Volume 15 Issue 10 December / January 2019
MAYNARD JOHNNY JR. Penekalut artist wins Fulmer Award PAGES 8 - 11
Homalco launches radio station PAGE 23
Naut’sa mawt - Working together as one EDITORIAL TEAM Cara McKenna – Editor editor@salishseasentinel.ca Todd Peacey – Photographer Celestine Aleck (Sahiltiniye) - Columnist Edith Moore - Columnist
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DESIGN Kelly Landry - Director of Communications kellyl@nautsamawt.com
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COVER: Coast Salish painter Maynard Johnny Jr. stands on the rooftop patio of Skwachàys Lodge in Vancouver, where he is finishing an art residency. Photo by Cara McKenna.
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Lorelei Williams, front, and others raise a fist in the air in solidarity with MMIWG and their families.
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VIFW OPENS WITH RED DRESS EVENT HONOURING MMIWG2 Hundreds of people wearing red attended opening night of Vancouver Indigenous Fashion week Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week opened with a sea of people who wore red in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit community members. Taking place at the Orpheum Theatre, the sold-out Nov. 18 showcase began with models in red dresses walking one by one down the venue’s sloping staircase. As the models walked, event hosts Lorelei Williams and Mandy Nahanee spoke about the MMIWG2 crisis and how it has affected their own lives. “This evening we gather wearing red in solidarity of the murdered and missing women,” Nahanee said. “This is a huge travesty happening across our country, it’s the ongoing genocide of our people continuing.” Joined by Indigenous community members, the group then raised their fists in the air before drummers took the stage to sing the Women’s Warrior Song. Williams explained the VIFW event was inspired by the REDress Project by Jaime Black, a public art installation for MMIWG2. “This is not stopping, so we need to raise awareness about this issue as much as we can, whether it’s through art, dance, songs, fashion shows,” said Williams. During the show, Williams walked the runway in a red cape by Ts’msyen designer Morgan Asoyuf. Williams walked twice while displaying images of her missing Auntie Belinda Williams and her cousin Tanya Holyk, who was murdered. Other designers featured in the event were Musqueam weaver Debra Sparrow — who showed a collection of contemporary and traditional weavings — as well as Evan Ducharme, Pam Baker, Nipii Designs and Yolonda Skelton. VIFW founder Joleen Mitton said the annual fashion week is an important way for the community to uphold authentic Indigenous design in an industry that has often been guilty of cultural appropriation. “Indigenous culture considers traditional regalia as the highest art form,” she said in a statement. “Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week bridges the past, present and future of Indigenous fashion by showcasing the expression and evolution of modern Indigenous designers.” VIFW continued on Nov. 20 and 21 with two showcases at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the first exploring Indigenous futurism, and the second looking at the diversity of Indigeneity. More information about VIFW can be found at ifwvancouver.com. SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 5
Weaving by Musqueam artist Debra Sparrow.
Women wear red dresses by various designers in honour of MMIWG. 6 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
Lorelei Williams holds an image of her missing aunt Belinda Williams.
Aunalee Boyd-Good, left, and Sophie Seward Good wearing their latest collection. Photo: Vancouver Fashion Week.
SNUNEYMUXW FASHION HOUSE DEBUTS NEW COLLECTION Ay Lelum reveals new Spring/Summer 2020 line featuring Coast Salish flower of life and hummingbird designs at two Vancouver fashion weeks The Snuneymuxw fashion house Ay Lelum has released a new collection as their clothes hit the runways at two Vancouver fashion weeks. Ay Lelum-The Good House of Design’s Spring/ Summer 2020 line is titled Nan ch’ uw’ nu stli~I Love You/ I Hold You Dear and is inspired by love, beauty and healing. The line debuted at Vancouver Fashion Week on Oct 12, and was featured again during Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week on Nov 23. The ready-to-wear and couture pieces ranged from flowing red floral gowns and capes to breezy spring dresses, skirts and tops. Garments in the collection featured a red and
blue-heavy colour palette featuring blended Coast Salish hummingbird and flower designs. As always, the sisters behind the line Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good utilized family artwork from their father William. “The flower designs and roses signify the Coast Salish Flower of Life, and according to our father … these were commonly used in Traditional Coast Salish art on textiles and in wood,” the sisters said in a written statement. “The flower of life signifies the creation of beauty itself, and honors our bringers of life and our matriarchs.” During their showcase at Vancouver Fashion
Week on Oct 12, the sisters debuted new recordings featuring traditional music to honour the other prevalent symbol in the collection —the hummingbird. “Our original songs call to the hummingbird and celebrate its arrival, bringing good medicine and healing,” a statement said. “Our music is remixed by Rob The Viking and also features our family group, Footprints of the Wolf. “ More information about the showcases can be found at www.facebook.com/AyLelum, on Instagram at @aylelum or at www.aylelum. com. SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 7
community infrastructure ● community planning ● subdivision design ● asset managment ● community engagement ● partnerships and agreements ● economic development ● GIS services and training ● parks, recreation and trails ● coastal planning ● community housing
We are honoured to work with Coast Salish communities. Photo from our work with Klahoose First Nation
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From left: BCAF chairwoman Anne Giardini, Squamish carver Rick (Xwa-lack-tun) Harry, Fulmer Award recipient Maynard Johnny Jr. and BCAF board member Sophie Pierre.
