From September 2016 to April 2017 I attended Langara Reconciliation Carving Cohort. This was my online journey- a collection of research, thoughts, feelings, work and anything that would aid me and others to help the next 7 generations.
Have a look at some of the AMAZING work that he creates. http://www.xwalacktun.ca/wood/ We were in for a very special treat! It was great. He was so honest and open and he had us laughing so hard we cried and inside I was crying about some of the things he said. He had it very hard in public school but it obviously is being expressed through his art now.
Here is some info from his bio
"Xwalacktun was born and raised in Squamish. He carries with him the
rich ancestries of his father’s (Squamish Nation) and
mother’s
(Kwakwakw'wakw
Nation) of the Coast Salish clans. His father, Pekultn,
carried a hereditary chieftainship from Seymour Creek in North
Vancouver. He would like to acknowledge Capilano College and Emily
Carr College of Art for teaching him the skills to have a start in his
career. His endurance and commitment through trial and error helped
propel him forward as an artist."
"Healing, growth and raising an awareness of the environment are
central themes in Xwalacktun’s work. By focusing on how the
traditional stories relate to his own life, he suggests to us how to use
this ancient knowledge to help heal ourselves and our community. The
giving out of positive energy and seeing it come back through the
young people is the reward that continues to feed his spirit so that he
can give back to others"
Xwalacktun was rushing off to Germany for BAU 2017 the World's Leading Tradeshow in Architecture, Materials and System . He was delivering some very special doors that were going to be displayed. I was grateful that he stopped in to visit and talk with us about our project. http://bau-muenchen.com/index-2.html
Water Is Life!! Thanks! You have the best day too!!! I love watching him carve in this video and the story of the bear was very touching. Thank you for sharing Xwalacktun.
I really love this video where he's carving at the end. It's very calming and relaxing.
So last week we were all gathered together and we were discussing the design we are going to create and carve.
We were all taking turns voicing our ideas.
I had some ideas and so I was anxious to share.
It was my turn. I had tried to listen patiently and not just think of what I was going to say when my turn came...but then you know what happened...
When it was my turn a million ideas and thoughts started jamming the airwaves in my mind...and were all forcing there way to the front...I could feel myself searching my mind as I tried to find the exact words to try to describe what I was seeing in my mind.
It was useless. I stopped. I felt annoyed with myself, discouraged.
Then I came home and I have been on a mission ever since to express what was in my mind that day.
Then the drawings came fast and furious, I was just looking at things, photos, pictures and drawing. It was like it wasn't me...it was the ancestors. My Gr.Gr grandma Theresa Enos and my Great Grandma Mary Ann Poirier, they were drawing.
Drawing has never been so easy and I was enjoying it so much I just didn't want to stop. It was late at night and everyone was asleep and they were bugging me to quit, turn off the lights and go to sleep to.
As soon as I woke I went right to work and finished putting the ink on them and then started to paint.
"Paint faster" voices in my head said. I think it's my grandmothers', they want me to hurry and tell the story....show people the way....
They are guiding me that's for sure and I am doing my best to listen.
"Paint faster" I hear and I tell them "I am going as fast as I can!!" and giggle, tired but happy, content.
It's all good.
Anyways, I photographed each stage and then I put them in Photo Shop and edited them, then put them in Movie Maker and made a little video with music.
I hope you like it. It's just some ideas that I have for a carving we are doing.
My idea just focuses on what Justin has been talking about, "Abundance" and I have been hearing it other places. Indigenous peoples had true sustainable environments. We need to go back and learn how to reap the bounties with out destroying and over harvesting. We must learn to live in harmony. People need to recognize and give great credit because Indigenous peoples, both men and women, but especially the women were hardworking, strong, that maintained there eco-system through resourcefulness, hunting and gathering and by passing the knowledge and wisdom on to their children. Something that was destroyed by the hate in the Residential Schools and the greed and ignorant effort to assimilate everyone to colonialism.
Now she was an AMAZING woman..
Early documents in our possession read “… I was married there to Joseph Brulé, a French Canadian and went to Cowlitz and later to Victoria, British Columbia. Lived there till he died and had six children by him … only two are living now, Ellen and Cecile. Two years after my husband died, I married Jean Baptist Vautrin, a Canadian … by Mr Vautrin I had nine children … " http://www.sookenewsmirror.com/community/303481881.html
There was abundance!! "The Salish cornucopia includes a great abundance of roots, greens,
berries, nuts, apples, seeds, flowers, honey and tree sap, tree bark,
fresh plant sprouts, spruce tips, deer, elk, bear, pheasant, ducks,
geese, freshwater eel, bullheads, trout, bass, and sea foods including
seaweed, crab, seal, whale, sea urchins, mussels and clams, salmon, cod,
halibut, and the small fish they call the oolichan. Together these
foods and medicines provided a healthy balance of nutrients. " https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/salish-feast-ancient-roots-and-modern-applications But please read about how they maintained the eco-system and their families and birthrate. See link below.
