Volume 13 . Issue 7
August-September 2017
LIVING LANGUAGES
PAGES 3 - 9
TROY BARNES: WALKING TWO ROADS
PAGES 24 - 25
NAUT’SA MAWT TRIBAL COUNCIL NATIONS
Naut’sa mawt - Working together as one EDITORIAL TEAM Cara McKenna – Editor editor@salishseasentinel.ca Tricia Thomas – Photographer Todd Peacey – Photographer DESIGN & LAYOUT Kelly Landry & Carmel Ecker ADVERTISING & DISTRIBUTION Manoj Sood ads@salishseasentinel.ca 604-943-6712 or 1-888-382-7711 PUBLISHER Gary Reith, CAO Naut’sa mawt Tribal Council 330-6165 Highway 17A Delta, B.C., V4K 5B8 604-943-6712 or 1-888-382-7711
The Salish Sea map was created in 2009 by Stefan Freelan at Western Washington University
PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #42922026 Undeliverable mail may be returned to: 330-6165 Highway 17A Delta, B.C., V4K 5B8 circulation@salishseasentinel.ca
The Salish Sea Sentinel is published monthly, ten times a year, by the Naut’sa mawt Tribal Council, representing 6,500 people in 11 member nations. © Salish Sea Sentinel is all rights reserved. Contents and photographs may not be reprinted without written permission. The statements, opinions and points of view expressed in articles published in this magazine are those of the authors. The publisher accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, transparencies or other materials.
COVER PHOTO: Deanna George of Tsleil-Waututh Nation welcomes paddlers arriving in Vancouver at the end of the Pulling Together Canoe Journey on July 14. Story: page 18.
1. HALALT (250) 246-4736 chief@halalt.org www.halalt.org
7. SNUNEYMUXW (Nanaimo) (250) 740-2300 johngwesley@shaw.ca www.snuneymuxw.ca
2. HOMALCO (250) 923-4979 m.enevoldsen@homalco.com
8. STZ’UMINUS (Ladysmith) (250) 245-7155 Ray.Gauthier@coastsalishdevcorp.com www.stzuminus.com
3. KLAHOOSE Qathen Xwegus Management Corp (250) 935-6536 www.klahoose.com 4. MALAHAT (250) 743-3231 caroline.harry@malahatnation.com www.malahatnation.com 5. TLA’AMIN (604) 483-9646 clint.williams@sliammon.bc.ca www.sliammonfirstnation.com 6. SNAW-NAW-AS (Nanoose) (250) 390-3661 chris.bob@nanoose.org www.nanoose.org
9. TSAWWASSEN (604) 943-2122 info@tsawwassenfirstnation.com www.tsawwassenfirstnation.com 10. TSLEIL-WAUTUTH (604) 929-3454 cao@twnation.ca www.twnation.ca 11. T’SOU-KE (Sooke) (250) 642-3957 administrator@tsoukenation.com www.tsoukenation.com Naut’sa mawt Tribal Council 8017 Chemainus Road Chemainus, B.C., V0R 1K5 (250) 324-1800 • www.nautsamawt.org
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Councillor Michelle Robinson, left, and Chief Kevin Peacey show off the nation's new fibreglass canoe.
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REAWAKENING CULTURE THROUGH GROWTH AT KLAHOOSE The community is transforming and reconnecting, starting with a brand-new canoe By Cara McKenna Culture is at the core of all the work that’s been done since a new chief and council were elected at Klahoose First Nation in April. In several months, the community raised funds for a Tribal Journeys canoe, created a new health centre, looked into new businesses and started working on bringing back songs and language. Chief Kevin Peacey and councillors appear to be working at warp speed to get everything done. But during a trip to the nation in late June, Councillor Michelle Robinson said things have progressed in a natural flow. “The ancestors are bringing us together at this time, and listening to the people,” said Robinson, who also works in social development. “I think in terms of culture it’s just going in that direction because everybody wants it.”
We understand culture as part of everyday life... It’s how community functions together…we’re just waking that part up.
