Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)
DSpace
UBCO
Davies, Steven Thomas
Master of Fine Arts - MFA
University of British Columbia
Indigenous histories and stories have been silenced by colonial records or erased altogether by popular colonial histories. Collaborative storytelling and filmmaking can assist decolonization efforts and shape new inter-cultural understandings that challenge colonial patriarchal settler histories and connections to place. The objective of this project is, firstly, to centre Indigenous perspectives of history and connections to place, and secondly, to produce a film with a powerful counter-narrative that disrupts popular colonial histories. Re-covering and Remembering investigates Indigenous spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence efforts on what is now commonly referred to as Vancouver Island. My methods of investigation focus on documenting oral histories and perspectives of a select group of personal mentors, including Elders, with whom I have existing professional relationships through related community research. This paper and exhibition present personal, cultural, and familial narratives as they relate to Indigenous spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence as well as my own auto-ethnographic experience. Indigenous methodologies and epistemologies of Indigenous oral histories and relationality were employed in the writing of this thesis and the making of our collaborative documentary. Our film was exhibited at the FINA Gallery at UBC Okanagan’s Creative and Critical Studies Building in Kelowna, BC. It was shared during a community gathering and honouring at the FLUX gallery during the opening of my solo exhibition in Victoria, BC. With this new work, I hope to shape new understandings while contributing to and advancing the revitalization of Indigenous knowledge and epistemologies.
RE-COVERING AND REMEMBERING by Steven Thomas Davies BSc. Geography Co-op Program, University of Victoria A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Visual Arts) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) © Steven Davies November 2020The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: Re-covering and Remembering submitted by ​Steven Davies​ in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of ​Master of Visual Arts. Stephen Foster, Creative and Critical Studies, UBC Okanagan Supervisor Samuel Roy-Bois, Creative and Critical Studies,UBC Okanagan Supervisory Committee Member Jon Corbett, Institute for Community Engaged Research, UBC Okanagan Supervisory Committee Member Karis Shearer, English and Cultural Studies, UBC OkanaganUniversity Examiner ​ⅱAbstract Indigenous histories and stories have been silenced by colonial records or erased altogether by popular colonial histories. Collaborative storytelling and filmmaking can assist decolonization efforts and shape new inter-cultural understandings that challenge colonial patriarchal settler histories and connections to place. The objective of this project is, firstly, to centre Indigenous perspectives of history and connections to place, and secondly, to produce a film with a powerful counter-narrative that disrupts popular colonial histories. ​Re-covering and Remembering ​investigates Indigenous spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence efforts on what is now commonly referred to as Vancouver Island. My methods of investigation focus on documenting oral histories and perspectives of a select group of personal mentors, including Elders, with whom I have existing professional relationships through related community research. This paper and exhibition present personal, cultural, and familial narratives as they relate to Indigenous spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence as well as my own auto-ethnographic experience. Indigenous methodologies and epistemologies of Indigenous oral histories and relationality were employed in the writing of this thesis and the making of our collaborative documentary. Our film was exhibited at the FINA Gallery at UBC Okanagan’s Creative and Critical Studies Building in Kelowna, BC. It was shared during a community gathering and honouring at the FLUX gallery during the opening of my solo exhibition in Victoria, BC. With this new work, I hope to shape new understandings while contributing to and advancing the revitalization of Indigenous knowledge and epistemologies. ​ⅲLay Summary Re-covering and Remembering​ is a collaborative documentary film featuring stories of spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence on Vancouver Island. I worked collaboratively alongside four members of Coast Salish communities on Vancouver Island with whom I have existing professional relationships through community-engaged research. We produced a documentary with a critical counter-narrative​ that will itself contribute to and advance the revitalization of Indigenous knowledge and epistemologies. ​ⅳPreface This research was conducted in accordance with UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board ​policies ​and BREB certificate # ​H18-03392. ⅴ iiiivvviviiix1 ​1 ​135 13192​1242626Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................................Lay Summary ......................................................................................................................Preface .................................................................................................................................Table of Contents ...............................................................................................................Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................Dedication ...........................................................................................................................Chapter 1: The Research Creation ................................................................................... 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1.2 ​ ​Who I am as a Researcher ................................................................................ 1.3 The Research Creation .......................................................................................Chapter 2: The Making of Re-covering and Remembering ............................................ Chapter 3: Motivating Factors ...........................................................................................Chapter 4: Collaborative Storytelling and Resurgence ..................................................Chapter 5: Conclusion .......................................................................................................Works Cited ........................................................................................................................Appendices .........................................................................................................................Appendix A ...........................................................................................................................Appendix B ........................................................................................................................... 4​8 ⅵ Acknowledgements I would first like to acknowledge and thank my family, who have always supported me, provided me with what they didn’t have when they were growing up, shared in my community-engaged research and projects, and encouraged me to keep challenging myself and chasing my dreams. I’d also like to raise my hands to our cousins Gary and Rick Peterson and their families. I’m forever humbled, grateful, and honoured to have had the opportunity to work with, stand beside, to listen to and learn from Elders, cultural and language leaders, scholars, and youth in the extended Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth communities. During this research it was an honour to be mentored and collaborate with the following cultural leaders; C-tasi:a (Geraldine Manson), Murray Sampson, TSUMKWAAT (Lucy Thomas), CJ Rice, Paniguvluk (Stephanie Papik), Rocky Sampson, Laxiya (Dave Bodaly), and Rae Anne Baxter-Claxton. Without their participation, valuable time, and support in defining and re-defining the concept of Re-covering and Remembering​ this research would not nearly have been as enjoyable and enriching for me. I would also like to give special thanks to the knowledge keepers and cultural mentors who have supported and mentored me including Jessica Sault, STOCEL​ ​(John Elliott), TEMOSEN​ (​Charles Elliott), WICKENEM (Eric Pelkey), Tsaskiy (Ron George), May and Skip Sam, the late Linda Bristol, Richard Sumner, Gerry Ambers, Jordan Wheeler, Alanis Obomsawin, and the late James Luna. Additional thanks to Leslie McGarry, Taiaiake Alfred, Jarrett Martineau, ​m̓ukʷina (Lewis ​George), ​UuKwa Qum (James Swan), and Barry ‘Bear’ Sam. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the support of UBC Okanagan Faculty and Academic team: Stephen Foster, Ashok Mathur, Samuel Roy-Bois, Jon Corbett (Director of the Institute for Community Engaged Research), Aleksandra Dulic, Joanne Gervais, and Phil ⅶ Wyness. Additional thanks go to Toby Lawrence, France Trepanier, Jaimie Isaac, Dr Jennifer Robinson, Danielle Levine, Dr Michelle Jack, Mariel Belanger, and Tasha Henry for their encouragement and support. I’d also like to thank Dr Jeff Corntassel and the Indigenous Studies Department at the University of Victoria, April Ingham, Tania Willard, Dani Zaviceanu, Dynise Brisson, Will Hoffman, Tracy Leigh Ross, Ilja Herb, Mike Wavrecan, David Parfit, Dean Hunt, and Donna Gerdtz for working creatively with me during this rigorous MFA program on Syilx territory (UBC Okanagan). Additional thanks to the BC Arts Council, BC Achievement Foundation, MediaNet, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for your recognition and generous support. I’d also like to give special acknowledgement and recognition to the Indigenous peoples on whose territories this research took place: Snuneymuxw First Nation, Cowichan tribes, WSÁNEĆ First Nation, T’Sou​-​ke Nation, Pacheedaht First Nation, Songhees First Nation,Esquimalt First Nation, Nanoose First Nation, Syilx Okanagan Nation, and Secwepemc Nation. With great respect, I acknowledge and thank the Straits, Coastal, and Interior Salish Peoples and ancestors. ⅷDedication Dedicated to Mom and Dad, Grampa and Grandma on both sides, and our extended Peterson tribe up and down the coast. All my relations. ⅸChapter 1: The Research Creation 1.1 Introduction I have divided this support paper into five main chapters; 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I begin by positioning myself as a researcher and expanding upon the relationality of my research creation. I move on to discuss the process of making ​Re-covering and Remembering ​ in chapter two. In chapter three I discuss the factors that motivated me to create this new work, and in chapter four I share research that supports and justifies collaborative storytelling and filmmaking as an important process and platform for cultural resurgence and revitalization. I conclude and share the results of my research creation in chapter five. My intention in using this structure is to keep the narrative flow as straightforward as possible for my mentors and the community members where this research and new knowledge is meant to be held and shared. This structure also loosely reflects our conversations and the process that we used to develop the main concept of Re-covering and Remembering​ . 1.2 Who I am as a Researcher 'uy' skweyul, my name is Steven Thomas Davies. I am a Coast Salish (Snuneymuxw/European) filmmaker and media artist who was privileged to have been born and raised on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples (now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Peoples), W̱SÁNEĆ, and the Salish Sea. In my community research and creative endeavors, I carry a background as an educator of Indigenous youth and adults in tribal schools, public schools, and post-secondary. My professional efforts also include Indigenous arts programming, administration, mentorship, and coordination and supervision of Indigenous youth-in-care. 1 As a filmmaker and media artist of Snuneymuxw and European descent, I create works that draw on Indigenous epistemologies as acts of Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous resurgence. I make films and media art that centre spiritual, cultural, and political themes to reconnect with Indigenous histories and epistemologies to educate myself and share with others. I feel a huge responsibility to the many cultural leaders who have mentored and supported my growth, and the individuals whose voices and actions are shared in my work. It is these cultural mentors and knowledge keepers, many also noted in my acknowledgements above, whose trust and friendship have enriched both my life and artistic practice. My Indigenous ancestry is traced through my dad and paternal grandfather, David Henry Davies; whose mother was Henrietta Peterson from Gabriola Island (Snuneymuxw), with relatives who are members of Snuneymuxw First Nation, Cowichan Tribes, Penelakut First Nation, as well as Stz'uminus First Nation and Puyallup Tribe in the United States. I acknowledge all of my family and ancestors, whom also include early settlers of English, Welsh, Danish, Irish, and Scottish ancestry; and seek to honour them while amplifying stories of Indigenous sovereignty, strength, and resurgence. Throughout my professional and artistic efforts, I seek to honour my ancestors and Elders while feeling immensely blessed to have an opportunity to carry their voices and work forward. My autoethnographic approach is conducted with a degree of vulnerability that is responsive to my subjectivity, emotionality, and influence on the research (Ellis et al. 274). As someone who grew up outside of my ancestral community, I position myself as a learner who is very eager to listen and learn. Each of my research projects are unique and responsive to community needs and direction, and I find great fulfillment from standing beside community members, participating, and witnessing. Ultimately, it’s through a self reflexive community driven process that I further connect with my ancestors, family, and culture. 