PENELAKUT ARTIST HONOURED WITH FULMER AWARD SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 9
Maynard Johnny Jr. works at the studio in Skwachàys Lodge.
Maynard Johnny Jr. has been creating Coast Salish art for almost three decades By Cara McKenna Colourful Coast Salish painter Maynard Johnny Jr. has received a prestigious award for his achievements in Indigenous art. The Penelakut and We Wai Kai artist received a Fulmer Award in BC First Nations art during a ceremony in Vancouver on Nov. 21. During the event, guests heard that Johnny Jr.’s nearly three-decade-long career has included highs and lows, but that he is now a mainstay of Salish art and its revival. “The fact that I can share the beauty of my people, of my Coast Salish culture, with the rest of the world, that’s something I have to pursue, still,” he said in a video played at the ceremony. The Fulmer Award goes to group of artists each year from around the province, who are selected by a jury panel via the BC Achievement Foundation. Other recipients this year were Gus Cook, Henry Green, Doreen Manuel and Michelle 10 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
Stoney. A display of work by the six recipients was also shown at the 13th annual awards, including three colourful prints and two drums painted by Johnny Jr. BC Achievement Foundation board member Sophie Pierre said the six artists “have worked hard to re-establish and develop artistic traditions, while representing the continuing vitality of First Nations communities throughout the province.” The award comes as Johnny Jr. is wrapping up a three-year artist residency at Skwachàys Lodge in downtown Vancouver. The hotel has a program for Indigenous artists, where they are given a subsidized living space and access to its large basement studio. During an interview at the studio, shared with artists of various nations and trades, Johnny Jr. spoke about the resurgence of Coast Salish art — known as the “Salish Renaissance.” Coast Salish art wasn’t often seen for many
years in favour of Northwest Coast styles, and was only brought back to the mainstream in the last few decades. Musqueam artist Susan Point was one of the pioneers, producing Coast Salish art in the early 1980s, and was followed by other Salish artists who saw what she was doing and were also inspired to pursue the style. “I’m pretty proud to be a part of the Salish Renaissance,” Johnny Jr. said. “Susan broke the barrier of getting Coast Salish art to the mainstream market. … She kind of opened the door and I was right behind her (with others).” The desk where Johnny Jr. works is arrayed by bottles of paint and empty coffee mugs —surrounded by in-progress paintings on canvases, paddles and drums. The pieces, when complete, will go into galleries, or be listed for sale to private collections. He has designed logo and identity pieces for organizations, TV series and movie
sets. His art was adorned on cedar boxes given to special Canadian Juno Music Awards guests in 2009, and his work can be found in collections around the world. Johnny Jr. has become known for the contemporary way he works with colour — often fitting seven to nine different shades into one image — and the way he can work the designs within odd shapes. He often paints on paddles and drums as well as canvases, aiming to create unique designs that are inspired by traditional Salish styles and stories, peppered with a Kwakwaka’wakw touch. “I try to do something that no one else is doing,” he said. “For a long time I didn’t realize how good I was at designing images within (different shapes), whether it be a circle, a rectangle, a paddle, a drum. Making it fit and filling in pretty much the whole shape but still making it flow.” He recently painted a surfboard with a salmon design for Alcheringa Gallery in Victoria, and often paints long rectangular canvases with designs such as the moon, wolves and eagles. He is often inspired by his family, particularly his mother, daughter and granddaughter — he pointed to a drum he painted which features a female Thunderbird and honours Matriarchs. “Everything about this design was so special to me,” he said, cradling the drum. “I’m going to give it to my granddaughter when she’s ready. She’s only two.”