The community’s most obvious new acquisition is a shiny new fibreglass canoe, recently brought over from the mainland. The canoe is a product of the nation’s new regular culture nights, where people have been learning about Klahoose history, making drums and paddles, composing songs and learning words in the ʔayʔǰuθəm language. “We knew we wanted our hands in the canoe journey but we weren’t sure to what extent, so at the cultural nights we would discuss it and it just kind of took its own life,” said Robinson. “It was a huge turnout, the building was
full with just our people.” Robinson explained that what the community really wanted was a traditional wooden canoe carved by an artist from a log from Toba Inlet. But since that couldn’t be done in time for Tribal Journeys in August, the fibreglass canoe was bought first. The community raised money for the canoe through catering nights, dinners, auctions and more, as well as a donation of $10,000 from the nation’s commercial logging business. Chief Peacey said carving a wood canoe will still happen later on, and it’s something that could lead to jobs as well. “We’re thinking, if we can get that log in and do our own canoe, this canoe could turn into tourism,” he said. Peacey said he is in talks with several people about a 40 to 50 room hotel that could create dozens of jobs, though he wants community members make the decisions. Continued on page 4
The nation's new health centre.
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Continued from page 3
“I just feel like tourism is one of the biggest things that’s happening,” he said. “It might not be the biggest money maker but it’s job creation (and) culture all ties in.” He said building a resort could also bring more people home to work, because the community now has new homes for people to come move into. “I can just see the community starting to get bigger,” Peacey said. He said the last few years have already seen many members reconnect and move home to Cortes Island, after some troubled years where many moved away. And now services are growing too. Carpenters from the community recently converted the daycare into a health centre that now has a massage therapist, doctor and clinical psychiatrist. They are also looking into adding dentistry and eye exams, and are building a community garden. Robinson said there have been many late nights – but it doesn’t feel like work when it’s something the community wants. She explained that even a year and a half ago, people were skeptical about doing things like composing songs because it was something many didn’t know the first thing about. Now, the community is singing songs they’ve composed on drums they’ve made themselves. “We understand culture as part of everyday life, it’s not just singing and dancing,” she said. “It’s how community functions together … we’re just waking that part up.”
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WORK BEGINS ON CANADA’S INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES ACT AFN starts engagement sessions in Vancouver after announcement to complete law by 2018 By Cara McKenna On June 15, Canada announced it will work on a law to preserve, protect and revitalize Indigenous languages, with goals to complete it by 2018. Federal ministers say the Indigenous Languages Act will be created collaboratively with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Métis Nation. A week after the announcement, the AFN held the first of numerous engagement sessions to gather input from Indigenous language champions across AFN National Chief Perry Bellegard. the country. The event in Vancouver included talks from Coast Salish leaders and representatives from the First Nations Summit and First Peoples Cultural Council. On June 23, AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde spoke about the importance of updating “outdated” laws in order to wake up Canada’s 58+ Indigenous languages, most of which are in B.C. “This is a no brainer, politically,” he said. “How do we work together to get the proper resources in place, that’s the challenge going forward now.” Bellegarde said organizations such as his must work hard and continue to pressure the federal government to get the legislation done and fund the work accordingly. “We want legislation because then it’s a heck of a lot harder for any government to cut the funding. It’ll be a lot harder for any government to change it or move it away,” he said. “It’s also a statement. It’s a statement across Canada that no longer should our languages be in the shadow of French and English.” Tracey Herbert, the CEO of First Peoples Cultural Council, said her organization recently held several pre-engagement sessions around the legislation in B.C. She said people had many suggestions and concerns, including the large number of people who live off reserve and still want to learn their traditional languages. “People are feeling quite serious about the level of crisis and we really need to have some action happen very quickly,” she said. The AFN’s engagement sessions will continue across Canada until the fall of 2017. SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 5
The language club at Tla’amin, from left: Erica Louis, Marianne Huijsmans, Devin Pielle, Betty Wilson, Randy Timothy and Drew Blaney.