2 1.3 The Research Creation My research centres Indigenous perspectives to ask in what capacity can collaborative storytelling and film creation assist Indigenous cultural and political resurgence efforts while offering new avenues for restitution and healing. This research was developed and produced alongside four members of Coast Salish communities on Vancouver Island with whom I have existing professional relationships through previous community-engaged research. Each of my collaborators is actively engaged in cultural resurgence and revitalization and have ancestral ties to Cowichan Tribes, Snuneymuxw First Nation, W ̱SÁNEĆ First Nation, and Inuit. This research is essential for two reasons; firstly, colonization and it’s patriarchal systems have marginalized and silenced Indigenous women and men, and secondly, Indigenous history and knowledge has been transmitted from one generation to the next through ceremony, storytelling, and material arts for millennia - it is vital to recognize and support this knowledge transfer. My research addresses these issues by creating a platform where cultural sovereignty and the transmission of important Indigenous knowledge and relationships to place are emphasized. Re-covering and Remembering ​ is my most personal work to date. The opportunity to collaborate with members of my Indigenous ancestral communities has been a goal of mine as far back as I can remember. While sharing stories about our lives and families, we set out to co-define and co-author a documentary film that acknowledges and honours their knowledge and strength. I chose ​Re-covering​ for the title to honour my ancestors and mentors. During the opening of our final exhibition at the FLUX gallery in Victoria BC, I had the honour of presenting my mentors with West Coast designed blankets. In this small unified action, I acknowledged 3 their strength, knowledge, generosity, bravery, and trust. Blankets, along with other small gifts, were gifted in acknowledgement of my gratitude for their guidance and friendship. This research followed an Indigenous paradigm of relationality within a theoretical framework based on the political, social, historical, and artistic realities that Indigenous people face (Wilson 91). Our methodologies were informed by the work of Indigenous scholars such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Shawn Wilson, Audra Simpson, and Jeff Corntassel. Describing a research paradigm shared by Indigenous scholars in Canada and Australia, Opaskwayak Cree scholar Shawn Wilson shares, The importance of relationships, or the relationality of an Indigenous ontology and epistemology, was stressed by many of the people who talked with me about this topic. Several stated that this relational way of being, is at the heart of what it means to be Indigenous (Wilson 80). 4 Chapter 2 ​: The Making of Re-covering and Remembering Several decades ago, after my late paternal grandfather’s funeral, I embarked on a journey of my own ​Re-covering and Remembering​. My grandfather’s life was very difficult and he never spoke about it with anyone, even to those closest to him. While researching colonial archives, I began to retrace my grandfather’s life and generations of my Coast Salish relatives. A few decades before reaching out to Stephen Foster at UBC Okanagan with my research interests, I conducted extensive archival and genealogical research at a variety of archival holdings on Vancouver Island including BC Archives, Nanaimo Archives, and Gabriola Museum. Seeking further context into my Grandfather’s early life and the early settlement period on Vancouver Island, I arranged meetings with several historians including Jean Barman, Brian Seymour, Grant Keddie, Christopher Hanna, Barrie Humphrey, Grant Keddie, Brian Seymour, and Chris Arnett. With reference to my family, the Indian Act, and other colonial assimilation policies I became acutely aware of the relationship between colonial records and power, and more so, the overt theft of Indigenous land and rights through genocidal and assimilation policies. Concurrently, community-engaged research with cultural historians and storytellers Laxiya David Bodaly (Snuneymuxw Historian), the late Ray Peters (Qu’wutsun Elder), Murphy Johnnie (Qu’wutsun Elder), and others helped me re-contextualize my family’s history and shared experiences amongst the Coast Salish during the early settlement period on Vancouver Island. Each visit with Elders and knowledge keepers spoke to me deeply and moved me in ways I’d never felt before. Through community-engagement, I began to understand the extent of intergenerational trauma within my grandfather’s life and the impact it had on my uncles and dad. At the same time, I began to clearly appreciate the sacrifices that were made by my relatives, and the privileges that they afforded me and my childhood. 5 Re-covering and Remembering​ was also inspired by the work of my supervisor and Haida visual and media artist Stephen Foster. His collaborative documentary ​The Prince George Métis Documentary Project​ utilized participatory techniques to share decisions and power to produce a collection of narratives in collaboration with members of the Métis community in Prince George (​The Prince George Métis Documentary Project​). His interactive project inspired me to engage in a collaborative research project where my mentors had ownership and direction. Stephen’s project strove for ethical and co-authored approaches to storywork which inspired my collaborative documentary process. I reconnected with cultural mentors in the Cowichan Valley and Snuneymuxw to share my research question and gauge community interest and participation. Three of my proposed mentors required more time to respect protocol, proper permissions, and the building of trust. During this stage, I shared a rough visual treatment, explored potential interview locations, and sketched out a weaving of stories with an arc, and a beginning, middle, and end. Longer periods were scheduled for meetings with Elders. Small gifts as honoraria were brought every meeting in appreciation of my mentors’ generosity and the sharing of knowledge. Honoraria were discussed openly prior to requests for participation, as well as the budget breakdown of the project and the use of a pending project grant which I learned at a later date was not successful. Five General Research Questions that were modified for each mentor: 1. Who are you? Where are you from? How would you describe your territories? How would you describe your community? 2. What is the history of your communities? What is the history of the land and the Salish Sea? How would you describe the colonial impacts of colonization on Vancouver Island? 3. What do you do to honour your culture/ancestors/family? 6 4. What gives you that sense of pride in your community and culture? Can you describe any re-activations of culture that you see happening today? Is there anything else that you would like to share? Following BREB guidelines, each participant received an email with the consent forms, project information, and interview questions (appendix B), well in advance of arranging a time to meet and complete signed approvals of participation. Throughout each visit, I utilized a deep listening approach while writing notes in anticipation of potential concerns or conflicts. While working with Elders, I avoided asking direct questions and focused on making our time together enjoyable while writing brief notes of important considerations and conceptual directions. As a researcher and filmmaker, deep listening is an essential aspect of my process and requires non-judgemental listening and reciprocal exchange of information which informs the direction and outcome of our research. I did not work with a crew during ​Re-covering and Remembering​. However, it is critical when working with community that your crew has a basic understanding of the ongoing impacts of colonization and cultural safety. During production I scheduled one interview per day with a maximum of one shoot per week. We adopted a relaxed conversational style, which allowed us to work without a crew. Inevitably a few issues came up that required us to adjust our production schedule and timeline several times, necessitating a flexible and responsive production schedule. I arrived early to meetings and interviews to organize, set up gear, review notes and conversations. During filmed conversations, I avoided asking direct questions and interrupting (or saying ‘cut’). I also reminded my mentors of their authority to direct me. Re-covering and Remembering ​began with exploratory conversations about our relationships and the need to challenge ethnographic misrepresentations through truth-telling. With our five main questions, defined and re-defined throughout our pre-production process, we 7 followed a participatory research style by emphasizing both participation and action grounded in our own personal experiences. Our research style also gave my mentors permission to pick up the conversation and re-start whenever each mentor felt inclined; sometimes naturally and out of sequence. Although this made the editing of the interviews more difficult and time-consuming, our conversational interview process allowed my mentors to be relaxed and comfortable during recording and made for a more natural aesthetic and pace. Being a highly sensitive listener during recordings is key, as well as all other aspects of the production process while working with Indigenous communities and members. Although working without a crew made it difficult for me to monitor the technology and still be present and responsive in conversation, it allowed for fewer interruptions and a much calmer pace to things. Our process and focus of work reduced much of the stress that I have experienced with larger, mainstream productions. I had already spent several years building relationships with each mentor, so our production process progressed unhurriedly. The maintenance of trust and transparency is always essential to my community-engaged work and projects. Spending time and eating food together is a valuable way of making space for the transmission of knowledge and sharing creative directions and decisions necessary for collaborative storytelling. In addition, the acknowledgement of the traditional territories and peoples, community-engaged research necessitates a cultural sensitivity and awareness that must accommodate cultural delays due to a range of family and community commitments, including deaths and memorials. The ongoing validation and guidance of my Elders, language champions, community youth, and friends and family has continually validated the importance of this work. As a collaborator with a camera, I seek to follow the action and direction of my mentors as much as possible. During the making of ​Re-covering and Remembering​ each of my mentors 8 chose the time and location for filming and chose a b-roll (supplemental footage) sequence. While capturing their strength and power, this aspect of the filmmaking process required participation and witnessing. Out of consideration and respect for each mentor, I was mindful that our interviews on camera did not exceed an hour in length, although capturing b-roll sometimes pushed our total time over an hour. Given the delicate and sensitive nature of Indigenous stories, collaborative storytelling requires dedication and is always challenging, relational, and nuanced. Ultimately, the researcher must ensure that the pace of production does not move faster than the speed of the development and maintenance of trust. My research methodology and work focus on the relationship rather than the outcome or product. It’s also important to me that our time spent together engaged in community storywork is fun, and no one is uncomfortable. I ask community members and participants if their stories and actions need to be heard and shared on an ongoing basis. Through our collaborative process, I am always humbled and honoured to work with community and cultural teachers who trust me with their stories and knowledge. Ultimately, the honour and privilege that my mentors bestow upon me through this process carry great responsibilities to respect their sovereignty and self-determination. Immediately after recording each interview, I completed written transcriptions and shared them with each collaborator by email (see Appendix A for each interview transcription). Areas of the transcriptions were highlighted to identify key points of interest and potential links between interviews that could be used to weave together a flowing storyline. It’s important to note that transcriptions and rough cuts are rarely shared with participants and interviewees, as they would often raise significant concerns and doubts. During each stage of editing I took great care to ensure that editing did not alter or change the intentions or context of my mentors’ words. 