"As a semi-nomadic people, the Kalapuya(s) lived in permanent winter homes and migrated throughout the Willamette Valley during the warmer months. They traded regularly with their Molalla and Cayuse neighbors as well as other Northern California, Oregon coast, and Columbia River tribes." (Kalapuya, page 4)
Food
-The Kalapuyas were hunters and gatherers. Women did most of the gathering, while men were the hunters. Salmon, trout, and eels were part of their diet as were birds, small game, deer, bear, and elk. Grasshoppers and a type of caterpillar were considered delicacies. Other food items included hazel nuts, berries, tarweed seeds, and wapato. (Zenk, page 547-548)
Camas root was the Kalapuyas' most abundant and important staple. This "bulbous root plant resembles an onion in shape and consistency but is considerably more bland in taste," according to "Cooking up Camas," an article in Historic Marion. A member of the lily family, "camassia quamash" still grows in the Willamette Valley; it is known for its beautiful blue spring time blooms.
Kalapuya women dug the camas with forked wooden sticks and then roasted and dried the root in pit-ovens. This mixture was also pressed into cakes or loaves for later use as food or as a valuable trade item. http://www.salemhistory.net/people/native_americans.htm
Hey are you on Instagram. I post stuff there, why don't you come check it out. https://www.instagram.com/zipolita
This is a sample of the things I post there.
Yep, this is it. I carved all day. It was lovely but I am tired and my hands are sore.
I want to work on the mountains more, I was working on rounding my moon but I definitely want to define the mountains and maybe put a little snow on it.
We had SPECIAL GUESTS yesterday in class (I will share more about this in another post.). That was really fun.
Wow, we cover so much in the day and a lot of it is subtle, so I just try to absorb as much as I can.
Someone asked me what stood out for me yesterday so here's a little list, no random or importance
-We attached a frame to the panels- actually I arrived a little late, so I watched and took photos! ha! ha! still I tried to remember for if I have to one day.
-We talked about the rings in the boards in the panels. We talked about how old they actually be..possibly 500 more or less
- Talked about old growth wood and what it is and how it grows, how in the forest the young trees race to the top of the canopy but then they are spindly and then the thicken over many years and the lower branches drop. How people thought the could reproduce forest but they can't...the new lumber just isn't the quality
-Talked about grain, which way does it go, how to feel for it, ... how cutting a board is so different than splitting cedar...and how cedar was just shipped to Europe almost as junk. So so sooooooooooo sad.
-Talked about what kinds of sand paper I should use on my knives and about the stone I bought.
-Talked about cedar, where to buy it and things like that.
Shane shared special things with us.
Our special guests shared powerful moving stories about their lives that touched my heart and motivated me, inspired me, saddened me, made me laugh. Made me laugh so hard my cheeks hurt.
Yes, it was a great day.. and emotional day. I never get through a day in this class without a lot of energy and emotion...
Emotion, that's what stood out, there was great emotion when we were close to deciding on how to design the panel. We are getting so much closer all the time. It's getting really exciting.
Anyways, here's what I did today. We decided that we are going to have one large circular image in the centre, split between two panels and then 9 circles each side.
That is the plan so far and so, what we are doing is designing and carving a piece of our own and it will be attached. When we finish our pieces we can help on the big panels. So this is just for fun, all I actually have for an assignment is to create a new design, so here is an idea and them for fun and practice my attempt at carving it.
So today I went and bought a piece of yellow cedar and here is my attempt and my new design.
So to be honest, I didn't know who Joseph Boyden was before all this started. I still haven't read any books, writings or heard any speaking or debates etc. It was only through this video that I heard about the ballet and I recalled sharing info on that in Facebook.
I think he cleared up a lot. I could relate to many things, I was sad that someone called up his 85 year old Catholic mom and asked her a bunch of questions without him knowing..that I could totally relate to and I'd be upset. That said it sounds like they've all been pulled closer and many people reached out.
This is a huge issue on Turtle Island- "currently so called Canada" and I think he cleared up the money stuff, said he shared that prize money of $5000 with the others, which is nice...
and I know how hard it is to document this info about Indigenous ancestry, it's hard. It has taken me 10 years to find my family the information in the archives. I totally understand about wanting to protect family and privacy and I think anyone should be able to understand that.
