Clarice Friloux: A Mother, Wife, Grandmother and Her Lifetime of Activism
Original interview by Alexis Young with additional writing by Mindy Ramaker
Clarice Friloux. Photograph by Zachary Kanzler.
Clarice Friloux is many things. She’s an environmental protector, an electric tribal member of the United Houma Nation, and lifelong resident of Grand Bois, Louisiana. But when you sit down and hear her story you’ll learn that her work in environmental protection and activism is folded into her role as a mother, wife, and now grandmother.
Friloux says she was a 28 year-old mom of two when she noticed that materials, labeled as non-hazardous, were being dumped in her community. “Parents were talking about how their kids were being sick and the smells that were coming from an awful waste site a quarter of a mile from my house.”
“It could be hydrogen sulfide, arsenic, you name it, it’s there. It’s just all the byproducts of the oil and gas industry. So at any time, this community could have been gassed to death.”
So Friloux and her community sprang to action. She and 300 other residents from her area filed single-file lawsuits to stop hazardous waste dumping. “We had to wait six months before our case could be heard in the courts of the future parish. The litigation lasted for six years,” she recalls.
“Offshore drilling was allowed to be disposed of in our community as long as it said ‘offshore drilling.’ And it's called the RCRA law that allows them to bring hazardous material into a non-hazardous facility. And you know, you don't know what's in it. It could be hydrogen sulfide, arsenic, you name it, it's there. It's just all the byproducts of the oil and gas industry. So at any time, this community could have been gassed to death.”
Though residents eventually won a settlement, Friloux says it wasn’t even enough to cover two months worth of electricity bills.
That was 30 years ago. And Friloux hasn’t given up on the fight. Years of phone calls, conferences and meetings in Baton Rouge, Friloux truly feels that her work as a protector is what she was born to do. But she also says she can’t ignore the things that she’s missed—whether that was extra time with her family or extra care for herself. Either way she knows she won’t be getting it back. That’s why Friloux is adamant about self-care and necessary periods of rest and restoration in the environmental justice space.
“It’s heartbreak, victories. Heartbreak, victories. You’re going to get worn out. Take some time for yourself.”
“The environmental fight, it's tiresome. It's long. It doesn't end. It's not a nine-to-fiver. If I had to do one thing over again, it would be setting some time aside for Clarice and not feel like I was going to change the world overnight, not feel that tomorrow is going to be a whole bunch better, because I stayed up all night trying to figure this thing out.”
“I remember my daughter saying that she wanted to have a job just like mine. First I thought it was cute. Then I realized, no, it's not. She said her mom stays on the phone all the time.” That’s when Clarice says she, “realized I missed something. I can't get that back.”
After a lifetime of activism, Clarice’s advice to the current and next generation of environmental justice advocates is, “It's heartbreak, victories. Heartbreak, victories. You're going to get worn out. Take some time for yourself.”