9 During ​Re-covering and Remembering​, I was transparent and shared all production processes and procedures including budgeting. Given our challenging timeline and the distance between the University and Coast Salish communities, I would have liked more time and resources to accommodate a more responsive editing process that could allow more individualized interests and needs to surface. My mentors were each invited and encouraged to participate during the editing process. However, the majority of my mentors did not want to be involved or conveyed their trust in my narrative experience. Given more time and resources to complete our research creation, I would have made more trips to visit and discuss with mentors while the work slowly progressed. During post-production, I reminded my mentors that they have the final say if there were any concerns about how they were represented or the overall documentary story. Although there were very few overall concerns, editorial care and precision were taken to amend the flow of the storyline, unusual speech patterns, and distracting intonations. Given the nature and relaxed pace of our conversations, the recorded interviews were not as focused and curt as most documentary interviews. While it was challenging to narrow down the highlights at first, due to time constraints, it became imperative to focus on each individuals’ experiences and spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence efforts. A balancing of each mentor’s truth-telling was grounded with action-based clips (previously referred to as b-roll) to exemplify visual sovereignty and self-determination on unceded territories. Similar to the complexity and beauty of the Hul'q'umi'num' language, the weaving of my mentors’ stories is entrenched in relationship, purpose, and meaning. The narrative was constructed in a way that shares but also protects my mentors lives and privacy. I feel our storywork upholds and elevates Coast Salish knowledge systems in which stories are almost never told the same way twice. They shift and change depending on the audience, and 10 often always reflect an open ended and circular system of knowledge sharing and relationship. Indigenous pedagogies recognize and value the ways we learn together; young from old, old from the young or youthful. When working on documentaries pacing is always a challenge. With this in mind, there were only a few areas that would allow for breathing room that could be supported with b-roll. A mixed track called ​Sisuitl ​by Dean Hunt was also helpful in slowing down the narrative and adding emotional affect. Dean’s motivation for creating the track, along with the title’s reference to a supernatural double-headed sea-serpent, fit well with our narrative and resonated with me personally. Once the final edit was nearing completion, I shared an online link with my mentors while seeking final comments, suggestions, and approvals. Although it would have been valuable, regretfully we did not have time or resources to gather and discuss the work as a group prior to our final screenings. At the end of the project all of the digital interview files were copied and provided to each mentor in their raw form. In this way, their knowledge and dedication to their community and culture remains with them and their families. One mentor mentioned that they would like to see this documentary in schools where it can educate people. There appeared to be a lack of consensus though and I am anxious to reconnect with my mentors and discuss the sharing of the piece in a more thorough and community determined way. My mentors participated in ​Re-covering and Remembering ​for several reasons. Each was keen to engage and work as a team to tell a positive cultural story that could be shared widely and educate non-native peoples while bringing people together. Their participation validates my research goals and intentions. Through the centering of their words and actions, we created a powerful film that counters the erasure and marginalization of Indigeneity and 11 Indigenous knowledge perpetuated by the ongoing effects of colonization in Canada and elsewhere. With the exception of Stephanie Papik’s interview which was recorded in her art studio due to rain, each interview was recorded outside to highlight and center Indigenous relationships to place and land. During post-production, we also heightened the sounds of birds, the stream, and ambient wilderness to intensify audience engagement and experience. Our film was also mixed and installed with immersive five channel surround sound to advance the connection of the viewer and role of the audience as a witness. 12 Chapter 3: Motivating Factors Canada is a settler colonial state with the second-largest landmass in the world. Indian reserves make up only .2% of the land base now known as Canada (Pasternik). The effects of colonization on Indigenous communities in Canada have been profound and continue today. Canada offers a very different version of history that those of Indigenous nations—one that glosses over many colonial legacies such as the removal of Indigenous peoples from their families and homelands, and numerous other assimilation policies aimed at extinguishing Indigenous culture and rights, membership, and affiliation (Corntassel 138). While dividing and controlling Indigenous ways of life and identity on and off-reserve, and thus Indigenous sovereignty, the Indian Act has been divisive in terms of breaking down the Indigenous family system, culture, and traditional governing systems while relinquishing all responsibilities of the Crown. Many Indigenous communities in what is now collectively referred to as Canada are just beginning to heal and re-assert their sovereign identities after over 300 years of discrimination and cultural genocide. Today the Indian Act remains in place in Canada and continues to control and discriminate against Indigenous peoples and their rights. The Indian Act has had disastrous consequences on Indigenous cultures, identities, and epistemologies. The Indian Act, for example, dictates where band members can live and who they can marry and have children with if they want their children to have ‘Indian’ status. In this way the Indian Act remains a tool of assimilation and controls Indigenous lives. By amplifying my mentors’ voices and stories, I am motivated to make films to counter these impacts through community engagement and service. While sharing personal stories, we developed relationships of support and community exchange, and in doing so, I am also reminded of who I am, where I come from, and my ancestral responsibilities. Through the 13 centering of Indigenous voice and co-authorship of Indigenous stories in video and film, community research creations such as ​Re-covering and Remembering​ advance awareness and understanding while also contributing to cultural resurgence efforts and community. As a teacher in the secondary school system for more than a decade, I feel a responsibility to create work that educates all Canadians and can improve relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Beyond the bias in the majority of history books; the colonial names placed of Canadian cities, towns, rivers, mountains, and institutions actively silence First Nations peoples’ true histories and relationships with the land and waters. Taiaiake Alfred and Jeff Corntassel contribute further to the importance of challenging the dominant western stories, “[T]here is a danger in allowing colonization to be the only story of Indigenous lives. It must be recognized that colonialism is a narrative in which the settler’s power is the fundamental reference and assumption, inherently limiting Indigenous freedom and imposing a view of the world that is but an outcome or perspective on that power” (601). Much work remains to educate Canadians about the injustices over land while countering the impacts of colonization. Early Hollywood representations and negative stereotypes remain embedded within dominant North American culture. Hilger states, “Film and media is a subversive hegemonic force that has been used to encode and reinforce myths of the vanishing Indian and noble red man, and was reflected in cinematic camera angles where the white hero is looked up toward in a series of low angle shots, and the hostile tribes or defeated warriors were looked down upon from high angles” (11). Contrarily, Indigenous stories resist the colonial gaze and false myths of vanishing Indians and culture, and can be used to educate and challenge media portrayals and 14 stereotypes that are popular amongst a dominant colonial society. Tlingit curator and writer Candice Hopkins (2014) advances this belief by stating, “Ultimately the work of Indigenous artists serves as an important means of countering the historical amnesia that characterizes the Americas, as active forgetting of the blood that has been spilled generations ago on the very ground beneath our feet” (109). Our documentary ​Re-covering and Remembering,​ challenges western myths and conventions while also contributing to a growing archive of strong Indigenous counter-narratives. I draw inspiration from many Indigneous and non-Indigneous filmmakers and story-tellers. Alanis Obawsawin’s journalistic style is unparalleled. Her closeness to her stories and subjects is unparalleled. While participating as a community-engaged observer and activist with a camera she captures each community story as they unfold. For example, her film ​Trick or Treaty?​ ​depicts one community’s attempts to protect their rights and lands in ways that bring all people together while honouring the community’s self-determination. Another Indigenous filmmaker that I look up to is Zacharias Kunuk. His most recent feature film titled ​One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk​ is rich with measured tone and nuance. He fixes both his characters and audiences into locations and unceded territories to imbue deeper meanings and connection. In her book titled “The People of Gabriola: A History of Our Pioneers” June Lewis-Harrison describes my ancestors in numerous unflattering ways. I was vexed to learn that her book is in the majority of homes in Snuneymuxw territory on Gabriola Island. She writes that my ancestors (the Peterson family), “were infamous for their continuous pit-lamping escapades, and there were times when the Island boys would cross their paths and get in the way, and their guns would provide the useful warning shots” (Lewis-Harrison 62). While my dad and uncles find humour in the way she describes our ancestors as a force to be reckoned with, her dated and biased words silences my family. It compromises our families history on the island and 15 Snuneymuxw territory. As a result, her book, and other’s that romanticize pioneer colonial culture, motivate me and validate my artistic methodologies and practice. New co-authored and directed works such as ​Re-covering and Remembering​ that share and shift authority back to the community are vital in countering biased colonial stories and research such as Lewis-Harrison’s. Anishinaabekwe artist and curator Jaimie Isaac reinforces this need for new counter-narrative works, “we must make more room for the production and reception of Indigenous experience and expression apart from the dominant discourse” (159). Filmmakers such as Alanis Obamsawin, Dana Claxton, Loretta Todd, are influencial storytellers who have mastered the subtle and sensitive crafting of Indigenous stories of struggle and resilience that have been widely accepted. Alanis’ work paradoxically challenges, interrogates, and disrupts prevailing systems of gender while rejecting dominant film styles and aesthetics in favour of a more reflexive style which compels the viewer to actively deconstruct the issues being discussed (Williams 2018). Many Indigenous artists are trying to get back what’s lost by looking to the future. Filmmaker Danis Goulet’s (Cree/Metis) latest work, ​The Hunt,​ for example, is a virtual reality time travel to the year 2167. Author Drew Hayden Taylor, who recently published a collection of Indigenous-themed science-fiction short stories, points out that unlike popular beliefs Indigenous peoples are not historical beings, Indigenous peoples are contemporary and future beings (“How Indigenous and black artists are using science fiction” 2017). Another Indigenous artist, Mohawk multimedia artist Skawennati, is well known for her online works exploring contemporary Indigenous culture in virtual worlds. The weaving of contemporary Indigenous stories can assist with the visioning of a sovereign future with co-authored self-determined representation. Collaborative storytelling and filmmaking can not only make contemporary Indigenous realities visible today but also contribute to a presence and belonging in the future. 16 Jason Edward Lewis states, “Indigenous artworks offer alternative readings of past events as well as visions of a future that centre Indigenous peoples in the narrative, whose stories grow out of a cultural context that emphasizes the continuity and evolution of our cultures” (38). Indigenous history and knowledge have been transmitted from one generation to the next through ceremony, storytelling, and material arts for millennia. It is vital to recognize and honour this complex system of knowledge transfer as these counter-stories are powerful forms of resistance which are repeated and shared across diverse Indigenous communities (Smith 2). Many Indigenous scholars and activists have argued that reclaiming Indigenous history is a critical and essential aspect of the cultural and political resurgence of Indigenous Nations (Corntassel 137). Community stories bring forward urgent conversations about colonial resistance while asserting and communicating sovereignty over indigenous land, identities, and bodies (Igloliorte et al. 9). In Canada, the gathering of truth through research and public education is essential to the mandate of the ​Calls to Action​ set forth by the ​Truth and Reconciliation Commission​ (2015). Filmmaking can address these calls by sharing alternative readings of past events and dreams of a sovereign future (Lewis 38; Isaac 159). According to Corntassel et al. (2009), community approaches to reconciliation such as re-storying are “a first step toward remembering and revitalizing our collective and individual consciousness,” whereas, “...reconciliation as framed by Canada has legitimized and reinforced colonial relationships” (155). Wiebe argues that collaborative filmmaking unsettles, challenges, and ultimately seeks to change universal perspectives (248). While decolonizing research methodologies do not dismiss Western methodological approaches, Archibald et al. suggest they encourage us as Indigenous researchers to connect research to our worldviews and to theorize based on our cultural notions 17 to engage in more meaningful and useful research for our people (6). According to Archibald et al. (2019), “Indigenous storywork exemplifies this approach by prioritizing the Indigenous principles on which our stories are shared, respected, and treasured... while also being constantly mindful of the ways in which the process or outcomes of “their research endeavors might reify hegemonic power structures, thereby creating marginality” (6). 