Johnny Jr. lists many Salish artists who influence and inspire him, but he largely taught himself to paint and draw over the years, looking through books about Indigenous designs and studying the work of other artists. When he was a kid, he would replicate comic book art and draw fighter ships from the show Star Blazers. “I drew a portrait of my dad when I was 6 or 7,” he recalled. “My mom couldn’t believe how detailed it was. She really encouraged me. She would just give me paper and let me draw whatever, I just loved drawing.” With his mother’s encouragement, Johnny Jr. kept up the hobby into the high school he attended in the Cowichan Valley, where his art teacher encouraged him to try Indigenous designs. He ended up creating his first Indigenous design on a door skin that was donated to the school for a class art project. “I just decided to learn,” he said, having found a book of First Nations art to refer to in the classroom. The piece was then displayed at a local cultural centre, where Johnny Jr. recalls it was actually shot down by a non-Indigenous man who worked for the art program there. “(He) was like, ‘you’re never going to be a good artist. I wouldn’t focus on being an artist. You don’t have it,’” he remembered. “Without getting too deep into it, back in
those days when I was 17, when a white person talked to you that way, you took it as truth. … I was so hurt and I believed it.” He said even though he almost quit because of it, his mother kept him afloat, encouraging him to continue the practice. Years later, he returned to the cultural centre, where his work was displayed again — this time having established himself. “I was like: ‘What do you think now?’ and he didn’t know what to say,” he said. “I think a lot of our people went through that … when someone who you think is of authority tells them something like that and you just go with it. No, man, you can’t let that take you down.” Johnny Jr. now speaks in various classrooms teaching Salish design, and has a goal to work with more Indigenous youth, specifically in his home community — helping them and encouraging them to pursue art like he did. “There are so many kids out there who are like me,” he said. I would be that kid in English class drawing all the time. That kid in math class, drawing all the time. I struggled in school, I know there’s always those one or two students who are probably (like that too).” More information about Johnny Jr.’s artwork and upcoming exhibitions can be found on his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ salishman.
Pieces by Maynard Johnny Jr, from left: Tzinquaw (Thunderbird Dancer Drum), Tzinquaw (Thunderbird), Moon Phases, Freeing light and Thunder Matriarch. SALISH SEA
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CROSS-PACIFIC INDIGENOUS ART EXHIBIT CONNECTS CULTURES, PEOPLE Amy Lachance at TFN. Photo by Adrian MacNair.
Vancouver Art Gallery’s ‘Transits and Returns’ features Indigenous artists from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, and the U.S.
A hand-sewn seashell button blanket is used as a projection screen for a digital animation by Klahoose and Wuikinuxv First Nations artist Bracken Hanuse Corlett. His installation titled “Qvútix” (dance blanket) is part of Vancouver Art Gallery’s Transits and Returns exhibition.
An exhibit now on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery is showcasing Indigenous artists and curators from all corners of the Pacific Ocean, including several Coast Salish creators. Transits and Returns brings together the work of 21 Indigenous artists, exploring the deep roots of their different cultures while exploring various directions they have taken. Five curators worked together to bring together works that look at everything from the complexities of returning to ancestral territories for those living away, to relationships with the environment and land, to kinship and familial ties. The exhibit opened in late September and will be on display until February 23. Co-curator Tarah Hogue said the display represents the latest version of an ongoing artistic conversation that has brought together Indigenous artists from Alaska to New Zealand and many places in-between. Previous iterations took place in Australia, hosted by Indigenous artists there, she said. “Many of us have encountered each other at various art world events,” Hogue said in an interview. “But in the time we’re living in now — where Indigenous art is increasingly visible and discussed globally, we want to build more meaningful exchanges between our nations, our communities and us as artists.” For her fellow curator Freja Carmichael, as the long-term collaboration unfolds, what’s also emerged is “some of the shared languages” across the diverse work of many Indigenous artists around the Pacific’s shores. For instance, many of the artists incorporate traditional weaving, painting or sculptural elements, but re-framing them within either digital technologies or messages of colonialism and decolonization. “There such resilience and a past-and-present relationship very much inspired by our past traditions,” said Carmichael, a member of the Ngugi Indigenous people in Australia, in an interview. Carmichael said she was excited to find overlap in traditions between her community and others, as well as noticing the differences between them. Her community, for example, comes from saltwater and has a strong weaving tradition like Coast Salish communities, using different materials and techniques. “There’s so much we share,” Hogue said. B.C. artists featured in the exhibit include Debra Sparrow, T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss and Bracken Hanuse Corlett. A contribution from 39-year-old Hanuse Corlet, of the Klahoose SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 13