QAYMƖXʷQƐNƏM: THE COMEBACK OF ʔAYʔAǰUΘƏM AT TLA’AMIN A language club at Tla’amin is currently working on a language dictionary and a place names map By Cara McKenna qaymɩxʷqɛnəm is a word in Tla’amin First Nation’s traditional language that means “to speak in the native language.” And that’s exactly what people are doing more and more of at Tla’amin, as revitalization efforts – and excitement to learn the ʔayʔaǰuθəm language – ramp up in the community. A weekly language club is now in the middle of creating a traditional place names map with the Powell River 6 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
Historical Museum and Archives after receiving a federal grant to fund the project. The group is also working on a dictionary, building on thousands of words and phrases that were previously recorded with the Indigenous language resource FirstVoices. Elder Betty Wilson, a retired school teacher who has been working on language revitalization for several decades, said the projects will be in print and digital formats, so people can hear
recordings of words as well as reading them. “We’re working under the premise that it takes 20,000 words and phrases to save a language,” she said. “With FirstVoices we have 3,000. We’re working on about 4,000 that need to be edited.” The language club, consisting of community members of all ages as well as academics, meets weekly to record words and plan for the future. During one of their meetings in July,
the group was gathered at Wilson’s kitchen table discussing research and making plans. “It’s just a matter of our community pulling together,” Wilson explained. “We decided to work with our oldest elders first, because they’re the most fragile, in their 80s. Their knowledge base is more, they’ve experienced the language, they’ve experienced these territories. So that was our goal.” Tla’amin also has an agreement with the communities who share the language —Klahoose, Homalco and Comox—to work together on revitalization. “The young people are really interested,” Wilson said. “I always say that knowing who you are gives you that confidence to move forward.” Devin Pielle, a member of the group who’s been learning the language in classes since Kindergarten, said the community is “fanning a flame” to bring ʔayʔaǰuθəm back. “It only took three generations for us to get here,” Pielle said. “My great-grandparents were so fluent, they were our first resource people, then you have my granny’s generation which was fluent, they lived
the language. But then there’s the block of residential school.” Wilson did not attend residential school, which allowed her to retain much of the language, but elder Randy Timothy is a survivor of the schools and has been relearning words and phrases. “I went to residential, but I retained about 30 per cent,” he said. “By being out in our areas, different bays and that, that’s given me a little headstart on some of our youngsters. They need to go out there and discover their land.” One of those young people, Drew Blaney, said he feels lucky that he grew up hearing the language in his family and through songs. “I was fortunate enough that my mom took me to this exact spot when I was young and all the elders were speaking the language back and forth,” he said. Blaney laughed, adding that sometimes that speaking was just to tease the young people. “But it was still listening to the language and learning it,” he said. “I just really hope when I’m older, I’ll have somebody to talk to.” Recently, Blaney’s young nephew has been learning and speaking certain
words. The nation has had success teaching the language through songs, and a potential immersion program is in the works at the daycare. Pielle acknowledged the difficulties to passing on the language to the next generations – such as in her family, her husband is Squamish, so there are two languages to think about teaching their daughter. The language classes at the local high school are also in competition with other classes such as outdoor ed. Then there’s the fact that most families still wake up speaking English. Also, there's the issue of finding and applying for funding, and the tendency for language efforts between communities and organizations to be disconnected. “There are still challenges, but I think it’s pretty fair to say that the excitement about learning the language is there,” Pielle said. “It’s a new time that we can be proud of who we are and where we come from. Where my dad’s generation had to fight to be proud of who they are and where they come from.” The place names atlas is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018, while the dictionary is set to be completed in about two years.
A few words in ʔayʔaǰuθəm: čɛčɛhaθɛč - I thank (honor) you č̓ ik̓ saplɛn - frybread ganaxʷmot - the truth ǰenxʷ - fish χaƛʊxʷəs - to love
qaymɩxʷqɛnəm - to speak in the native language mamaɬaqɛnəm - to speak in the white man’s language (Source: FirstVoices)
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Participants in the Hul’qumi’num language class.