18 Chapter 4: Collaborative Storytelling and Resurgence In this chapter I share discourse in support of collaborative storytelling and filmmaking as a vital process and aspect of cultural resurgence, reclamation, and revitalization. Collaborative filmmaking can unsettle, challenge, and change universal perspectives while collectively working toward decolonization (Wiebe 248). Indigenous stories also proclaim that Indigenous peoples still exist and that the colonial project has been unsuccessful in erasing Indigenous existence. Indigenous peoples who tell their creation stories disrupt the settler mythology and their arrival stories of ​terra nullius​ (Tuck and Yang 24; Sium and Ritskes 4). Film and video articulate visual sovereignty by visualizing our stories and their connection to the land (Pedri-spade 74). Iseke and Moore state, “The struggle is not just to tell a good story but also to tell the story that the community or Elders intend to share based on the collaborative dialogue regarding the intentions of the video/participant” (31). Working collaboratively provides opportunities for Indigenous peoples and communities to control the images that they want to see and to express their understandings and connections to themselves and a broader audience (Iseke and Moore 33). Working as a team and sharing decision making is a rewarding way to honour Indigenous cultural practices and an ingrained ancestral way of doing. Participatory filmmaking styles have sought to empower people to represent themselves, and their own views since production technology have become more accessible (Zemits et al. 1214). Indigenous cultural and political efforts have become a central focus for many communities across Canada, and many argue that resurgence is closely tied to our homelands and a need to restory our territories (Corntassel et al. 1). Film and video recordings can further the outcomes of these efforts by sharing Indigenous stories of strength, resilience, and resistance. Mohawk scholar and activist Audra Simpson states “The sovereignty of the people we speak of, when speaking 19 for themselves, interrupt anthropological portraits of timelessness, procedure and function that dominate representations of their past and, sometimes, their present” (68). In this sense documentary filmmaking can be an aesthetic that strengthens intergenerational ties, reclaims history, and regenerates a sense of belonging and identity. Jolene Rickard supports this positive holistic vision when she states, “visual sovereignty is one of the most dominant expressions of self-determination” (82). Community-based and engaged media art production is an accessible form of resistance, decolonization, and activism for me; and ultimately a process that brings me closer to my grandfather, my family, and communities. Smith argues that networking by indigenous people is a form of resistance (157). The challenge in collaborative storywork is to produce something that has the capacity to bring all people together. This can be an important challenge of the work given colonial histories and cultures that seek to divide and conquer, in addition to assimilation policies mentioned earlier. However, as a community-engaged filmmaker, my intentions are to maintain relationships of support that solidify relationships and ancestral connections to place. Through my research, I have come to learn and understand that community stories have, are, and will always be questioned and scrutinized. It is through this community debate and discourse that greater relational understandings may be embodied, lived, and reborn. 20 Chapter 5: Conclusion Through the creation of this thesis exhibition, several personal themes arose for me. While working with my mentors on ​Recovering and Remembering, ​I was constantly reminded how important community-engaged collaborative work is and of the need for more contemporary research and Indigenous centred work by Indigenous artists. Echoing my mentors’ words, reconciliation begins with oneself, and I feel this new collaborative work has helped me reconcile my mixed ancestry and background. Having grown up away from Snuneymuxw as a non-racialized filmmaker has created challenges for me as a researcher. I appreciate that the barriers that I experience pale in comparison to the ongoing barriers, discrimination, and prejudice that my racialized cousins, relatives, and mentors face every day. As a filmmaker with mixed Indigenous heritage, ​Re-covering and Remembering​ has given me a fuller understanding of my non-racialized privileges. This new sensitivity further validates the importance of this work for me and strengthens my compassion and empathy for those that are carrying colonial weights that I do not experience the same way. My mentors were so generous with their time and knowledge and their friendship, trust, and generosity inspire me. The opportunity to work with and alongside community members who are doing extensive work for others within and outside their community was a privilege. Their support of and participation in ​Re-covering and Remembering​ validates our research creation and reinforces the need for more opportunities for Indigenous truth-telling. By honouring their cultural and educational work; we advance our understandings of who we are and our relationships with our families, communities, and the land (and waters). Throughout our research creation we were reminded of our extensive relationships and the link between spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence and restitution and healing. By honouring my mentors’ 21 strength and kindness as teachers, we unsettle ethnographic observations and stories and get closer to the truth about our ancestors' dignified histories on the land and Indigenous futures. We created an artwork that re-affirms Indigenous existence, resilience, and connections to place. Our research and film will be shared widely for free and continue to inspire others on their own reconciliatory and resurgent paths. Our mode of research creation and analysis has culminated in a film that itself acts as a form of restitution of power ("Indigenous Feminisms" 01:03:40 - 01:04:00). ​Re-covering and Remembering​ will contribute to future dialogue and discourse around self-representation, Indigenous sovereignty, cultural revitalization, and connection to place. Through the sharing of stories we honour the traditions and epistemologies of Indigenous Nations across North America. Community cultural protocols prevent me from speaking for or on behalf of my mentors. However, the process of working and collaborating with my mentors to produce this new work has helped me grow and heal in ways that I did not expect. Although the film may not directly confront patriarchy and the ongoing effects of colonization, it does confront mainstream understandings and educate future generations by engaging with Indigenous histories and epistemologies. Most importantly for me is the sense that our collective efforts and actions during this research were unified and follow in the footsteps of my ancestors. Throughout ​Re-covering and Remembering​ my artistic agency as a Coast Salish filmmaker was balanced with co-authorship and cooperation. Each mentor gave me their consent to weave their words and images in ways that seemed to make the most sense. Aesthetic and narrative choices were made to highlight each mentor's sovereignty and self-determination, and enhance the overall pace and tone. My film begins with a wide image of what is now known as Mount Finlayson in Goldstream Provincial Park. This first image was chosen as a metaphor for the strength of Indigenous culture and the relationality of our 22 ancestors to everything in the world. Rivers and salmon are another powerful symbol in the film. Through the weaving of each mentors’ stories new relationships and understandings unravelled in ways that we shared, discussed, and celebrated. I conclude that developing and supporting Indigenous perspectives and stories through filmmaking is a valuable way to contribute to and restore community responsibilities while adding to the archive of Indigenous stories that educate and unsettle dominant western understandings. 23 Works Cited Alfred, Taiaiake, and Jeff Corntassel. “Being Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism”. Government and Opposition 9 (2005): 597-614. Archibald, Jo-Ann, et al. Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology. ZED Books Ltd, 2019. Corntassel, Jeff, Chaw-Win-Is and T’Lakwadzi. "Indigenous Storytelling, Truth-telling, and Community Approaches to Reconciliation." ESC: English Studies in Canada 35, no. 1 (2009): 1-23. Ellis, Carolyn, Adams Tony E., and Bochner, Arthur P. “Autoethnography: An Overview.” Historical Social Research, Vol. 36, No. 4 (138), Conventions and Institutions from a Historical Perspective (2011): 273-290. Hilger, Michael. ​Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. Hopkins, Candice. “If History Moves at the Speed of It’s Weapons...” Coded Territories: Tracing Indigenous Pathways in New Media Art, University of Calgary Press (2014): 109-139. “How Indigenous and Black Artists Are Using Science Fiction to Imagine a Better Future.’’ ​The Current​, CBC, 14 Nov. 2017. Igloliorte, Heather, Julie Nagam and Carla Taunton, eds. Public 54, vol. 27 (2016). “Indigenous Feminisms Power Panel.” ​YouTube​, University of Saskatchewan, 28 Mar. 2016, youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2924&v=-HnEvaVXoto&feature=emb_logo. Isaac, Jaimie. “In Dialogue: Scott Benesiinabandan’s Exhibition.” Public 54, vol. 27 (2016):158-171. Iseke, Judy, and Sylvia Moore. “Community-Based Indigenous Digital Storytelling with Elders and Youth.” ​American Indian Culture and Research Journal​, vol. 35, no. 4, 2011, pp. 19–38. Lewis, Jason. “A Brief (Media) History of the Indigenous Future.” Public 54, vol. 27 (2016): 36-49. Lewis-Harrison, June. ​The People of Gabriola​. J. Lewis-Harrison, 1982. 24 Pasternak, Shirri. “Arthur Manuel's Battle against the 0.2 per Cent Indigenous Economy.” Ricochet, ricochet.media/en/1863/arthur-manuels-battle-against-the-02-per-cent-indigenous-economy. June 14, 2017. Pedri-Spade, Celeste. “Nametoo: Evidence that he/she is/was present.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol. 3, No. 1, 2014, pp. 73-100. “The Prince George Métis Documentary Project.” ​OBORO​, www.oboro.net/en/activity/prince-george-metis-documentary-project​. Rickard, Jolene. “Diversifying Sovereignty and the Reception of Indigenous Art.” Art Journal, vol. 76, no. 2, 2017, pp. 81–84., doi:10.1080/00043249.2017.1367194. Simpson, Audra. “Ethnographic Refusal.” Mohawk Interruptus, 2014, doi:10.1215/9780822376781-004. Sium, A, and Ritskes, E. “Speaking truth to power: Indigenous storytelling as an act of living resistance.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 2, no. 1 (2013): I-X. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed, 2012. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015. Tuck and Yang. “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. 1-40. Wiebe, Sarah Marie. “Decolonizing Engagement? Creating a Sense of Community through Collaborative Filmmaking.” ​Studies in Social Justice​, vol. 9, no. 2, 2016, pp. 244-257. Williams, Paul. “Obomsawin, Alanis.” ​Senses of Cinema​, 18 Oct. 2018, sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/obomsawin/. Wilson, Shawn. ​Research Is Ceremony Indigenous Research Methods​. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing, 2008. Zemits, Birut, et al. “Moving Beyond ‘Health Education’: Participatory Filmmaking for Cross-Cultural Health Communication.” Health Communication, vol. 30, no. 12 (2014) 1213–1222. 25 Appendices Appendix A Re-covering and Remembering ​Interview Transcriptions: CJ Rice Interview:​ March 15th, 2019 Camera A (Wide/30 files) MVI_2217 B-roll. Shakey short quarry pan. MVI_2226 B-roll. CJ by a broken fence with bandit and shades on. MVI_2227 B-roll. Wide CJ on bench with blue key chain and shades. MVI_2228 B-roll. Wide CJ on bench with blue key chain and shades. MVI_2229 B-roll. Wide CJ on bench with blue key chain and shades. MVI_2230 B-roll. Wide CJ on bench with blue key chain and shades. MVI_2231 B-roll. Wide CJ on bench with blue key chain and shades. MVI_2232 55 seconds: strike audio. SD: Maybe we can start by introducing yourself? 1:08 Sure. My name is Celinda Rice, I go by CJ. I’m from the Snuneymuxw First Nations. I was born and raised in Ladysmith by my parents Joe and Rose Rice. And my mother is from Somena in the Cowichan Valley and my father is from Penelakut outside of Chemainus. Plane noise and break. SD: Maybe we can start by introducing yourself? 2:45 My name is Celinda Rice, I go by CJ. I'm from the Snuneymuxw First Nations. I was born and raised in Ladysmith by my parents Joe and Rose Rice. My mother is from Somena in the Cowichan Valley and my father is from Penelakut Island. 26 SD: How would you describe where you are from and where you live? 3:13 Where I live is the Cowichan Valley. It’s a valley surrounded by four reserves and the town can’t get any bigger unless it grows into the reserves. So it’s a small town. SD: Do you mind talking about the rough picture here? So what I’m trying to do is paint a picture of what it would have been here prior to settler contact. 4:02 Well my dad used to tell me about going on a canoe in the summertime. He would / they would get all of the canoes together from the village, tie them together and pile them up with all of their belongings and the kids and go to the Fraser River for fishing. And so everybody that didn’t go there would stay here and pick berries or make baskets or whatever. And then they’d come back for the winter because winter is when you put the canoes away. It’s too rough out there on the water and everybody had a canoe that's how they got around, that was the car of the time. So everybody knew how to ride a canoe, where to go, and where to get things. Plane noise. MVI_2233 (+ MVI_0612) 4 seconds Audio strike SD: So again it was touching on how you honour or practise your culture. 20 seconds. Well what I’ve, I try to do is remember what my mom told me. And she always said “write this down, write this down -this is important”. And I tried to, I tried to remember the stuff that I never wrote down with her. But it was all about culture, and I’ve tried to learn about my culture, and to as a Digital Media Artist, and a previous reporter, I like to disperse that information out there somehow and share it with other people because when I moved to the mainland I discovered that many people thought First Nations were dead. They had no clue that we were still here and so I try to share with them about my culture. I’m not a cultural keeper, I’m not a cultural keeper like my sister, but I’m in touch with people who, who are and so I try to share that information through storytelling, through filmmaking, radio, just even one on one with people when I meet them and they have no clue I try to educate them. I can’t stop teaching. SD: Awesome. Ok and something about pride - what gives you that sense of pride in your community and culture? 1:50 Well that's a tough question about pride, our own personal pride because we’re taught not to be proud and to know that the community is everything. Everybody has their place, and everybody has their job, and I guess I’ve always considered my job to be communicating with non-native people about who we are. I’ve tried to honour our community through that and to find my own personal pride there. Although like I said we are taught not to be proud. 