As long as you have the land, you’re not lost

Building Indigenous Community And Connection In Revelstoke

By Melissa Jameson

For a long time, the narrative was that while, historically, the people of the Sinixt, Secwepemc, Ktunaxa, and Syilx nations travelled through the area now know as Revelstoke, the harsh winter climate meant none truly made it their home.

We now know that isn’t true, and that the error came from applying settler-colonial concepts of home to Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

In an October 2021 story for the Mountaineer, Revelstoke writer Laura Stovel wrote that the Sinixt, “lived and thrived in this region as far back as they can remember. Skxikn (pronounced Skuhee-kin), now known as the Big Eddy, was the site of a Sinixt village or camp and a place of trade and socialization with eastern Secwepemc people who often joined them as a part of their seasonal rounds.”

When the first settlers came to Revelstoke in 1885, their lack of knowledge on seasonal rounds led to them not recognizing the area as part of the Sinixt territory.

“I don’t think we have a lot of understanding of seasonal rounds. I think we have – especially back in the day when people were moving here – a big misunderstanding of seasonal rounds. A lot of that has changed with Eileen Delehanty Pearkes book

The Geography of Memory. That was really the first sort of ‘aha’ moment saying there was the Sinixt Village here, and a name for it. It was all new for me,” said Lisa Moore, culture education manger for the Indigenous Friendship Society of Revelstoke.

Like many other Indigenous people Moore, who is also Secondary Aboriginal Student Assistant with School District 19 Revelstoke, has not always had connection to her culture.

“When I started with the school district I didn’t know the four nations, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know about my own Metis culture. I knew I was Metis, but I didn’t know what that meant.”

In most places in BC there is at least one First Nations Band to advocate for its members in that community. In many communities there are also Indigenous Friendship Centres, which are described by the National Association of Friendship Centres as providing, “crucial points of connection, community, and a network of culture hubs. They have become a place for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together, to share traditions, and to learn from one another.” Revelstoke has neither.

In 2015, the Indigenous Friendship Society of Revelstoke was formed. Unlike many friendship centres, the society does not have a space where people can drop-in. However, over the years the society has hosted a number of events, some open to the public, and some – such as a recent Indigenous mom’s baby group – are solely for Indigenous people.

Originally, this story was going to be a feature about Moore’s contribution to the community. In December 2022, Moore was presented with a Spirit of Revelstoke award for her work with the friendship society.

Along the way the story evolved, and its focus became more about acknowledging the challenges many Indigenous peoples in Revelstoke experience in terms of trying to remain connected to their culture and community.

“I have made many mistakes. People who have been raised in culture, they very politely tell me, ‘That was incorrect’, or ‘this is how you should do it.’ I remember going to a youth conference in Castlegar and there was some elders and knowledge keepers. I said, ‘What do I do here?’ They said, ‘Just let people know where you got the knowledge from, that it belongs to this nation as much as you can and that’s all you can do. When you get the chance to learn more, learn more’,” said Moore. “It’s getting better but back when I started there was nobody to talk to about it or to … we just didn’t have those connections.”

Over the years, more connections have been made with the elders and knowledge keepers from the four nations (the Sinixt, Secwepemc, Ktunaxa, and Syilx). Some of those individuals have included elder Louis Thomas of the Neskonlith band, Shelley Boyd and her predecessor, Virgil Seymour, from the Coleville Sinixt, and Randy Williams from the Splatsin band. It was the connection with Williams, who is currently involved with an elder program in the Revelstoke School District, that led to the Indigenous mom’s baby group.

“In a lot of cases the role of our society is to build relationships with Indigenous service providers and resources and facilitate them coming back to Revelstoke,” Michelle Cole, with the Indigenous Friendship Society of Revelstoke, said. “We’re not hosting them; this is their territory. We’ve been able to build some pretty good relationships that way … In Indigenous culture the parents and the family are the teachers, they’re the number one teachers, so we decided to start with a motherhood group just to start building relationships and connections.”

Cole said over the last eight years, the friendship society has put on around 20 events including elder outreach, a men’s campfire program, and a speaker’s series on food security. It’s events like these that create a sense of connection for Indigenous people who may also be discovering, or re-discovering, their own culture. While the events are for the broader community as well, Moore says it’s a way for Indigenous people in town to connect and recognize one another.

“We need a way to connect … I spoke with Michele Sam who is a Ktunaxa knowledge keeper, and I said, ‘We’re a little bit lost here, lots of people don’t really have cultural connections’, and she said, ‘You have land though. As long as you have the land you’re not lost. So, I think that is really what we need to ground all of this in connecting to the land and stewardship of the land,” said Moore.

Since the friendship society was formed in Revelstoke, more and more people have begun to connect and become involved with their Indigenous cultures. However, non-Indigenous people also have an important role to play. Moore said she is often contacted by different groups to come and do a land acknowledgement.

“When I explain it really should come from you, they’re 100 per cent happy to work with that. But this isn’t my territory, I can’t welcome you to it, no matter that I am Indigenous, because I am from a different place. Also, the land acknowledgement is more than spouting off the four nations, it’s you’re acknowledging the land and your gratitude for what it’s provided for you, as well as your commitment to stewarding it.”

As an example, Moore said, Revelstoke Early Years coordinator Tracy Spannier worked with elders to come up with a land acknowledgement for the centre. Moore says she has changed her own land acknowledgement every few years, as she learns more.

“I think that people kind of think Indigenous culture is over here, and we need to respect it and that’s good, but it can be infused in-between everything. Just because I mention one time, ‘Oh, the story of this mountain or this river’ … that can just be a story that’s fitted in with whatever you’re talking about. It doesn’t have to mean we switch into Indigenous mode now,” said Moore. “You can incorporate [Indigenous knowledge and understanding] into daily conversation, it’s not one or the other.”