LEARNING INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE POSITIVE FOR HEALTH, RESEARCH SHOWS “Through my medical training, I’ve learned that culture and language impact health; just as a new diabetes or heart pill do.” By Kristy Williams, Indigenous Family Doctor Williams, a new doctor, attended a Hul’qumi’num language class at Snuneymuxw to learn from elders as part of a research project during her final year of studies at the University of British Columbia. She recently presented her project to her colleagues, and submitted this article to the Sentinel with permission from community members. 8 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
“You know the language. You just need to wake it up. It’s already there and it always has been there. You just need to wake it up.” These were the words that Mandy, one of Snuneymuxw’s Hul’qumi’num teachers, told Shxwaysulwut, an Elder in the community, when Shxwaysulwut was thinking “to heck with it.” She had been attending Hul’qumi’num classes, but was feeling discouraged by the
challenge of revitalizing her traditional language. These words, however, resonated with her and she stuck with it. Shxwaysulwut says, “I believe what she told me. So I persevered. I wouldn’t give up, and I am not going to give up. I will probably be going and taking the classes until the day I pass over.” There were many words of thanks and strength shared when myself and friend
You know the language. You just need to wake it up. It’s already there and it always has been there. You just need to wake it up. Erin Hemmens spoke to the Thursday evening Hul’qumi’num group. The group had graciously welcomed us to their space to share the role of their language revitalization efforts on their lives and wellbeing. This evening was part of a project I was completing to become a family doctor through UBC’s Indigenous Family Medicine Program. Through my medical training, I’ve learned that culture and language impact health; just as a new diabetes or heart pill do. I learned through research that Indigenous self-determination is important for wellbeing and in fact, in B.C., rates of youth suicide are related to rates of Indigenous language knowledge in communities. Some writers discuss language revitalization as a decolonizing act, allowing communities to reclaim aspects of culture lost over generations of cultural genocide. Though Mandy’s words about “waking up” the language speaks to a notion that the language is present, and just needs to be attended to, which is exactly what the intent of the group is. Many of the group members spoke about the importance of cultural continuity in the context of family. Xuthuwwut shared: “Learning my language means a lot to me because that is my culture. It means a lot to me to learn my language, for me to hear what my grandmother was saying, my mom and dad. I see what my people have been through, I see what my ancestors went through to keep that language alive, to keep my culture alive.” Haqwaybuxw remembers her grandmother: “She used to say to me ‘without the language, there is no culture… how are you going to go pick that plant, if you don’t know how to speak to that plan? How are you going to go to that canoe if you don’t know how to speak to that canoe?’” Through this sharing, I was able to see how important language is for those involved for health and community. Words were shared such as “… I am really aware of that, of depression, addiction, and all those things that were there long ago and now it’s all gone now and I’m just standing in this beautiful place of learning and growing,” and “this is part of my healing.” I feel honoured and privileged to have been able to engage with Mandy’s Hul’qumi’num class. Part of this project includes sharing with the medical community about the importance of culture, including traditional language, on health. The participation and strong voices of participants speak for themselves, as Mandy says: “… we discipline ourselves to get where we are, to be strong, to be strong xwulmuxw mustimuxw (First Nations People). We know how to stand up straight, we know how to speak our language.” Huy ch q’a
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THOUSANDS ATTEND B.C. ELDERS GATHERING Photos by Todd Peacey About 5,000 elders from all corners of British Columbia travelled to Campbell River to attend this year’s B.C. Elders Gathering. The 41st annual gathering took place from June 11 to 13 at the Strathcona Gardens Recreation Complex. The event organized by the B.C. Elders Communication Center Society is a chance for Elders to come together, see old friends and family, share stories and partake in discussions. Speakers included AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde, B.C. Lt. Gov. Judith Guichon and MP Rachel Blaney. The three-day event also included arts and crafts, vendors, bingo and karaoke.
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WALKING THROUGH ‘UNBELIEVABLE’ EXHIBIT Klahoose curator Sharon Fortney showcases some Indigenous pieces from ‘fake news’ inspired display at the Museum of Vancouver By Cara McKenna “Why do we assume some stories are true when they actually aren’t?” questions Sharon Fortney, a curator at the Museum of Vancouver. Fortney, who is Klahoose and German, worked on the museum’s latest exhibit MANHOLE COVERS “This is a bit interactive. Here’s a manhole cover by Susan Point and her daughter Kelly (Cannell). You can actually do a rubbing of it if you want, and then they’re contrasting it with the idea of the gridline manhole cover and the idea of the city being mapped and renamed to claim it for other people. So there are different ways of looking at even the architecture in the city and thinking about our past.”
titled Unbelievable. In an age of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” Unbelievable is meant to challenge people’s preconceptions about Vancouver’s history, including the complicated— and often incorrect—narrative that exists around Indigenous people. It includes many Indigenous pieces that
were chosen from the museum collection by Fortney to deconstruct how we know the city and the stories that have been silenced. The Sentinel walked through the new exhibit with Fortney to learn more about some of those works. Unbelievable is showing until Sept. 24.
QUATCHI AND SQUATCHI “This was a little bit of playing with appropriation. You’re taking the Coast Salish sasquatch, and you’re making him into a commercial figure to represent the Olympics. And then you’re contrasting him with Squatchi, he was the poverty Olympics mascot. He’s got ‘homes not games’ on his chest. That’s to speak to the fact that a lot of people were evicting their tenants so they could charge high rents for people coming to the Olympics, then there was a ton of money being spent on infrastructure for the Olympics, rather than building affordable housing for the community.”