I am not connected to a band, or nation even though I want to be, that's why I signed up to the Reconciliation Carving Cohort at Langara, was to make more connections.
There's a lot of pain and denial in our family, names were changed to protect them from racism but it was a way of assimilation. Read this page about marriage à la
façon du pays
""One of the problems of searching the native families is that
they didn't always use the same name and the clergy didn't always record
the name the same way each time. Hence Barra is sometimes Barry, Berra,
Burra etc. Fur trade society developed its own marriage rite, marriage à la
façon du pays (after the custom of the country), which combined both
First Nations and European marriage customs." http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~goudied/
Joseph Boyden admitted he spoke out of turn and that he had no place to speak about the Missing and Murdered Women...I don't know what he said. People make mistakes and get caught up in things.
I try to be careful, I don't want to make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. We learn best from our worst mistakes sadly. We need to be forgiving.You need to be on a higher level and help others get up there with you. Don't let the pull you down, reach out a hand and help them up if you can.
I find it interesting how this whole thing is bubbling up! Great ready because it's going to blow! It has to right?
So we have to see the whole thing for what it was, was it about labels, blood quantum, money, funding, Indigenous rights, inequality, suicide, art, love, family, ....yes and so much more.
It's a good interview above, you should definitely listen to it. I send out love and light to his mom and his family and to him and the people who reached out to him.
We are all struggling with the colonialist legacy and it's not an easy ride.
If you got to the party late, read the rest of these important articles on this related link, where I tried to gather them together to give a true, fair, opportunity to get the full story and form your own opinion.
Well I think this a question we are all asking ourselves really? Don't you agree?
Well, who are you? (who are you? who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (who are you? who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (who are you? who, who, who, who?)
'Cause I really wanna know (who are you? who, who, who, who?)
I have all these questions when I create my art and my stories and I think about what people will say and if they'll ask the same questions that are being asked.
After I painted it, I fell in love with it and couldn't sell it. I feel she watches over me. That said part of me questioned whether I am allowed to refer to her as Spirit bear...
This is video is over an hour but it well worth it!
And here's another weird thing, it's there so many times when I ask
myself the same question, am I Indigenous ENOUGH to apply for
this...what ever it is, a job, a course, funding, art residence, ....
I
don't think I really ever thought much about my ancestry until Angel
went to school. On the paper it said something about did I want her to
be taught Aboriginal studies and asked what are ancestry. Supposed to
check a box but I just check here and there and wrote that we were
Metis, Songhees but nothing to prove it. This happened every year and no
one ever really explained the differences...I don't think most people
know..
I must admit I read the legend recorded by Pauline Johnson here, long ago and did not quite understand all and had to read it a few times, but it makes so much more sense now. Now I have just discovered the link below, I must read ALL, but I have chores to do...but tonight...until then I leave you with this.
Do you know the legend about Siwash Rock?
"Do you think it stands straight–like a man?" he asked.
"Yes, like some noble-spirited, upright warrior," I replied.
"It is a man," he said, "and a warrior man, too; a man who fought for everything that was noble and upright."
"What do you regard as everything that is noble and upright, chief?" I
asked, curious as to his ideas. I shall not forget the reply; it was but
two words–astounding, amazing words. He said simply:
"Clean fatherhood."
Pauline Johnson
Author's Foreword http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/johnson/vancouver/vancouver.html#ch-02
"THESE
legends (with two or three exceptions) were told to me personally by my
honoured friend, the late Chief Joe Capilano, of Vancouver, whom I had
the privilege of first meeting in London in 1906, when he visited
England and was received at Buckingham Palace by their Majesties King
Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
To the fact that I was able to greet Chief Capilano in the Chinook
tongue, while we were both many thousands of miles from home, I owe the
friendship and the confidence which he so freely gave me when I came to
reside on the Pacific coast. These legends he told me from time to time,
just as the mood possessed him, and he frequently remarked that they
had never been revealed to any other English-speaking person save
myself.
E. PAULINE JOHNSON (Tekahionwake)
These legends are printed by courtesy of the "Vancouver Daily Province,"
in which journal they first appeared.
Here's a painting I made 5 or 6 years ago...
"Siwash
Rock stands to remind them, set there by the Deity as a monument to one
who kept his own life clean, that cleanliness might be the heritage of
the generations to come."