27 SD: Ok did you want to talk about some of the stories you’re working on now and kind of what that looks like? 2:50 Currently I’m working on a script. I’ve ah, I started in University when I was there, I saw a script in writing class and a teacher asked us to do a movie of the week, and when I presented him with my project he said, “No CJ, that’s not a movie of the week, I’m sorry. Don’t stop, but that’s not a movie of the, that's actually a series”. And he showed me almost every line of my story could be a whole other story. It was true I looked at each one when I was writing it and it was really hard for me to narrow down. And so now I’m writing a script and I’ve had some help from people who’ve taught me that a six part series is good to start with if you are not known. My series isn’t six parts, it’s more like 24 parts, or more. So six parts is one person - I'm focussing on one person and that’s my great great great grandmother, Helanamut, and she’s been very important in the local culture for natives and non-native and so I thought it was a good starting point. SD: Do you have a log line for that or can you sum it up in a sentence or two? 4:24 Helanamut was a … and I know I’m not saying that right but we’ll start with that.. I don’t know the language. She was a very short, 4 foot 11 I’d say, native women who was married three times and her first husband was a Haida man. We don’t know what happened to him and so my script it’s based on facts but I’m making the story up about him and so I’m saying that he died on the way. And the reason she left is because her Grampa is the one who changed everything when Governor Douglas got here. They didn’t understand about maternalism, a maternalistic society, they were a paternalistic society; the Settler society, and so they didn't recognize the women as leaders and so he spoke to the man. And so that changed the whole society because now people were coming and looking at the men about talking to them about things that they used to talk to the women about. And so this women, Helanamut, her life was changed because she couldn't be the leader anymore and so she wanted to leave, she wasn’t respected by her people as her mother was, or her grandmother was. Plane noise. MVI_2234 (+ MVI_0613) 6 seconds Audio strike. SD: Strike and Take 4. So maybe we can do that take again. 47 seconds. Well when I came back from Vancouver. Well Vancouver was a very tough place to live for a native in business because I was working in offices. I was the token native (gesture), there weren't a lot that came off the reserve. I found that people didn't want to leave the reserve 28 because it was so (pause) dangerous out there for them and they had to deal with, people had to deal with a lot of anger and racism. 1:28 - airplane break/cut MVI_2235 (+ MVI_0613) 6 seconds audio strike 23 seconds. So I first went to college in the late 80’s early 90’s and I got an opportunity to go to Vancouver for a summer job and internship. And it was good for me because there were no jobs here on the island, you had to wait for someone to die before you could get a job, and it was even harder if you were native to get a job here. So I went over there and I was the token native. There were no natives in the city and if I saw someone native I would wave. And they’d be all happy to see me too. And working with non-native I discovered that they didn’t think that natives were still alive, they thought we all died. And so when they found me at a party or whatever they would start asking me twenty questions about natives. And I’d be trying my best to answer them (laughter) like I don’t know about the political situation in Ontario or whatever. I can only speak from my experience and so it’s kinda what started me on communicating with non-natives finding out what they don’t know and trying to help them discover what they should really know rather than what they think they should know. There were a lot of weird questions that came up I can't think of one at the moment but they were not politically correct. So I probably blacked them out. So I taught them what kinds of questions to ask people rather than the all encompassing “you guys” kinds of questions. And coming back here to the island I discovered that things had changed. It had been twenty years and people were starting to realize that we were still alive and we have businesses, we have homes, we have families, we even have our own school here now I was really surprised to see that. There is still a lot of work to be done. The local pow wow that happens here I get non-native friends asking me “Can I go, is it alright?” Yeah they invite everybody, it’s open for everybody. And I’ve been to pow-wows where people don’t ask, you just see non-naive people walking around like they own the place and they’re having a great time but here on the island it’s just starting to take a foothold here. Cross communications. And I’m really happy to see that. People really want to be involved, they see us having struggles and they want to help however they can and so I’m happy, I’m really happy to see that. 3:45 Yes when I left to go to Vancouver people didn't want to leave the reserve because it was dangerous for them physically, mentally, spiritually dangerous. When you leave the reserve you’re leaving your support group; your families, your aunts, your uncles, your grandparents - they're all there for you. But when you leave - there is no one. And so now, twenty years later, people are leaving the reserve, there is more natives working out in the shops, in the businesses, and I think it’s awesome. It’s about time that we started integrating again. 4:44 Most of the natives I see working are in the service industry. Or the trades. And I think if people can accept them more in offices and in management positions they’ll see there is great dedication there and there is a lot of skills to be shared. 29 Taking a breathing and water break. MVI_2236 (+ MVI_0614.MOV) Audio strike 9 seconds SD: I think we can go over the virtual world again. 31 seconds. I started a project last year. And I was really excited about it because I was working with other people. And I have worked with other people before with my digital media studies. But this was an out of school project. I’d finished school and this was to help people learn how to speak Hul'q'umin'um'. And this teacher was looking for a way to make it more exciting for younger people. So I told her about this 3D animation filming that I could do for her to tell the story. I could go into this 3D world and create, re-create Snuneymuxw territory, where the story is from, where I’m from. And, she’s all on board, I got some funding for it. Ah everything was going great and, what I discovered was that people didn't really have the wherewithal to understand how to download a program, create an avatar, and then start walking around (hand gestures) in that world. Laughter. Not without one on one help and I really didn't have the funding to do that. To bring computers to them. To sit with them for half an hour or a whole number of people for a half an hour. I might have needed more people to collaborate with to do it. But I’m going to continue with it, just not without the funding. It’s going to take a bit longer because I’m going to have to find the people who can work with computers and not be afraid of them. I thought in this day and age people would be ok with it. They’re still very tentative with computers. SD: Can I ask you a question? Where did you go for the wardrobe and designing of that world? 2:40 Well I’ve had a lot of working with cultural people with other projects that I have worked on. And I’ve discovered that you have to go to the Aunties. You have to go to the Elders, you have to go to the experts and say you know “what can I use? How can I do this (pause) best to represent us?” And also there was research online. In my work I do a lot of research online. And I’ve gone to museums to find the information, because that’s public property. And there’s a lot of historical references that I can find online. SD: Can we rewind to cultural and political resurgence (question)? 3:40 In my research online I discovered a lot of my friends actually are doing the same thing but they’re doing it for other reasons. They’re learning about their family histories. They're learning about how we used to do things and see if they can re-create that themselves. With the residential school system people lost a lot of information. The people who taught, remember what I was saying about each person, each person in the community has a job. And maybe someone’s job was to teach basketry or to cook. My mother was a great cook. She was known 30 to be a great cook. And so now people are going online to learn how to do those things. How did we pit cook? Where did we gather baskets? Or basket weaving, where did we gather basket weaving items? The grasses. What kinds of grasses? How did we actually weave them? I mean you look at the baskets that are out there, they’re awesome, technically, awesome. But a bit hard to do. So you have to re-learn how to do that. It’s different from what’s already out there that you can learn from other cultures. Laughter and looks away at the lake, broll. MVI_2237 (+ MVI_0615) 10 seconds audio strike. SD: Previous question was looking at true identity. And your answer was the ego... 49 seconds. In my interviews on the radio. I asked everyone different questions. But I always came up with the same first answers. It was always about intent and that always reminded me of my aunty. She was the cultural keeper of our community. She said to me “What’s the thought before the thought? That’s who we are. We come from here. Here. We are nowhere else. Everything that we think. Everything that we say, everything that we do, starts with our intent - what’s the thought before the thought ?” And I was really surprised to hear natives from all over the world because I Interviewed people from all over the world and they all said the very same thing. It all starts right here. And everything they do, everything they say, they think about before they say it. SD: Ok the last question relates to how we take care of ourselves in the modern world? 2:06 Ok, that I discovered when I went to SFU how hard it is to remain true to yourself and I became a massive puddle of emotions while I was working, I was taking Engineering there and it was really difficult to maintain myself as a one person in a class of four hundred. We were nobody’s. We were in a factory. And so I asked my cousin when I actually saw him there. And he said remember Takathet and Yakethet. I don't remember which one is which but it means look at what you can change right now. Is it right in front of you? And also remain within yourself. In that moment, when I was at home and being home with my family. I should smudge and let go of the university and just be in the moment with family. And before I went to University, I should smudge and get rid of the family and just be in University at that moment. And so I found it was always best to pray because I couldn’t always smudge. So I would just take my moment and pray and ask for help from all our relations because I was taught that all our relations are here waiting for you to ask them for help. They can’t do anything for you until you ask for help. So I always try to do that. Some b-roll coverage. Dogs running throughout the shot. 31 More good laughter and possible b-roll of CJ. MVI_2238 B-roll. First follow. Short and out of focus. 12 seconds. MVI_2239 B-roll. Good. Over the shoulder, quarry in focus. Good. 5:24 take. MVI_2240 B-roll. Branches in and out of the lake. MVI_2241 B-roll. CJ foot steps and small trees. Good.. MVI_2242 B-roll. CJ over the rocks. Good. MVI_2243 B-roll. CJ out of focus. 20 seconds. MVI_2244 B-roll. CJ out of focus. 2 seconds. MVI_2245 B-roll. CJ shuffles down to the lake. MVI_2246 B-roll. CJ points and reflection. good. MVI_2247 B-roll. Good reflection and sun. MVI_2248 B-roll. Cj over shoulder reflection. good MVI_2249 B-roll. CJ walks to the camera. good MVI_2250 B-roll. Cj walks away from camera MVI_2251 B-roll. Shakey CJ looks up the cliff MVI_2252 B-roll. Cj points to a sunken stump. MVI_2253 B-roll. 1 second. MVI_2254 B-roll. CJ drinks some lake water. TSUMKWAAT (Lucy Thomas) Interview:​ April 26th, 2019 MVI_2304 0:50 Audio Test (how is that). 32 1:24 Should I say my name and my Hul’qumi’ num’ name. 1:44 My name is Lucy Thomas, my Hul’qumi’ num’ name is TSUMKWAAT, I come from Quamichan reserve and Somena reserve. SD Question: How would you describe your community? 1:56-2:42 Oh. Today, it’s a very caring community. I’ve been meeting a lot of people that say the word reconciliation. And they want to know what that word is. And they want to know what they can do. Last night I went to a homeless meeting, there were 40 very important people there that were very committed and I felt inspired to get more involved to help the homeless and to create housing for our young people and the family. Yes my cowichan community is very caring. The people that I know anyway. SD Question: I was wondering if you could describe the history here? You know - outside of the colonial view (...as we discussed earlier). 2:57 Sure. SD Question: Ok one more time. How would you describe the history here? 3:01 (the present) I think we’ve gone through amazing change. When I talk about the theatres. How the natives had to sit on the top balcony and everybody else got to sit on the bottom. Now it’s open. On the ferries we First Nations people were told to sit downstairs with the animals now that’s all open to us. In the bars there was a little room, my Grandpa used to talk about it, he’d go to the bar and say I’m going in this little room that’s for First Nations people only. Now we hardly have any bars in town but the doors were open. You know, when we did have bars here. So there’s been some change here. We walk together now we don’t look at each other on the other side of the river or the other side of the tracks. A lot of us walk together now so that's a big change for our community. (SD Note: This could be a really nice statement to end your interview on) 4:11 Late strike for audio 4:22 SD Question: So how do you honour your ancestors and your family? Community? 