We’re trying to preserve as much as we can. So I have worked with different groups of people that are documenting the language.
To preserve a dialect consisting of a combination of words and phrases. It is empowering to see the approaches they are taking to preserve and restore their language despite the impact that colonialism has had on their people. Also, understanding that it is one method to secure their identity over time is inspiring to see the effort put forth.
brought to the river for morning baths and brushin’ and cleansin’ themselves. Cleansin’ their minds – not just their body but their minds. To focus on what do you want in life
Connecting this part of the process of a young boy turning into a young man really displays how First Nation had a way of helping a young man find his identity in life. Again, using the environment as a resource (brushings and river baths) shows how connected the First Nation was to the land.
You put in a pan and you render it down over a low heat and over a long period of time. And you get this purest of oil from the liver of that fish. And you will put it in a container and keep it.
It is fascinating to see how resourceful First Nation individuals were with the resources provided by the earth. I am curious to see how many more natural medicines exist that haven’t been documented. As Elsie mentioned, many oral teachings were lost over time, and it was hard for her to recollect them.
There was very little time for classroom. Might be two hours in the morning, and the afternoon, maybe an hour, hour and a half. The rest of the time was work
Taking away the children's cultural identity seemed to be the step into conformity. Seeing that they spent more time doing labor over education, and the kids from a very young age only knew work. Understanding this perspective of loss of culture helps me see the detrimental effects the residential school really had on First Nations' identity.
Some of them were coming there at five years, six years of age – first time away from their parents.
This allows me to reflect and think about my nieces and nephews, and I can't help but feel a heavy heart that they were around the same age as all of those children who attended residential school. Thinking in terms of attachment, how traumatizing it must have been to be separated from their parents and how embedded intergenerational trauma must have been embedded in their lives later in life.
There was one cafeteria in town, in the townsite just above the mill site there, that we would go, and there was a designated area for Native people. That’s where you went and sat. You didn’t sit with other people. You went and sat over there – it’s in a delegated area for Indians.
Comparing this to her memory of what trading was like for them and how they traveled to various destinations like Comox or Campbell River to trade for various resources. Then, living a life where they were not allowed to associate with non-first people on a social level must have been a huge shift in their beliefs of connection and inclusion.
The Value of Currency among the First Nation Peoples Compared to an article we read on the treaties, some First Nations individuals could distinguish between one and two-dollar bills when they received their “present money.” This concretely explains how trading for resources allowed the First Nation groups to survive and the community built around trading for resources.
It is intriguing to see how big of a role “categorization” plays by the government in identifying the two First Nation groups. This is another conversation I recall having on how this identification was used in observing First Nations groups once reserve lands were created, and even in the current day, any other names First Nations use to describe aren’t recognized in the mapping system.
documenting
This reminds me of the conversations we had in class on how a lot of the vital information was passed down from generation to generation through storytelling from the elders or knowledge holders of the community. Behind those stories are important lessons of laws the First Nation follows that guide their way of life; it is disheartening when those oral teachings are lost along the way.