"a monument to one man's fidelity to a generation yet unborn–and will endure from everlasting to everlasting"
I love Siwash Rock! I have painted it and photographed and I do believe we need to honor Siwash Rock and make sure that everyone knows about it and the beautiful story that is told about it by the Squamish Nation.
This painting is from 2001 I believe.
This is a little video made of photos in Stanley Park and around the Seawall.
" Fish skin parka (qasperrluk in Yup'ik; derived from qaspeq "parka cover kuspuk" and the postbase-rrluk "N that has departed from its natural state (often, though not always, with an undesirable connotation)", amirag in Cup'ig) is a kind of fish-skin clothing (amiragglugaq) also that could serve as a tent.[2][20]
Fish skin parkas in the past were worn by both men and women when
hunting and traveling. In winter they were worn over a fur parka just as
cloth covers have been in more recent times.[8] A Yukon fish skin parka made of dog salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) skin.[21] Nunivaarmiut men wore parkas made of silver salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) skin, while those of women were made of salmon trout (charr) (Salvelinus malma) skin and often had a white fox ruff on the hood.[8]
The Nunivaarmiut Cup'ig did not prepare their own fish skins for
parkas, but bought them, already prepared, from Yup'ik people on the
Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. These imported skins had been stretched,
smoke-dried, and scaled.[8]
"
Mitten (aliiman, aliuman, aritvak, kauman in Yup'ik, aritvag in Cup'ig). Child's mitten of any sort is aritvacuar or aritvacuarar (in Cup'ig). Long waterproof dehaired sealskin or fish-skin (salmon-skin)[18] mitten is (arilluk sg arilluuk dual arilluut pl, arin in Yup'ik, arillugar in Cup'ig). Fish skin mittens with grass liners used for kayak travel during spring in bad weather.[41] Man's short skin mitten used when going on a kayak trip is arikarer (in Cup'ig).
Fish-skin boots (amirak ~ amiraq sg amiriik dual
in Yup'ik and Cup'ik) are waterproof skin boot made of fish skin. In
the past fish-skin boots were made with depilated soles of bearded seal,
ankle straps, and a casing sewb to the upper edge of the leg. Large
salmon skins were prepared for boots by sewing up the fin holes. A round
needle was used because a triangular needle would split the skin.[6][20]
Food
The Kalapuyas were hunters and gatherers. Women did most
of the gathering, while men were the hunters. Salmon, trout,
and eels were part of their diet as were birds, small game,
deer, bear, and elk. Grasshoppers and a type of caterpillar
were considered delicacies. Other food items included hazel
nuts, berries, tarweed seeds, and wapato. (Zenk, page 547-548)
Camas root was the Kalapuyas' most abundant and important
staple. This "bulbous root plant resembles an onion in
shape and consistency but is considerably more bland in taste,"
according to "Cooking up Camas," an article in Historic
Marion. A member of the lily family, "camassia quamash"
still grows in the Willamette Valley; it is known for its
beautiful blue spring time blooms.
Kalapuya women dug the camas with forked wooden sticks and
then roasted and dried the root in pit-ovens. This mixture
was also pressed into cakes or loaves for later use as food
or as a valuable trade item.
There is evidence of a fortified village existing at Finlayson Point in Beacon Hill Park
prior to the arrival of Europeans in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. The Songhees' traditional foods included salmon,
shellfish, whale, deer, duck, berries, camas root, and herbs. The Coast Salish traditionally lived in bighouses, which were large rectangular communal houses of cedar planks, adorned with carved and jointed totem posts.[1]"
Sir James Douglas, governor of Vancouver Island
negotiated a treaty with the Songhees in 1850. Much of the traditional
territory of the Songhees now forms the core of the urbanized area of
Victoria and surrounding municipalities. The development of British
Columbia's capital city caused considerable disruption to the Songhees'
traditional economy and livelihood.
Recently the Songhees considered that the government of British
Columbia had failed to honour the 1850 treaty and commenced a legal
action against the province and the government of Canada
for redress. A settlement of the action was announced in November 2006
by Songhees Chief Robert Sam, the federal Minister of Indian Affairs and
Northern Development Jim Prentice and the provincial Minister of
Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, Mike de Jong.
"
So back in October, I had a really bad day at class, it had been emotionally exhausting and I really was a mess. I climbed in the tub and as I was trying to wash away the day, this vision came to me.
(As soon as I got out of the tub I wrote it down on the first thing I found because I didn't want to forget it.)
I put it on my tablet on paint ha!...which you can see I am not very good on it...!
I have some very important info about estuaries and salmon that I will share in a bit. Tired. I did a lot today!! So happy to get it as far as I did.