4:28 33 Well first of all I just started learning how to be prayerful. And I started out practicing and I got more comfortable saying creator, grandmothers and Grampas. So that’s how I honour them when I say a prayer to open up any event. I learned they’re always walking with us even though they’re on the other side, they’re still guiding us on this side. And I talk about my grandmother a lot I share a lot of her teachings now. Whereas before I would say that I don’t have any teachings but I started reflecting and remembering I do have teachings from my grandmother and they’re very awesome teachings. So I share at a table with my grandkids every time there is a grandchild I will share a memory or a teaching with them. I don’t wait for those teachable moments anymore I just do it because those moments are never going to come eh. And it’s never the right time to do certain things but I just do it. If there is a grandchild in front of me that’s a teachable moment for me. So that’s how I do knitting. My grandmother used to knit lots. She used to knit without even looking at the sweaters or the designs. I have to look at the designs but that’s one thing that I have carried on from her. She taught me that. So I honour that by knitting every once in a while just so I don’t forget because I used to look after my family that way when I was in my twenties. I used to knit toques and sweaters, and sell them. That’s how I looked after my children. That’s changed today. Hardly anyone buys our cowichan knitted sweaters anymore. MVI_2305 Striking Audio 18 seconds SD So you had a story or a memory about your Auntie is that right? 0:29 -1:33 seconds My grandmother. When I was a little girl I followed her into town. And she was asking these big grocery stores if she could get a credit because she wasn't rich. So they said no. And she went to about three stores and she got the same answer. No. They didn’t even take time to think about it, they just said no sorry. We can’t do that for you. She went to Chow’s which was the Chinese store and she asked him if he did any credits for anybody and he took her name and he said sure. He didn’t have to think about it. He just put a paper out in front of her and I helped her fill it out. And she would go charge stuff up and then she would go pay it at the end of every month when she got her pension. But that was the only place that would take her credit. And I was really surprised at that. I mean when I look at today we can get credit anywhere. So that’s a big change for us. 1:34 SD Question: The next question was about how you define reconciliation? 1:45-3:24 (beginning?) Oh my lord. That’s a big word. I have to look it up. Somebody told me that’s such a big word. It’s a government word. So if we turned it into a Hul’qumi’ num’ word. We would be looking for a Hul’qumi’ num’ word that would say level. Same as. Equal to. So when I heard that I went oh my lord I put too much thought into reconciliation. And if that’s all it means then we’re not too far from that right now. There’s change happening in almost every community I’m sure but every 34 time we have a gathering in town to support the murdered and missing women there’s more people there. Everytime we have the walk of nations for the murdered and missing women we have more people and it’s not just First Nations it’s all colors. So I think that’s a big change. (Break) Reconciliation for me. I tell people it starts at home. It starts with my children. I educate them on the residential school. And then I educate them about how to make changes. How to get out of that. How to start walking one with other Nations not just walk by ourselves and feel bad for ourselves because there’s a lot of pain out there for anybody. So I don’t think reconciliation is just meant for First Nations, it's for everybody. We all need to do that equally. Stand as one. Stand together. 3:23 SD Question: The question was , and you don’t need to answer this, is if racism still exists, in Cowichan. -6:00 (on racism) It does. It’s sad to say but a couple of years ago we lived in this house for twenty years. And they wanted to renovate it, the bank wanted to renovate it. So we got booted out. We kept telling them there’s nothing out there. Zero houses. And um we went to one place. they said yep come look at it but as soon as he saw us we knew. He looked at his wife and his wife was a little older than him. She was very outspoken. The guy was respectful. He showed us the house at least. But the wife said we don’t rent to your kind. So we were surprised, this is 2018. And that’s still going on. So I felt that pain and I went. This is what my clients go through when they look for places. So I think I was meant to go through that so that I can feel what they feel. I felt humiliated. I felt discriminated against. It really brought me back to the 1950’s. 1960’s. Another one is there’s a popular restaurant in town. We were doing work experience for the bladerunners. I phoned them up. I have a student interested in helping in the kitchen. Ok come on in. So when we got there we did the same thing. They looked at each other and went sorry we don’t have any positions for you. And I said I was the one that phoned for this student to do work experience here and you sounded interested on the phone. And he said sorry. I talked to the manager after I got off the phone and he said no. We just turned around and walked out and I apologized to that young man because I knew it was discrimination. He was clueless but yeah I really felt that. And that was just a couple years ago too. But I know not everyone is like that in Duncan. There’s just a few people that still carry that racism. 6mins SD Question: The next question was looking ahead at the future. And hopeful or wishful thinking about your communities, your family, down the road. 6:11-8:06 Yep. Oh that’s a good one. Maybe I’ll talk about the North American Indigenous games. The North American Indigenous games really planted seeds here. And that happened in 2008. In 2007 I was lucky to be with a group of people that wanted to make change and they talked about na’tsa’ maht shqwaluwun. Which means one mind, one body, one soul. We walk together 35 as one. So their vision was that they wanted the visitors to see a non-first nations and a first nations person walking together. After the North American Indigenous games that was the feedback that we got. It was so awesome to see a First Nations person walking with a non-First Nations person. And teamwork eh. And the team that I worked with got really close; we were hugging each other. We talked about the real hard-core racism that has happened in our own lifes. Our own experiences. And we said Cowichan needs to know that. They need to know the harsh history that we have here. There’s often talk today about na’tsa’ maht shqwaluwun. Walking together. Supporting each other. And every community is talking about it. Again we talk about working together as one mind one body one soul. And the non-First Nations people are so anxious to learn Hul’qumi’ num’. All my friends say teach me a word. Teach me a word. So that’s the first one that I teach them. Na’tsa’ maht shqwaluwun. Naut'sa mawtNaut'sa mawt SD: Shqwaluwun is ‘good feeling's’ right? LT: Yes. 8:21 SD: How would you like to end and or finish your interview or the documentary. Often this can be something about strength and or courage? End clip. 2306 10 seconds strike OK the question again was about the future. 0:22-1:21 seconds Was about my future. Well I’ll share the story I shared with you earlier. I went to a family dinner and my elderly uncle who usually says the prayer asked me to. So I was very uncomfortable but it seemed like once he had asked me it opened doors for other people finding out that I said prayers for other people and blessed the event. I get very shy at times. But I found once I started opening an event the crowds started getting bigger each time. I’m ok with that now. What I worry about is not saying the right words. So I pray to the creator. I pray to the ancestors. Help me with this because I want to say the right words. I want to have an impact on people too. So it seemed like once my uncle said that … (a cyclist bumped B camera) cut. MVI_2307 10 seconds strike audio If we can just start at the beginning again that would be great. :27 My uncle asked me at a family dinner a couple years ago to say opening prayers and I was surprised. I wasn’t very prayerful then. But I’m practising and practising and I find I’m getting more comfortable saying opening prayer. As long as I know what the event is. I try to make it fit 36 with what’s going on. I’ll give you an example. Last night it was about partnership, It was about homeless, it was about commitment, it was about listening to each other, celebrating, it was about success stories so I made sure that I put those in the prayers, and I often pray for safe travels. I pray for the youth. I pray for Elders. I pray for the children. I pray for people in institutes. People in addictions. So I try to cover everything but I find each time I say a prayer it changes. I add more words and I get more feelings. So I really believe that the ancestors on the other side are helping me. Sometimes words come out and I say where did that come from. (break) I’m on the Cowichan Green Community Board. And we were looking for donations. So they asked me to open that event to say a prayer and share a story if I could. So I shared the story about crossing the black bridge. Me and my cousin were little girls. We would crawl across the black bridge. And there was a whole bunch of apple trees where there’s the Friendship Centre and the trailer park over here now. They weren’t there in the 60’s. We would climb the apple tree and eat a couple apples. And we brought bags with us and we’d go see an aunty who had six kids. Bring her apples. Visit for a while. Come back. Pick up more apples for the cousins at the other house. And we used to love that. We hardly had to spend any money in stores. We had fruit trees. We had apples. We had plums, we had all sorts of things here. 2:50 SD For prayer 2:52 -3:33 I shared that story and we got big donations and the other people were saying it was because of your story Lucy. They really felt it so they paid a big donation. They said that was the biggest donation they ever got. And we had less people at this event according to last year's event. So that’s the kind of feedback that I’m getting. My prayers are impactful and I put a lot of thought into it. But I want to say I don’t think it’s all me. I think it’s the ancestors on the other side too. Paniguvluk Stephanie Papik Interview:​ May 25th, 2019 2319 BROLL Slider Shot Entrance Knotty by Nature 2320 BROLL Slider Shot Entrance Knotty by Nature Wider 2 shot 2321 BROLL Slider Interior 2322 BROLL Slider Interior 2 shot 2323 BROLL Steph Back Table Show and Tell -felted cape/short clip 2324 BROLL Steph Back Table Show and Tell - 8 mins 37 2325 BROLL Steph Back Table Pan of her work/creations. 2326 BROLL Steph Back Table Show and Tell and Teachings related to creative craft 2327 Interview 11 mins 4:30 SD Can I get you to say your name and introduction 2327 Interview 4:37 So my name is Stephanie Papik. My Inuvialuit name is Paniguvluk and Inuvialuit on my Dad’s side in Inuvialuit, from the Mackenzie delta and Inupiat from North Slope Alaska. And on my mother’s side I’m Irish ancestry with a little bit of Spanish. I guess there was a shipwreck back in the day in Ireland. And then our ancestors were a part of colonizing Australia. So my lineage goes down to Australia and then my mom moved to Canada where she met my dad. So yah that’s my background. 2327 Interview 05:28 So maybe I’m thinking we could have your introduction as voice over for either riding your bike or other b-roll that we film today. So would you mind doing that one more time. 2327 Interview 06:00 Alright. My name is Stephanie Papik. I am Inuit and Irish Ancestry. My Inuvaluat name is Paniguvluk and I’m going to do that all over again. 06:23 Studying the language I’ve gotten more concerned about making mistakes. 07:07 (greetings in her language). I just want to say how grateful I am to be here and on the land. I'm of urban Inuit Irish and Spanish ancestry. I’ve been a visitor here on Lekwungen territory for most of my life. And want to acknowledge that I'm a baby in learning my Inuit language and culture. So for any of my Inuit relatives, you know, just that humbleness in practising my language. 07:54 2327 Interview 08:15 So what’s so off at stake here .. what's happening in conversation in the Indigenous communities and or give some insight into that from your perspective. 08:35 2019 is an interesting time. When I think about what’s at stake I think about Indigenous youth - fastest growing population. And also a lot of harm to them or self harm, internal, internalization of colonization. So I think that’s what is at stake, our Indigenous youth, at the same time what’s really exciting is the cultural resurgence that I see in Indigenous youth. The wisdom that they carry on from the Elders and from the land. Bringing, resurging the language, connection to land, reclaiming land in urban spaces, and across Turtle Island, I think that’s super exciting and inspiring. And they come with so much more knowledge about even our shared histories and shared history then I ever knew at their age. So I think they have a lot less than say those horse 38 blinders on… that I might have grown up with. And I think that’s really exciting. In terms of broader politics too I think it’s a really interesting time, and recent events with Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott. I think that that commitment to doing what needs to be done, and upholding their ancestral governance practises is so, so inspiring and to see people like Jane Philpott to really put her own skin in the game because often in this work people can be allies and they can walk away from this work anytime they feel uncomfortable or feel like they might be removing some of their privileges or power whereas were as Indigenous peoples we don’t have that opportunity to walk away. And our jobs might be steeped into it too and when we go home the impacts of colonization are in our faces with what’s happening with our family members and friends or other Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. 