and Wuikinuxv First Nations, dominates most of a room in the historic Vancouver gallery. A seashell button blanket — hand-sewn by his auntie Rose Hanuse — is used as a projection screen for a digital animation depicting elements of his family’s traditional crest. The projected images depict the transformations of Thunderbird and the twoheaded serpent. The piece is titled Qvútix, meaning “dance blanket.” And it arose from his grandfather asking him to recreate his family crest, which had been lost after Canada outlawed Indigenous ceremonies such as the potlatch. “It’s been a source of frustration, all our nations really suffered a lot of loss, but where I’m from, we’re almost kind of starting from ground zero,” he said in a phone interview from Chicago, where he is researching Pacific Northwest cultural artifacts held by a museum there. “We don’t have a lot to pull from. We have to do so much research … But it’s also really amazing when you hit a breakthrough.” For Hanuse Corlett, Transits and Returns isn’t just one exhibition or event. That’s why it has unfolded over multiple iterations. For instance when he attended an earlier launch in Australia, there was a feast using one of the installation’s actual art pieces — a long dining table with hand-crafted place settings and textile patterns that serves as a symbol of the exact sort of dialogue and sharing behind the Indigenous exhibit. Each iteration, or version, of the feast is far different from the last, just as each version of the exhibition has adapted or transformed to the local territories in important ways. “It was really powerful to connect to these artists from Hawaii, Samoa, Australia and New Zealand, and to see the similarities and obvious differences we have,” he noted. “But the impact of colonial histories towards us were so similar — with practices being banned and everything trying to be wiped out — that it seems the contemporary artists are all working within some sort of traditional making of things. “It’s coming from the source.” Transits and Returns is a collaboration with the Institute for Modern Art in Brisbane and involves five co-curators: Hogue, Carmichael, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Léuli Eshraghi and Lana Lopesi. More information is available at www.vanartgallery. bc.ca.
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Tarah Hogue, Senior Curatorial Fellow of Indigenous Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
In a full-room “Lift Off” projected animation by Ahilapalapa Rands (of Kanaka Maoli/Indigenous Hawaiian and iTaukei/Indigenous Fijian ancestry), an Indigenous woman’s drumming and prayer sends a series of computer-animations of controversial telescopes on Hawaii’s sacred Mauna Kea mountaintop to be cast off.
A visitor to the Vancouver Art Gallery accepts artist T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss’s written invitation to “please touch” part of her installation, “To Explore, To Travel By Canoe.”
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FORMER MUSQUEAM CHIEF HONOURED BY LANGARA COLLEGE Gail Sparrow among 49 alumni celebrated at ’49 Langarans’ awards Musqueam elder and former chief Gail Sparrow is among a group of impactful people that have been honoured by Langara College (snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓). The institution held a special award ceremony called “49 Langarans,” as part of a wider bout of celebrations to commemorate the school’s 49th year of operating on West 49th Avenue in Vancouver. College president Lane Trotter said the awards, which took place on November 6, were a way to honour some of the alumni who have gone on to become influential community figures. “The 49 recipients are ambassadors for the college, and represent the impact that Langara has had in the community,” he said in a statement. “It’s our pleasure to celebrate their achievements and our contribution to their success.” Sparrow is an elder-in-residence at Langara and has been monumental in helping the school to build its relationship with Musqueam, including its recently-given Musqueam name snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓, meaning “house of teachings.” She is a past chief of Musqueam Indian Band and has been a strong community advocate, having worked as president and CEO of Native Personnel Services, the owner of LIFT Computer Institute, a Community Development Director with Musqueam and more. According to a media release from Langara, the awardees were selected from more than 200 nominations were received in early 2019. A full list of the recipients can be found at beyond49.langara.ca/49-langarans. 16 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
Photo: Langara College
Paul Natrall, a.k.a Mr. Bannock, accepts an award from past recipients Sophie Seward Good, centre, and Aunalee Boyd-Good, right.
ANNUAL AWARDS HONOUR INDIGENOUS BUSINESSES FROM ACROSS PROVINCE The 2019 B.C. Indigenous Business Awards drew hundreds of people to gala in downtown Vancouver Vancouver’s first Indigenous food truck and Stz’uminus First Nation’s development company were among the honorees at the 2019 B.C. Indigenous Business Awards. A total of sixteen businesses, entrepreneurs, partnership entities and community-owned enterprises were honoured during a gala dinner event in downtown Vancouver on Oct. 17. The event hosted by BC Achievement Foundation was hosted by Musqueam siblings Larissa and Wade Grant, and drew more than 650 guests from across the province. In one of the first awards of the night, Paul Natrall of Squamish Nation was given the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for his business, Mr. Bannock. Natrall first officially launched his food truck featuring Indigenous fusion cuisine in early 2018 and has been in demand among bannock lovers across the Lower Mainland and beyond — including serving a couple of thousand people on National Indigenous Peoples Day.