SMALLPOX MASK “This is a unique older piece in the collection, it’s called the smallpox mask, and we’re not really sure who named it or even how it got into the (museum) collection. But in terms of doing our exhibit, we thought it was a good way to tell a contact story about disease and the impact that newcomers had on First Nations people when they came here. Smallpox and other diseases actually reached the Coast before the first Europeans sailed their ships into Burrard Inlet and up and down the Coast. There already were people who showed evidence of smallpox, and that’s because it spread across train networks across the continent and people had no resistance. So it already had a very devastating effect before the first Europeans even arrived here. We couldn’t find out much about the history of this mask, and I found these photographs that were at the B.C. provincial museum and they’re actually non-Indigenous people wearing the mask. This organization called the Native Sons of British Columbia. So to be a Native Son you were of a generation that was born here after the first settlers came, but you weren’t actually Indigenous, though they did allow people of mixed ancestry into the organization. They were a bit of a patron organization. They had ownership of this mask in the 1920s and they did their exhibiting every year. I know sometime between around 1923 and 1940, this mask made it into the MoV collection but I can’t even find it in our ledger. So it’s a bit of a mystery. We just don’t really know much about how it got here and as far as I know it’s the only smallpox mask that’s in a museum collection on the Coast (with B.C. origins).” SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 15
THUNDERBIRD TOTEM “A lot of the things that have become symbols of Vancouver were imported symbols. So we kind of explore that in the exhibit, looking at the Charlie James houseposts in Stanley Park. They became this iconic totem pole that showed up on tourist brochures, postcards, stamps, the city coat of arms. It’s become very pervasive as a symbol of the city but it’s actually imported, and the presence of totem poles, in many ways, silenced Coast Salish architecture in the city. This housepost is really interesting because it was commissioned for a chief in Alert Bay … before it was purchased by the Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Association. They wanted it for a village they were going to build in Stanley Park in the 1920s, and that village was supposed to be an educational village to teach people about the First Nations of the province. SOUVENIR AND LEGACY CASE “On one side there’s souvenir, and on the other side you have legacy. We’re trying to get people to look at these belongings from two different perspectives, with the labels. That’s why they’re kind of turned so you can see them with interest from both sides. On one side, we tell the souvenir story and look a little bit at why did people collect Native art in the early 20th century and their interest in model totem poles and basketry collections. Then on the other side we look at it from the perspective of Indigenous people and they were living in a time when the Indian Act was really restrictive on what types of cultural traditions that people could practice. When you had a carver like Tommy Moses, who was Squamish, he’s adopted a northern carving style but at the same time he’s able to practice a traditional art form, there may be stories embedded in his carvings, he’s still preserving culture even though it might not have looked like what it looked like in the past century. It’s really a story of survival and persistence as well. Same with the basketry. Some forms of weaving were not allowed at residential school, like wool weaving was not really allowed because it 16 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
But they were bringing in these northern symbols at the time when the last Coast Salish residents of Stanley Park had just been evicted a few years previously. So there
was a little bit of protest, obviously, and the village itself was never constructed, but the totem poles did remain there. There are still totem poles today in Stanley Park.”
was really linked to ceremonial life. But basketry was allowed and I’ve worked before with elders who, when they were at residential school, were allowed to teach basketry in the bathroom. Because that’s where the water source was and you need water when you’re working with a root. When you talk to people about basketry, a lot of the ways you work with the basketry materials, it’s family-owned knowledge. They were actually able to preserve specialized knowledge from their family while making what the missionaries viewed as handicrafts. There’s these three wooden pieces, and they’re all made by the same boy from St.
George’s Indian Residential School which was up in the valley near Yale, and they all show Coyote on it. In the Interior, Coyote is a transformation figure. They’ve transformed him into a prayer leader. There’s a story on the back of this plaque. He’s been turned into a prayer leader but he’s ascended up into heaven, he’s still got a lot of his supernatural qualities. So even though they’re in a very restrictive environment, they’re creating belongings and objects that still carry traditional elements. So what are they allowed to do in the context of the law, of residential school, and how did people carry this tradition forward? It’s a complex message.”
