My Langara Reconciliation Carving Journey: Design Ideas - Abundance-Sustainable- Eco-System-Balance

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.

First, I drew what was in my heart, got a piece of wood and then I carved it https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2017/01/how-i-spent-my-sunday-carving.html

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.

So my Great Great Grandmother on my mother's side was (Songhees)- Theresa Elisa Enos - unfortunately I have not yet been able to trace her maiden name- her Indigenous name. My Great Grandmother also on my mother's was Mary Ann Poirier and her Grandmother was Marie Ann Maranda dit Le Frise (Iroquois & Kalapuya ) https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2016/11/enos-poirier-ancestry-kalapuya-iroquois.html

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.

#Women #Child #Indigenous #Culture #Motherhood #Sisters #Sisterhood #Life #Lifecycle #Love #Light #Knowledge #Wisdom #Generations #7generations #Moontime #Grandmothers #Aunts #Unity #One Two of my new paintings. Design ideas for a carving project I have.

A photo posted by Zipolita aka Tina Winterlik (@zipolita) on Jan 18, 2017 at 2:56pm PST