11:11 2328 3 seconds 2329 SD So we were talking about this reawakening that’s going on. 0:29 Alright, it’s really interesting times of re-awakening, of reclaiming, our culture, knowledge, practises, and at the same time there’s a lot happening politically around the world, this tension between the mindset of the earth as a resource, versus being apart of the earth and of the animals and plants - the exchange of gifting and gratitude amongst each other. So there's that real tension point happening now and mother earth is having her own voice in it quite strongly with climate change, the fires and storms and floods that are happening around the world. Mother earth is much like our bodies - we’re a reflection of Mother Earth. Our bodies don’t lie when we aren't giving it the care and nutrition perhaps that it needs. And we start to reflect that and Mother Earth is reflecting that too. Yah, it's pretty interesting times. 1:56 SD Ok yah. Awesome. Did you want to talk about the government term for reconciliation or would you just like to move on. 2:04 Ok sure. Another piece about what’s happening these days is reconciliation. It’s definitely become a part of the Canadian lexicon. That might not have been there even 15 years ago. And to have some people talk about how it’s not a buzz word and what reconciliation means is different to everyone depending on their own journey around connection to their homelands. Connections stories they’ve been told. As well as that whole piece around reconciliation with oneself. So I believe where reconcillion starts is self-awareness, self-discovery, unpacking those stories that we’ve been told who we are, and how we are to be with each other. Unpacking ways to speak with each other that are compassionate, that call people in rather than call them out. And I’m super grateful about learning about my own Inuit ancestry and ways of being, mental health and inclusivity. That is such an integral part about who we are, and who we are in relation to each other. And so that’s been something that’s been a big part of my journey that I first didn’t realize I was stumbling along even before I was learning about my culture. So learning, firstly about non-violent communication through Doctor Marshall Rosenberg. Or I think he later called it compassionate communication and then finding that that is something very much a part of my ancestors' practise and culture. If somebody mistepped that day before and might have said something that was harmful to someone - either intentionally or unintentionally, the next morning we would all eat together at breakfast and so the next day at breakfast just ah (sic) have a way 39 of reminding people gently how to be with each other. So rather than pointing someone out and saying you were so disrespectful to Sally yesterday.. And if you think about 40 below weather in the winter time to ostracize someone could be so dangerous and someone might literally perish so that harshness creates some beauty as well. 4:55 SD SO the next question was about erasure. Can you comment on your perspective and experience with that? 5:25 Yes erasure of Indigenous people, knowledge, practise has been very intentional when colonizers first came to Turtle Island they already had a playbook of how to do this through going to other lands and Nations and colonizing them, like Africa, India.. places like that. So it was very intentional. I know some people have a really hard time, they have a core belief, that, that belief that the goodness of people that they would not do something to cause harm and so they have a really hard time accepting that you know, that residential school let’s say, you know you might hear some people say that they had some good intentions. But they had a playbook from the beginning and it’s literally written as a policy right. To kill the indian in the child so yes that was very intentional and a lot of harm has been caused, there is a lot of intergenerational trauma, and i like to also think about, just that balance too, the other pieces of the story that until recently haven't been told. Till people such as yourself who are creating platforms for Indigenous voices to tell their own story about the resiliency, you know if you think about that intentional genocide of let’s say the smallpox in blankets and things like that, you know hundreds of people, something like two thirds of the population were decimated. So the third remaining are like genetically they’re like so strong, and the resiliency too around the systemic racism and discrimination, so really when you think about people who are here today they’re like the best of the best, kind of evolutionary idea of Darwin. 23:30 SD So I’m wondering if you can comment on racism in Victoria these days? 1:25 Before I talk about that I just want to back it up a bit and talk about biology and how our brains work. I think that’s an important part and interplay with the term racism. So our amygdala brain is back here and it’s constantly assessing safe or not safe, safe - not safe. And so that’s essentially how we stereotype. Which then can, without awareness, create the effect of racism. Our prefrontal cortex, is kind of our thinking, kind of human part of the brain, is how scientists describe it. And our amygdala is nine times stronger than our prefrontal cortex, so unless we’re actively practising mindfulness - doing things like meditating whether it’s in motion or through stillness and silence, we’re actually operating from our unconscious brain other than our conscious brain so when I think about racism in Victoria or Canada, unless people are doing that shift to their prefrontal cortex, they’re likely operating from an unconscious state. So likely unconsciously discriminating against people especially when you think about the social conditioning that we have received over our lives from a very young age. Disney, for example, has so much embedded into social conditioning around having people think that Indigenous people are culturally deficient or less than human. Because we have all those things operating below the water line unless we’re actively grounding ourselves we’re going to be operating from 40 that space. In Victoria, we had last year the removal of the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald and have been recently doing work with counsellor, City councillor Marie-ann Alto and she was sharing that in the seven or nine years that we went through the experience of the blue bridge being rebuilt and all of the emails and kind of frustrated emails that citizens sent, compared to the three month period of having the statue removed, they received way more emails in the three months then the seven years from Victoria citizens, of which they said were pure viteral. And so that’s something they knew stepping into it and why they bore the front of that work so that it wouldn’t, that hate wouldn’t be directed onto the Esquimalt and Songhees Nation. So I think we have some more, some more work to do. I’ve definitely had some people in my face tell me that we don’t have the wherewithal, or genetics, to get ourselves out of the hole we’re in. And I try to ground myself in gratitude in knowing the whole spectrum of the diversity in where people are at. And then there are many people who have made that journey from their head to their heart. And are now in a space of wanting to be an ally or a core sister. 05:30 6:08 What gives you hope in the work that you are doing? 6:58 Yah what gives me hope is that I don’t feel alone anymore in spaces where I am putting my hand up and saying something there are other Indigenous people in the room as well, and there are also non-Indigenous people who are putting up their hand, supporting me and other Indigenous people in what we’re saying. And then echoing what they’ve heard within their own words and experiences and that’s what really gives me hope because it’s that we’re creating that change of people speaking up and taking action. What gives me hope too is our Indigenous youth, and their voices, and their actions that they are taking on the land. Ah some examples like projects ‘reclaim’ out on Tsartlip Nation, Unist'ot'en, Xwaaqw'um on Saltspring Island are, and so many more land-based initiatives reclaiming the land and culture. 2331 Ryan arrives / 3 second clip. Good smile for possible still image. 2332 14 second strike. SD Moving onto the next question. 1:24 When I think about re-presencing, a big part of that has been through fibre arts for me. Learning how to spin has been a journey around learning about habits and tendencies that might have helped me to get where I am today and then learning the new skills of spinning and coming to learn that there have been some habits and tendencies that I needed to let go of in order to learn how to spin. And then with intentional practise to learn how to create new habits and tendencies that would actually allow me to spin. And teaching has been a big part of that for me, learning how to teach other people has helped me to learn how to be patient with myself and other people and their learning. (Card Full). Card 2 File # 2333 17 seconds 41 Yah that invitation to let go of your internal critic. It’s wonderful to have things inspire you to be creative, and motivate you to take action, and then in that creativity being open to whatever manifests in front of you. And letting go of your expectations, what you thought it would look like or you think it should look like. And just being open. And I found that in doing so I’ve been able to make things look a lot more beautiful than I ever imagined. And that’s why I try to pass along when I teach other people. 1:04 Ok I had a question here about your tattoo practise. 1:12 Oh yeah sure. So tattooing is an ancient Inuit practise that I first stumbled upon, I used to be the program lead for the IYAP Program and we had an alumni returned back to the Ministry and they were preparing Inuvaluat youth to come out of care so they were wanting to share practises around coming of age and what-not. So they called me and asked ..(someone at the door / interruption). So they called me and asked me about coming of age ceremonies or practises Inuit, and I called my great Auntie and she told me that my gramma had a face tattoo. Which kind of blew me out of the water because I had no idea. I only met my gramma when I was just a baby so I didn’t have any memories of her. And then later on I had a mentor of mine, Allie Spitzer, shared a video with me: ​Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos​ by Alethea Arnet Brill. And I watched that documentary and just had tears rolling down my face the whole hour that I watched it. I didn’t realize that there were these holes in my soul until I watched this video. And I immediately felt that deep resonance to have these tatoos on me. so that was the beginning journey. At first I played with henna tatoos to see how it would feel and if it felt right to be putting those things on me. And it felt really good so I first had them done by myself and then the next day was learning to how to tattoo myself through the store and a customer who did stick and poke she was really kind and generous in teaching me how to do stick and poke so that was kind of how I first started to learn and then began to practise on my legs and feet and eventually did the birthing tattoos on my legs. As a kind of a practise which took about three hours or so. At that time I was able to be up in my home land near Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik and do some of that mind work on my homelands and the land of the midnight sun. And now I’ve gone on to teaching other people how to do that too and it’s something that is not just Inuit but many Indigenous cultures around the world and the practise of just doing tattoos is a part of symbolism and empowerment. So there’s that resurgence happening across Inuit cultures across Turtle Island. Which is really exciting. I love it. 4:32 SD Thank you. So how long have you been doing that now. 4:39 Hmm. I think I’ve been tattooing for about three years now. SD It’s fascinating. It must take a lot of bravery 4:55 Yep it’s always . ..every time I am going to tattoo someone I tell them how many people I have tattooed already, that it’s going to be imperfect, this is how many hours I’ve practised, and so um that kind of full knowledge of what they’re stepping in to. And then at the same time while 42 we’re doing the work, this is a good time if you don’t feel it’s the right image,or rendition, we can erase it and do it over and over again until you feel comfortable. Because it is something that you will be living with for the rest of your life. And so yah, there’s a little bit of that nerves but as I go on each time I feel a little more trusting with myself. Yah yah it’s a journey. 2334 Audio Strike at 8 seconds. 19 seconds: Yah it was activating my culture wasn’t so much a choice as I was stumbling along whether I knew it or not .. finding things like compassionate communication and ways of talking to people that I felt safe and safe for the other person. And then within my own home life, you know doing my best with what all that I knew - was nothing about our shared history. About colonization. And so I thought I was doing my best at raising my kids and the way that I was taught and realizing that it wasn’t really working and that as I learned about residential schools and how they were set up and what happened there, that I had a lot of learned behaviours from residential schools; intergenerational. And so, that was showing up and it wasn't really working so much that that reflection of the earth and the turmoil around climate change that was being reflected in my own family life. And so really, that called to awaken and reclaim Inuit culture and practise. It’s been a really huge part in really what’s been transformative in bringing some peace and equanimity into my family. SD: Did having children relate to that for you too? 2:06 Yeah and I think that’s a big part of reconciliation. You know it started with myself. You know parenting in a way of shame, blame, discipline, removal of privilege wasn’t working. And a shifting to unconditional love and acceptance for my kids as they were in that moment. And boundary setting but also being generous and providing cultural gifts to nurture those spirits in those times and yah just that acceptance as, of who they are when they were in the moment in their hardest darkest bits as well as their brightest. I think we need to wrap up because people are coming. Murray Sampson Interview:​ November 11th, 2015 DSC_1307 Well my name is Murray Sampson. And I’m from the Tsartlip Reserve. I’m a mixture of blood. I've got Coast Salish and ​Nez Percé​ which is in Washington State and Idaho. So that’s the bloodline that I carry is Coast Salish and ​Nez Percé​. What they call Nimiipuu. That’s what I’m known by, Murray most of the time. And I’ve had quite the pleasurable day today so far Steve and things are going well. Especially being out here in the open - it’s always stress free because of the lifestyle I live today - it’s off the land and sea. Everything is perfect for me because we’re in a stress free area for me. (Big smile). 