GEORGE RALEY’S PRINTING PRESS “It’s a miniature printing press that belonged to George Raley. He was a Methodist missionary who worked up in northern B.C. with Tlingit, and then he later ran the Coqualeetza residential school out in Chilliwack, so he inherited a printing press and he printed his own missionary newspaper, it’s called Na-Na-Kwa. His whole goal with his little paper was to send it to eastern Canada and get more funding so that he could continue his missionary work. Sometimes he also published in the Tlingit language which created a record of the language, which is important today when people are working so hard to reclaim language. What I thought would be interesting as a different perspective or story was to get some coverage from the Native Voice. I thought, let’s look at stories that First Nations people thought were important. Issues that mattered to them. It was a bit of a later paper, we’re looking at the 1890s here and this one we’re looking at the 1940s and 50s, but just the stories are quite different. They’re written and edited, often, by First Nations people and it’s relevant to their lives, like B.C. province giving the vote to Native Canadians in the 1950s. I don’t think a lot of people realize that First Nations didn’t have the vote, that they were treated like children under the Indian Act.”
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PULLING TOGETHER: CANOE JOURNEY WRAPS ON SHORES OF VANCOUVER The annual journey aims to promote reconciliation by including police and local governments Photos by Cara McKenna A 10-day canoe journey finished up on the shores of Vancouver on July 14, as paddlers were granted permission to come ashore by Coast Salish leaders. It was the first time in 16 years that the Pulling Together Canoe Journey landed in Vancouver, and the city hosted a Gathering of Canoes as part of its “Canada 150+” events. The annual journey hosted by the Pulling Together Canoe Society is unique because it includes representatives from public service agencies, such as local
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governments and police, paddling alongside Indigenous people. At the journey’s end, hundreds of people gathered on the shores of Vanier Park to watch the arrival of up to 30 canoes with more than 350 paddlers, some of whom came all the way from the Sunshine Coast. Tsleil-Waututh Chief Maureen Thomas, Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow (yəχʷ), council members and elders engaged in traditional protocol with the paddlers before they were welcomed ashore for lunch and celebrations. “These protocols are as old as the land
itself, they are part of who we are as Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people,” said Musqueam Councillor Morgan Guerin. Vancouver Gregor Robertson joined the paddlers for the arrival and said he felt “privileged” to take part in the journey. “Today is a day that I will never forget,” he said. “There’s a feeling you get in these canoes when everyone is in sync … we were a diverse mix of paddlers of many different heritages and we were very fortunate to be in the same canoe together. It’s a great metaphor.”
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Above:: Coast Salish mountain goat wool blanket woven before 1908. Below: A Coast Salish blanket believed to be the only one in a Northwest museum that’s confirmed to be made with the hair of woolly dogs. –Photo courtesy of the Burke Museum
A TALE OF TWO COAST SALISH BLANKETS Two museums in Vancouver and Seattle are showing wool blankets with rich histories By Cara McKenna
Burke Museum staff examine the blanket found to contain woolly dog fur. Photo courtesy of the Burke Museum. –Photo courtesy of the Burke Museum
RARE WOOLLY DOG HAIR FOUND IN BLANKET AT BURKE MUSEUM A Coast Salish blanket being shown in Seattle is believed to be the only one in a Northwest museum that’s confirmed to be made with the hair of woolly dogs. The blanket was already in the Burke Museum’s collection, but was recently tested and proven it was woven with the hair from the now-extinct small canines that were once raised for their coats and shorn like sheep. Not much else is known about the blanket’s history, except that it was once owned by a judge who lived in Tacoma, WA, from 1883 – 1990, and was sold to a tourist store in Alaska after he died. It was donated to the museum in 1975. Coast Salish spinning expert Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa has been studying blankets and robes in the museum’s collection. She said she first suspected something was unusual with the piece when she saw a tear that exposed warp yarns. 22 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
A tear in the blanket revealed the remarkable weaving expertise used to make it and also exposed fibers that looked like woolly dog fur.
“The warp caught my attention but it was the weft that posed the mystery: the weft fiber did not look like mountain goat, nor did it look like sheep wool,” she said in a release. “It looked like woolly dog hair I had seen at the Smithsonian.” Woolly dogs were used by Coast Salish people for thousands of years, but went extinct after colonization. Objects that use the dogs’ hair are now
rare because many were destroyed by settlers, lost or disappeared into museum collections. While weaving with woolly dogs is part of Coast Salish oral traditions and documented in early explorers’ journals, the dogs and the important role they played were lost from popular history—and objects made from their hair were lost, destroyed or disappeared into museum collections. The museum’s curator of Northwest Indigenous art, Dr. Kathryn BunnMarcuse, said the woolly dog blanket is an exciting discovery. “We look forward to sharing the blanket with weavers and other researchers, so that it can be reconnected to the Indigenous knowledge systems from which it came,” she said. The blanket can be viewed at the Burke Museum’s Testing, Testing, 123 exhibit that’s on display until February.