“(We’re) Vancouver’s first Indigenous food truck, so it was huge for the city, and everyone’s been enjoying Indigenous cuisine,” Natrall said while accepting his award. He said he has been specializing in Indigenous cuisine for about a decade and that the best thing about being an entrepreneur is being able to share his food and traditional knowledge. Also being honoured this year was Stz’uminus First Nation’s Coast Salish Development Corporation. The Ladysmith-based business was honoured in the “outstanding business achievement” category for Community-Owned Business of the Year - Two or More Entities. Several Stz’uminus members attended the event, and Coun. Roxanne Harris accepted the award on behalf of the community. “I just want to say thank you to all of our Stz’uminus First Nation membership who believe in us, who push us forward to achieve higher, and achieve more and be the best that
we can be,” Harris said. “We’re striving for more, we’ve set the bar high for ourselves, and … our goal is to make our nation self-sustaining through economic development.” The awardees of the BC Indigenous Business Award are nominated, then selected by a jury, which this year included Kim Baird, Jacob Beaton, Louis de Jaeger and Laurie Sterritt. BC Achievement Foundation chairwoman Anne Giardini said the awards aim to recognize enterprises that “create and expand opportunities, relationships and communities” for a prosperous future. “BC Achievement is particularly excited to highlight some of the many Indigenous businesses across British Columbia that foster innovation,” she said. “Integrating the practices of the past with the economies of the future.” More information is available at www. bcachievement.com. SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 17
The Blanket display at the Canadian Museum For Human Rights. Photo by Jessica Sigurdson. 18 •Witness SALISH SEAon SENTINEL
WITNESS BLANKET TRANSFERRED TO MUSEUM AFTER CEREMONY AT K’ÓMOKS Book, documentary being released about process of creating the Witness Blanket, made from more than 800 items from Canadian residential schools SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 19
By Cara McKenna The Witness Blanket has settled into its final home in Winnipeg after a ceremony in the K’ómoks First Nation bighouse. Now, a book and film are being released about the process of creating the art installation, which documents stories and pieces from Canada’s residential school system. The piece by Carey Newman (Hayalthkin’geme) was shaped from more than 800 items collected from survivors from, and sites of, residential schools across the country. The 12-metre long Witness Blanket consists of cedar frames that display the many objects, including: an unknown child’s shoe found at a site in the Yukon, the door to the former infirmary at St. Michael’s in Alert Bay and various “proficiency badges.” Newman — who is Kwakwaka’wakw, Coast Salish and European —travelled across the country with his team meeting survivors, collecting the objects and engaging in ceremony, while documenting the process. “When we went out into communities and asked people for things they gave us so many different kinds of pieces,” he said during an event at the Vancouver Writers Festival on Oct 24. “That enriched the story and the artwork to a degree that I wouldn’t have been able to imagine.” After the blanket was complete in 2014, it spent four and a half years travelling around Canada. “It’s been from coast to coast,” Newman said. “Recently we settled it into its final home at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.” In order to protect the Witness Blanket, the museum has entered into an agreement with Newman that give the Blanket rights as a legal entity — meaning there is no ownership being given, but it will be given lodging and restoration at the museum. The legally-binding agreement is groundbreaking because Kwakwaka’wakw traditions and governance and Western contract law have been given equal weight.
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“Rather than trying to decide our rights, we put the rights with the Blanket and the stories that were given to us by survivors,” Newman explained in a statement. “We didn’t want to treat it like a transfer of property because I don’t feel ownership of the Blanket, I feel responsibility towards it and I wanted to make sure the museum felt this too.” The agreement was finalized during a historic ceremony at K’ómoks on Oct 16 that was facilitated by chief and spiritual leader Wedlidi Speck, head of the Gixsam namima clan of the Kwagul people. During the ceremony, both Newman and Canadian Museum for Human Rights CEO John Young stated their purpose and intentions for the stewardship of the Witness Blanket, before engaging in a feast in the potlatch tradition. The museum is now working to restore the original Witness Blanket for an upcoming exhibition, while a travelling photographic replica of the artwork will continue to tour communities. Meanwhile, a new book titled Picking up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket has been released by Newman and his co-author Kirstie Hudson. The book was officially launched at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Nov 20. A documentary film about the Witness Blanket has also been produced and is now being distributed for educational purposes. Young said the Blanket said the work is significant to people across Canada because it makes the realities of the residential school system tangible for those who didn’t experience it. “Its stories, its objects and what they represent help us better understand this issue in terms of human realities and consequences instead of being just an abstract concept,” he said in a statement. More information about the Witness Blanket and upcoming tours can be found at www. witnessblanket.ca.
