1962 and 1976 about 270 orcas were captured in the northwest. Of those whales, 12 died during the captures and more than 50 whales were kept for displays. Tokitae was the last to remain in captivity.

The planned release of Tokitae was heralded by animal activists, orca lovers and northwest sea life lovers. But she would die in captivity months short of her planned release.

It was called “devastating”, “shocking”, “heartbreaking”, “gut wrenching”.

Nowhere did the loss cut more deeply than in the Lummi Nation.

The Lummi word for Orca means “our relations under water.” They described the return of Tokitae to her native waters and family pod as part of how the tribe would heal itself.

So, when Tokitae died, the Lummi led us all in our grief.

But things got even worse.?

The Seaquarium, without consulting the Lummi, initiated a necropsy on Tokitae’s body. The Seattle Times described “Tokitae’s body was trucked that evening from Florida to the University of Georgia where it was cut into pieces and placed in 20 50-gallon barrels, and the larger bones put in bins with the goal of using them to make castings for multiple displays of her skeleton. Incineration of the remains would have been the next step.”

If you were the Lummi, how would you respond? Anger, blame and shame would be understandable. But here is how Hillaire responded.

With transparency: “It was a shock we were not consulted.”

And then he expressed empathy: “They want answers. They shared their hearts with us that it was traumatic for them, too.”

And he showed Integrity around the tribe’s values: “We don’t want her sitting any more like that, above all else we want to take care of her spirit. I struggled with it, that feeling of we need to fight, to be angry about this. We need to set that down and take care of her.”

Finally, he called on us to honor her life by remembering and learning. “Let’s talk about what we remember about her, instead of carrying anger in our hearts we want to carry what she taught us, about unity, and bringing us together.”

Hillaire names the offense, gives voice to the hurt and helps us find meaning in the loss. That is a leader who can help us heal.