MOUNTAIN GOAT WOOL BLANKET FEATURED AT MOA A recently opened exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology (MoA) features a Coast Salish mountain goat wool blanket that was woven before 1908. Though the blanket’s creator isn’t known, it was purchased that year at Musqueam Indian Band by a researcher. The blanket is now in the collection of the Royal B.C. Museum, but was lent to the University of British Columbia for the new MoA exhibit In a Different Light: Reflecting on Northwest Coast Art. The exhibit showcases pieces from along the coast, with several Coast Salish pieces including baskets, spindle whorls and a carved goat horn bracelet. Jordan Wilson MoA’s curator in residence from Musqueam, said the exhibit is in response to a separate show of Northwest Coast art that happened exactly 50 years ago at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Blankets are typically worn by high status people in the community. But they also serve all kinds of purposes in terms of ceremonial functions, and daily functions.
“That show was very northerncentric,” he said. “Coast Salish arts has for the most part been overlooked in the study and discourse around Northwest Coast art. We felt it was really important to have a strong Salish presence, particularly Musqueam.” The wool blanket is a favourite of Wilson’s in the exhibit, and he explained it used to belong to former Musqueam chief Johnny χwəyχwayələq. The mountain goat wool its made
from was considered a status symbol that only certain families wore. “There’s a subtle diamond pattern that you can see through these coloured bands and the diamonds go beyond the coloured bands into the white wool,” he explained. “That, to me, very clearly includes mountain goat wool.” Beside the blanket is a photo of Chief Wayne Sparrow wearing a blanket that was woven by his sisters – Wilson’s aunties – Debra and Robyn Sparrow. “You can see there’s a similar bordering technique,” Wilson pointed out. “Blankets are typically worn by high status people in the community. But they also serve all kinds of purposes in terms of ceremonial functions, and daily functions.” The exhibit, which aims to show the connection to the works to modern Indigenous people, opened on June 22 and is on display until spring.
Coast Salish and other Indigenous leaders gather in their regalia at the North Vancouver ferry landing in 1907.
SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 23
Troy Barnes of Klahoose Nation stands by a Coast Salish pole outside of the Shq’apthut gathering place at VIU’s Nanaimo campus.
WALKING TWO ROADS Troy Barnes of Klahoose strives to be the mentor he never had entering post-secondary By Cara McKenna Vancouver Island University seems nearly empty during a day in mid-June, shortly after classes wrapped up for the year. When Troy Barnes arrives as the school’s Shq’apthut gathering place, he’s sharply dressed in a suit and tie, fresh from a job interview, and is stopped to be admired by one of the centre’s directors. “I’m not usually this dressed up,” he explains when he sits down. Barnes, 28, recently graduated from VIU with an Indigenous-only ceremony in April, where he was valedictorian. A larger grad ceremony took place earlier in June. The member of Klahoose First Nation now holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a 24 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
major in First Nations studies and a minor in history. “Right now I’m working with VIU as a program coordinator for a youth summer camp that we’re hosting here in Nanaimo,” he said. “All the logistics are kind of on my plate so its keeping me busy, Monday to Friday. That’s what I’m doing for the summer.” The Thuy’she’num Tu Smun’eem youth summer camp for Grade 8 to 12 students is a pilot for the school and a passion project for Barnes. “If there’s a program vision for us, it’s prepping these students for going into university, so its walking those two roads that our elders always talk about: the Western road and the cultural road,” he said.