A ceremony took place at the K’ómoks bighouse to transfer the blanket. Photo by Media One.
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Kirstie Hudson, left, and Carey Newman (Hayalthkin’geme) speak at the Vancouver Writers Festival.
People view details of the Witness Blanket. Photos by Jessica Sigurdson.
From left: RCMP Const. Jeff Preston, North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney, Homalco Chief Darren Blaney, Patty Westwood and Campbell River Coun. Charlie Cornfield.
HOMALCO LAUNCHES COUNTRY RADIO STATION Nation’s own CKCC The Raven 100.7 FM also features programming in K’ómoks language Photos by Todd Peacey Homalco has officially launched a new radio station that’s now broadcasting on Vancouver Island. The long-awaited station is broadcasting new country music as well as programming in the K’ómoks language. The nation-owned CKCC The Raven 100.7 FM station hit the airwaves during a celebration at Homalco on Nov. 1. During the event, a group of contributors to the project were honoured in a blanketing ceremony led by Homalco Chief Darren Blaney. Blaney has been working on the radio station for several years and said proceeds will go
towards community enhancement initiatives. He said that might include support for members and cultural projects, but will be put into a fund for “whatever is needed.” North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney
— who is Chief Blaney’s wife — said “it’s a beautiful thing” to finally see the station on the air. “Vision for this radio station has been in place for many years,” she said. “(It’s) really about creating investment in the future, because the resources made from this radio station are going to go back to the community, and to the young people and to the elders of the community.” The Raven’s signal stretches between the Comox Valley and mid-Island, serving communities from Sayward to Parksville. The station can also be broadcast online at http://radio2.citrus3.com:2199/start/ckccfm.
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Tla’amin member Rose Henry speaks at the event.
TLA’AMIN MEMBERS LEAD ‘WALK FOR RECONCILIATION’ IN POWELL RIVER Event including Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities honoured children who were put in residential school Photos by Todd Peacey Children who were taken from Tla’amin and put into residential school were honoured during a Walk for Reconciliation in Powell River. Dozens of people from the Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities joined the event on Nov. 10, which began at Willingdon Beach. The walk ended at the city’s wharf, which Tla’amin Elder John Louie (yaχwum) explained was the spot where ships would come in to pick up children and take them to residential school. “For our people, September was a tough month because that’s when we were taken away from our families, from our communities,” said Louie, who is a residential school survivor. During the walk, people held boughs of cedar, which were then dropped into the water during a cleansing ceremony at the wharf in honour of all the children who were taken. “One of the things we always were told is you do it in ceremony so you can let it go,” said Louie, who led the ceremony. “It wasn’t ours to hold but for a lot of us, we carried it.” The Walk for Reconciliation was part of a wider initiative by the group Hɛhɛwšɩn, which was started by Louie, fellow Tla’amin member Cyndi Pallen (čɩnɛ) and non-Indigenous friend Phil Russell (kʷʊnanəm). Meaning “The Way Forward,” Hɛhɛwšɩn has support of Tla’amin leadership and has the group has led various reconciliation-focused events in Powell River and beyond. “As part of the healing we’ve conducted several ceremonies, welcoming home the children from residential school, we went to Sechelt and did the same thing we’re doing here today,” Pallen explained. “Reconciliation is ongoing, individual and collective process which takes commitment from all those affected. I think we’re all affected.” Pallen also led a moment of silence at the event, while Tla’amin member and activist Rose Henry spoke and led the group in song. Henry said because she grew up in foster care, she often has felt like an outsider in both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities — which common among people who were taken from their nations. “That’s what colonization did to me, it stripped me of my right to know my language, to know my (birth) mother, and of my place in my community,” she said. “Now our oppressors are beginning to wake up because they realize it was a huge injustice done to the people throughout Turtle Island. Now they’re saying enough is enough … and they want to fix things.” Henry said she sees the concept of reconciliation as a way to learn from — and correct — past wrongs. “We can give hope to the next generation (and) we can give a lot of hope to ourselves,” she said. SALISH SEA SENTINEL • 25
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Cyndi Pallen of Tla’amin.