43 SD Can you explain where we are today? Is there a traditional name for this area? And what was the history here? Well Goldstream has always been a feeding place for our people. During the salmon runs there’s Coho, Spring salmon, and Chum salmon are the main fish that come up here. But off season too there’s trout, you know the odd pink salmon that come in here. But this area has always been a food source. You know as my brother Tom mentioned earlier while we were drumming. And since the beginning of time this has always been here for resources for our people. And today the difficulty we have here today is the landscape has changed so much by the initiation of beavers in the area. So a lot of the areas have changed for a lot of our people where it’s being destroyed by animals that are not Indigenous, like the beaver is not Indigenous to this stream. It is Indigenous to other places but not this stream so the beavers have really damaged the spawning grounds quite a bit. I see the river has changed in different places now where it’s not running like it used to. Once those streams change, the fish you know, lose sight of where they are supposed to go. Take for instance a few years back, Fisheries and Parks people they added a stream in. So when they added that stream in they confused the fish a bit so not many fish went up that stream because they weren’t following the scent of their line. So when the land changes those resources have changed quite a bit. Seeing the salmon here today you know, there should be a lot more but because of the spill they had, oil spill they had (points) at the mouth of the entrance here. It’s really depleted the stocks because this is the fourth year since that spill and seeing how small the run is compared to the past. You know that oil spill, how devastating it has been to this river especially for the five tribes that feed off this river here. And to see it depleting the way it is, you know, that’s one of the things I was saying earlier was what we like to pray about when we’re singing. Is that the resources are always going to be here for today and the generations that are yet to come. So, you know, this place is very important to all people you know, not just the native people. I mean, it brings in so much tourism during the winter runs. We get to meet people from all over the world during the winter runs. This is how I’ve been explaining it to people, I mean it brings in so much tourism to this area during the winter runs that you know we get to meet people from all over the place, all over the world. And this is how one of the ways I’ve been explaining how the river here is used by our people. The salmon plays ceremonial parts in some of our ceremonies. In death for instance, when we lose someone in our family we can’t just go back to eating our food like we do regularly. We have to go back to a medicine person to lift the sorrow from us. So that we can carry on in the same manner before. So this river plays a huge part in our ceremonies whether it’s naming, initiation into longhouse, death, these salmon - the Chum salmon, play the part not the other salmon - the coho and spring, but the Chum play a huge part in our lives since the beginning of time. So we hope that for the future it will still be here. You know the school kids today don't have the same knowledge that we had when I was a child. I grew up knowing the land and today’s children don't know the land as well as we do. There’s a lot of things around us right now that we use as medicine. A lot of the things that we can’t gather here no more because of the spill. We don’t have trust in the medicine that it’s cured from that spill yet and a lot of us don’t come here for gathering any more and that plays a huge part in my life. I really don’t use prescription drugs that much I use all natural medicines that my people have used all 44 their lives whether it’s for pain or cleansing your stomach and throat and esophagus you know it brings up all your um the negative toxins in your body and we can’t find some of them here no more because it’s too polluted now. That’s the sad thing about the runoff from the mountains when they come. All the fire retardent that they use in the mountains putting out that fire will eventually end up here (points to stream). Same with a lot of that contaminated soil that’s being put up in the Shawnigan Lake area that will all eventually make its way to this stream as well. So how we try to protect the environment today it’s really difficult with the court system today. We have to get injunctions to stop developers or construction workers, so this is one of the hardest parts of our life. We have to prove our life’s in the court system today whether it’s environmental, spiritual. I mean what happened in the residential school system, the 60’s scoop, well those are the things that are still in place today. They’re still taking our children so a lot of our children like I was saying they don’t know the environment as well as they should. And a lot of the things are blamed on the school system today. So this is where a lot of our struggles are today, a lot of our children don’t have the same knowledge, as they should for their own identity. DSC_1308 20 mins Well this area, listening to a lot of the stories from our Elders, many of them passed on already, they said we’ve been using this stream since the beginning of time. When the great flood happened our people went to the mountains as well. And so that defines how long we’ve been here, since the beginning of time. Because this is what our Elders have said, you know our Great Grampas have said and on and on. They’ve used this stream for the benefit of feeding their families. Like my brother explained earlier, this is the time where we smoke and dry the salmon for the winter food. And that’s one of the main things I do now, is smoke salmon for a living, I make deer jerky, moose jerky, dried clams, oysters, cod, ling cod, rock cod, soul, ah these are all things that are still very important to our lifestyle. Without these salmon runs and all the eggs that go out after and that feeds the rest of the sea life that’s coming in here. The eagles. The eagles play a huge part in our life and the salmon as well. One of the tough things we still have with the government today is that we still use the feathers and everything is ceremonial purposes but the way the government wants us to be. they still want us to be way back in the 1800’s. Thinking in the trading mode but we live in the financial world today so the government still wants us to live in old times yet but still wants us to live in modern day times. So there’s part of the government that keeps us living in the past and when we use our past to try to defend ourselves it’s not good enough for them. So it’s very difficult with modern society that the laws still continue to slow us down in living our life as full as we want to. I mean I don’t live a full life as an Aboriginal because of the court system. And that’s a shame that we still have to prove our identity in the court system. And this is something that the mainstream needs to know that we’re not out here to deplete stocks like commercial fisherman, all the other seafood industries that are out there. We take what we need we don’t take, we don’t overfish or overuse the resources that we have. So all these stories of the past of our Elders, how sacred this area is. Ah I continue to hold those words of our Elders as it is very sacred. I mean today a lot of our people live a poverty lifestyle, like third world conditions, and this is where our main source of our food has always been this stream. So there’s a lot of food around this stream that we still 45 continue to use. Deer and the birds that we use in our culture. The different types of medicines that are here (points). These are things that are being lost, you know, and it’s really difficult to bring them back because of modern day thinking. So we’re trying to get our children to think back on our own identity again. It’s very difficult to get our children to come out fishing, or hunting, you know they prefer the fast food stuff today. Sad to say. SD Can I get you to talk about the ceremony that we were here today for? As an introduction and voice over possibly? Well we’ve been singing here for quite a few years now. Our family and my older brother Tom. My younger nephews and our late brother John. Who was the drum keeper and has passed on now. But we’ve always come here to sing and honour the veterans. Not just the Aboriginal veterans but all the people of Canada that fought in the past wars. And it’s always a privilege to sing for someone that has brought peace for this country. I mean Canada being the most multicultural country in the World I think. There’s so many diversities of cultures here that Canada really needs to expand their minds, not just the religion that they beat into Aboriginal people. This is a very special time for us when we come here to sing for the veterans. Because we know that many of them that participated in our Pow-wow, the annual Pow-wow that our family hosts, and many of them that are not here no more, you know it’s sad to say but they give up an important part of their life fighting in the war. These are the types of stories we like to sing about … to strengthen the souls of all these people who have been harmed through the war. It takes more than a few people to pray sometimes which was beat into us .. but our people still use those prayers for forgiveness for thanking. So singing for the veterans here today was a great honour. A lot happened during their time in the conflict. And seeing some of the families, the memories the grief carries, to strengthen the souls. War is not something we just watch on TV they need to know the people and children that have been left behind​ ​8:05 8:30 So being here to honour those men and women who served in Canada and the US Especially where my late mother was from in Idaho. 13:50 Living on reserve. We have to hunt out our back door because land has shrunk so much not just for the veterans when they moved back home. And that’s what they meant when they said it feels like a concentration camp living on reserve. 14:10 The land that we had in the past has shrunken so much that now we have to hunt out our back door sometimes. But the land base you know, our veterans have said we live on next to nothing. Because we’re confined to such small areas. 15 mins And that’s the problem with our people today is that we are divided by politics. Tsartlip, Tseyum, East Saanich, all these reserves are divided they’re saying this is our territory and so 46 politics have instilled some false beliefs into our people too. And our land is shrinking and shrinking because of population growth. I believe it is like a concentration camp because they’re so small today because when we’re hunting or fishing and fisheries find us sometimes they’ll just storm our house, raid our freezer, take everything out of our freezer, to me like the veterans were saying it’s like a concentration camp. (Good smile and b-roll laughter 16:08 - I got hit by seagull feces). SD I’m wondering if you can speak to Canada’s unfinished business with First Nations? 16:19 Well my great Grandpa signed the treaty, and so it’s been over one hundred and sixty years now and nothing has been honoured in that treaty yet. Knowing my great-Grandpa and what he signed and what the Queen and the government guaranteed to the treaty signers back then, has not been honoured till today because our children are still being scooped out of our schools, out of homes, without any investigations as in the past they used to just go in our homes and just take children and take them off to catholic school or whatever boarding school they had to go to. So the law today still has us in shackles because we can’t practise much of our life. As I was explaining to you earlier I’ve been in a court case for ten years now which is coming to an end but the lawyer for us, who won the case for us proved how manipulative the court truly is when dealing with Aboriginal people. And myself I teach in the prisons to the native inmates. I go out to William Head to teach them about this kind of thing, fishing, hunting, drumming, singing, and it’s because many of the men have been in the system so long they don’t know what Aboriginal lifestyle is about anymore. So this is one of the things I do. I work at William Head and I’ll be going back there pretty soon. And I’ve taught at many different schools, at the University, you know talking about the Residential School system you know about what we went through as children. Our children are still not being properly educated today. You know the school system is still pushing our children through the system without educating them. Two of my sons made it all the way to grade 12 on a grade three level. And that’s how it’s been for our people most of the time. We’re just pushed through the system and that’s a sad things to say, that the government of Canada, one of the things that was guaranteed to us was education, health, you know all these things that were guaranteed to us by the government we still need to prove in the courts today and that’s one of the sad things. It's why a lot of our people are still unemployed and we're still segregated by the government. But not so much the mainstream anymore I think. I mean here, I can come here and catch about twenty fish, and I can probably make about twenty grand on twenty fish the way I package and sell it. And the same with the other resources, if we were left to hunt fish clam dig we wouldn't need a welfare system. But what happens there is that these other resources, these are provided to the commercial fisheries. 1309 But our way of life as stated in the treaty states that we can hunt and fish for all time. Today that’s one of the things we prayed for that reconciliation and we never wanted to be poverty stricken. We shared land and resources. 47 Appendix B 48 49 50
Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Visual Arts
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
Re-covering and remembering
Text