“I guess for me as a program coordinator, it’s being that mentor that I didn’t have when I was a teenager.” Barnes explained that he didn’t feel prepared when he first moved from his hometown of Powell River to Victoria to attend business school at Camosun College. “I didn’t do my homework on it; it was the first college I got accepted into and I wasn’t mentally prepared for a course load,” he said. “It was a rude awakening. I ended up failing after one semester and I started missing home so I dropped out.” On his way home, he stopped at VIU to talk to counsellor, and soon after enrolled in a bridging program for Indigenous students. He started his degree in 2012, and after
If there’s a program vision for us, it’s prepping these students for going into university, so its walking those two roads that our elders always talk about: the Western road and the cultural road. a few more bumps in the road, took a year of exploratory studies in Powell River where he said he got his stride back. “It was the best decision I ever made because the class sizes were smaller there and I was able to get guidance from the teachers there,” he said. “I really did find my voice and confidence during that year. I was not only able to attend every class, but I saw the benefits of just simple attendance and attention to detail.” The next year, Barnes moved to Nanaimo and discovered the Indigenous community at VIU through the 'Su'luqw'a' Community Cousins Indigenous mentorship program, which he joined in 2014. “There are bi-weekly check ins where there’s no structure to it really. One of the only things is whoever has the floor, has the floor,” he said. “If you’re succeeding we want to hear about it, but also if you’re struggling. It’s a safe place to talk about anything and I think that’s the most integral part of it.” With the Community Cousins, Barnes learned public speaking skills, organized events on campus, and travelled to represent the school at several events. During his years at VIU, he also started to connect back to his home community of Klahoose – Chief Kevin Peacey and two councillors travelled from Cortes Island to Nanaimo to attend Barnes’s grad ceremony. “I think I went to Klahoose only two or three times growing up. Now that my dad (Billy Barnes) is a councillor there, I find myself going more and finding my voice and my cultural values,” he said. “It means a lot to me that I’m finding a place there, I’m finding a genuine connection to the land and to the people. Because for the longest time, that was a hole in my heart.” Now that Barnes has graduated, he’s still working with some of his Community Cousins family to pass what they’ve learned on, through two four-day youth summer camps that will take place in August. The high school students will stay in campus housing, and partake in various activities including daily blogging, getting information about financial aid and learning about the territory with elders. “We have six of us that will be serving as program assistants and that will be with the students 24/7,” Barnes said. “A lot of us Aboriginal students, we leave a community behind (when we go to university) and it’s a lonely process. … I look back and I think if I could have done it when I was 14, I would have been more prepped.” The Thuy’she’num Tu Smun’eem camps are being funded for the next three years through a grant of more than $300,000 from the Peter Cundill Foundation. For more information on the camps, Barnes can be contacted at Troy.Barnes@viu.ca.
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SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 25
STZ’UMINUS STUDENTS SING A SONG FOR B.C.’S LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR Class performed at Judith Guichon’s Government House Photos by Tricia Thomas A group of Stz’uminus Grade 6 students performed for B.C.’s Lieutenant Governor in Victoria on June 28 after winning a prestigious songwriting contest. The class from Stz’uminus Community School was one of four winners for their original song “Chances.” The group won in the “enthusiasm and spirit” category. The class’s teachers said “Chances” is about hope and living the best life you can. Judith Guichon’s Sing Me A Song program invited amateur musical groups to write and sing an original song for Canada’s 150th birthday this year. The song can be heard on the Sing Me a Song B.C. YouTube channel. 26 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
KLAHOOSE FIRST NATION
Above: Social gathering after the performance. Left: Olive the dog greets one of the youth.
In collaboration with Klahoose First Nation and Alterra Power Corp, the Jimmie Creek run-of-river hydro project was completed in August of 2016. HazelwoodConstruction.com
BUILDING FIRST NATION ECONOMIES
Below: Student shows the Government House coin she received from the Lieutenant Governor.
SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 27
TUM’KW’E’LUS By Edith Moore, NmTC communications liaison, Halalt First Nation Summer (Tum’kw’e’lus) is here…what does it mean to you? I think it’s safe to say that when you think of summer you think of family time. Some of my best memories as a child are of helping my mom wash her wool, and spreading it out over the yard to dry and bleach in the sunshine. Getting the wool ready to store for the winter in preparation of spinning and knitting. Canning the vegetables and fish was another summer time activity we did as a family and those are precious leaning moments that I will never forget. For our people, summer was a time for hunting and gathering food. Catching the fish we needed to sustain us through the winter months. These activities brought
28 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
us together as individual communities because we could depend on each other for support. Our culture is rich in that we believe that our relations are not only our immediate family but also inclusive with all our extended families. I want to encourage you to keep up the good
teachings that our ancestors have instilled in us. That teaching of keeping each other close in our hearts and minds as the way of our people. Keep up being together as all of our Nations support each other. Make the memories with your kids and families by celebrating all the great things we have around us. Meet together at the Canoe races, Tribal Journeys, Elder and Youth Gatherings. Celebrate in the sunshine and lets all be proud of that we have in store for us. I am reminded that life is short and we are not promised tomorrow, so make the most of today. All of our Naut’sa mawt nations are having celebrations and gatherings throughout the summer, and I encourage everyone to get out there and celebrate today, for what we have is rich and blessed. Make those family memories that will last a lifetime. Shhw’a’luqw’a (my relations)
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