HƐHƐWŠƖN SIGNS UNVEILED AT WILLINGDON BEACH New signs have been unveiled in Tla’amin territory as a way to commemorate the Hɛhɛwšɩn carving project. The six-panel sign on Willingdon Beach now sits on the spot where carvers worked with the public to shape two canoes in a process that began in 2017. Hɛhɛwšɩn, meaning “the way forward,” is an initiative that officially began with the canoe carving but has encompassed a larger reconciliation initiative between Tla’amin and larger community. The Hɛhɛwšɩn group led the sign project to commemorate the ongoing work and to give the nation a larger presence on the beach. The signs were unveiled in a ceremony on Nov. 17. A statement from Hɛhɛwšɩn — led by Cyndi Pallen (čɩnɛ), John Louie (yaχwum), and Phil Russell (kʷʊnanəm) — said the sign project took two years to complete. “The gathering at Willingdon Beach worked to raise awareness of the history of Tla’amin,” the statement said. “Our non-Indigenous neighbors were invited to participate in this act of reconciliation.” The signs include photos from the canoe carving process, information about the history of Willingdon Beach, a traditional place names map, a harvest calendar and a timeline about the history of Tla’amin post-contact. “Our goal is to support the survivors and families and to fully understand the nature, causes and the extent of colonialism,” the statement said.
SNUNEYMUXW TO HOST TRIBAL CANOE JOURNEYS IN 2020 Nation will welcome hundreds of paddlers with the theme ‘Honouring the Salmon; Honouring Our Ancestors’ Snuneymuxw will host Tribal Canoe Journeys in 2020, as hundreds of paddlers from near and far are expected to make their final stop at the nation. The nation has announced it’s working with community partners to plan for the event, scheduled to take place from July 27 to August 1. Leaders from the City of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island University, School District 68 and more have all stated they will support to help make the event a success. It will be the first time in 30 years that Snuneymuxw will host Tribal Journeys, according to the nation. “We are excited to welcome all of our guests from around the world in July and proud to share our traditional territory in partnership with local stakeholders,” said Kate Good,
who was acting chief at the time of the announcement. The annual canoe journey began in 1989 and
Last year’s Tribal Canoe Journeys wrapped up in Lummi. File photos.
is a way for nations to engage in culture, heal and connect with one another. When the canoe families land in Snuneymuxw, they will participate in a week-long protocol ceremony in the longhouse. This year’s theme is “Honouring the Salmon; Honouring Our Ancestors.” Last year, the event wrapped up in Lummi Nation with the theme “Sqweshenet Tse Schelangen (Honouring Our Way of Life).” “Nanaimo is set to welcome more than 100 canoes, hundreds of paddlers and their road crews, and thousands of other visitors to experience the bounty the city has to offer,” a release from Snuneymuxw states. “Everyone is welcome to attend and witness the six days of Indigenous ceremony and celebration.” More information and updates can be found at www.facebook.com/OfficalTribalJourneys.
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Kwaxsistalla Wathl’thla Chief Adam Dick, left, with Dana Lepofsky of Simon Fraser University. Photos: SFU
JOURNAL HIGHLIGHTS SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN INDIGENOUS SONGS Latest issue of Journal of Ethnobiology looks at complex information embedded in traditional music worldwide, inspired by expertise of late Kwaxsistalla Wathl’thla Chief Adam Dick The breadth of knowledge preserved in traditional songs around the world is being showcased in a recently-published scientific journal. An issue of the Journal of Ethnobiology titled “Ethnobiology Through Song” looks at the complex information about the land and environment engrained in Indigenous music. Published in September, it is co-edited by Dana Lepofsky, an archaeology professor at Simon Fraser University, and Álvaro FernándezLlamazares, a musician and researcher at the University of Helsinki. The Journal carries a special dedication to the late Kwaxsistalla Wathl’thla Chief Adam Dick, Clan Chief of the Kawadillikalla (wolf) Clan 28 • SALISH SEA SENTINEL
of the Dzawada’enuxw, Kwakwaka’wakw Nation, for his unique knowledge of thousands
of traditional songs regarding every aspect of the natural and supernatural realms of his world. “I have been an ethnobiologist for many decades, but I had completely missed researching this aspect of our ethnobiological world, until I came into contact with Adam,” Lepofsky said in a statement. Dick’s wide-ranging knowledge came from his training since he was a child. He was deliberately hidden from residential school agents by his community so that he could receive a cultural education befitting a Clan Chief. Dick’s longtime partner Oqwilowgwa (Kim Recalma-Clutesi) of the Qualicum Nation said
his mind was “like a computer.” “I literally couldn’t find a scientist in the natural world, that he couldn’t match their knowledge,” she said. “He had no problems letting people know that they got it wrong.” Academics would be blown away to learn new information about the territory from Dick, but for him, the knowledge was normal and day-to-day, said Oqwilowgwa. She talks about a researcher who was incorrectly theorizing about a tiny clam garden at the site Adam was secluded and why it was so small. “He leaned over to me really quietly said: ‘I made that as a kid,’” she said with a warm laugh. Although bridging those gaps between the colonial world and Indigenous culture — much of which still must be protected by individual communities and knowledge-keepers — was awkward at times, Dick made time to find ways to share with those who wanted to learn. “It doesn’t mean that academia is wrong in any of this, we have been able to find an incredibly good balance,” Oqwilowgwa said. “It will always be that tension and pull because it’s based on different ways of knowing. I’m really excited that we are starting to explore and look at things in a different way.” In one example highlighted in the journal’s introduction, Dick could share songs that invoked landmarks of his clan’s territory, linking himself to a specific landscape even when he was away. He also knew songs that held knowledge about ancient ecological practices such as making and tending to clam gardens. “He single-handedly shifted how we look at anthropology on this coast,” said Oqwilowgwa. She is now working on launching the Ninogaad Knowledge Keepers Foundation, which will feature decades of documentations of Dick’s traditional knowledge. “He changed the widely-held view of us being mere hunter-gatherers to being sophisticated marine culturalists, horticulturalists and knowledge bearers,” she said. Journal co-editor Lepofsky said the collection of papers showcased in the Journal of Ethnobiology “only skims the surface” but she hopes it gives insight into the depth and breadth of knowledge embedded in traditional songs. As well as discussing music in B.C., the papers feature information about traditional songs from Western Mongolia, Alaska, Bolivian Amazonia and more. After the huge loss of culture that came with residential schools, the Potlatch Ban and other assimilation efforts in Canada, a wider focus has recently been put on the importance of Indigenous languages and the imperative to preserve them. As the UN-declared 2019 Year of Indigenous Languages wraps up, that focus is continuing and evolving to include other areas such as song. “(The papers show) that throughout the world, songs have a huge amount of knowledge in how people interact with the world around them,” Lepofsky said. The “Ethnobiology Through Song” issue can be found via https://bioone.org/ journals/journal-of-ethnobiology/volume-39/issue-3.
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Tsleil-Waututh has filed an Addition to Reserve request with Canada under new federal legislation Tsleil-Waututh Nation is looking to expand its reserve by asking for the return 45 acres of its ancestral lands. The nation has filed an Addition to Reserve request with Canada, hoping to gain back official ownership of a parcel of adjacent land in Maplewood North. If the request is approved, the nation would move forward on economic growth and development in the area, according to a press release from Oct. 25. Proposed plans for an “innovation district” are currently in the works for the area, in a partnership between Tsleil-Waututh and the developer Darwin Properties. The North Shore Innovation District would involve a sustainable development with hundreds of new rental homes, plus businesses, community amenities and more. Chief Leah George-Wilson said, if the Addition to Reserve is approved under new federal legislation, leaders will move forward on consultation for developing the area. She said leadership is making the plans with self-sufficiency and sovereignty in mind. “(The development would) bring additional transportation options for our community, diverse housing types, employment opportunities and more support for local businesses and services that will result in ongoing economic stability for TWN and the neighbouring community overall,” she said in a community video. “We look forward to working with our own Tsleil-Waututh community members as well as the District of North Vancouver throughout this process.” George-Wilson also stressed the importance of regaining control of ancestral village sites. The 45-acre Maplewood North site is located at the village Squaw-uck and sits between two other villages, Sleil-waututh (Burrard Inlet Indian Reserve No. 3) and Jol-gulhook (Seymour Creek). “As a nation, Tsleil-Waututh has always spoken about the significance of our villages and our history of our people,” she said. “The return of this ancestral land will not only help to reconcile the past for TWN, but allow the nation to thrive in the future through increasing our small land base, moving towards economic prosperity for present and future generations and continuing to build meaningful relationships with our neighbours.” More information about the Addition to Reserve request and proposed development is available at www.twnation.ca or www.darwinconstruction.ca
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