This reminds me of when the PASS system was in place (not a law, but a policy or something they wanted to do) and with keeping track of Indigenous people's whereabouts and restrictions, they were also given rations. They often were not enough to last and many went hungry, sometimes it was bad/rotten food which would get people sick. It was a very strict and selfish time on the settler's part.

It's crazy to know that many issues with the police and Indigenous peoples still occur, such as the Starlight tours in Saskatchewan I believe, Missing Murdered Indigenous Women/people (MMIW) all across Canada, and the over/high representation of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system and the child welfare system. It is also shocking that the Social services and human services programs at VIU have no mandatory classes about Indigenous history and peoples, especially considering the history of social workers and RCMP with Indigenous peoples, but the Dental students have a mandatory Indigenous class and they are trying for the nursing students too. From my perspective, this creates a lack of understanding in a field where it is also very important and where negative outcomes will happen if biases and racism can get pushed onto clients.

So many aspects of colonization wiped out the Indigenous population, put them in a box, and prohibited them from practicing their cultures. I really wonder how the settlers/colonizers would've felt if they received these treatments. Disease, relocation, and the decline of bison killed many through trading and settlers relocating nations so that they could occupy the land. The Indian Act put Indigenous peoples in boxes, created discrimination and oppression, illegal to practice culture, mandatory to cleanse from their culture, administrate the people, isolated, starved, and just controlled Indigenous peoples and tried to make them not Indigenous. They also did this by declaring "Indians" as males, so status could not be passed down through the mother, and it allowed non-Indigenous women to gain status. This had the ability to make the Indigenous population so small (cannot remember the exact statistic).

In my Elders Teachings class, we are doing an online workshop by Kathi Camilleri. In that she mentioned that it takes a village to raise a child, everyone is involved, but also that children are gifts and yourself is a gift as well. The importance of recognizing and remembering these gifts are important as well, even sleep, because you never know who you will see again or not, or if you will wake up again - it sounds dark but it is also appreciation and a part of many teachings.

From many Indigenous Elders and people, I have heard about the medicine wheel or the belief and connection to the creator being used to bounce back from these down that Elise talks about. Being able to have these reminders from these holistic teachings provides the ability to identify your feelings and issues, and ways to work through them. These teachings have taught me more mindfulness and tools to bounce back from these mindsets, especially learning about the creator and other teachings that help me reconnect.

As mentioned during week three of class, time immemorial, since the beginning. This also reminds me about learning in either Indigenous Studies 101 or Indigenous Feminisms, that in Courtenay/Comox, there are very old fish traps, some newer than others, and a couple of different designs were found and explored. They eventually figured out the shape or design of the traps. I think it was also determined that they were mostly used for herring, but I am not certain.

This is interesting and important because I did not know that this is how the government went about giving Indigenous peoples so-called white or pronounceable names. It is also devastating to hear how much information on birth dates was lost and I would also think traditional/ancestral names.

I remember a long time ago now, being told that among the different dialects and even languages, nations were still able to communicate and trade with each other. I'm sure they made up some new dialect while trading with nations from different language regions, or some form of physical communication. I find it interesting that language areas vary in dialects and can understand some and communicate with others.

This also reminds me how in Port Hardy, before relocations, there were the Gwasala, the Naxwada, and the Kwakiutl. Now it is just Gwasala'Naxwada and the Kwakiutl nations and reserves because Gwasala and Naxwada were relocated together/into one, in fact not too far down from where my mom lives and where I grew up. I have a friend who lived on this reservation, but I don't know much about individual family identifications or awareness or things of the sort about it. Then I am part Indigenous (Kwakiutl) through my father.

This reminds me of Allyson Anderson telling our class about how in the Kamloops area, two nations were historically enemies and they were relocated into the same reserve or nation/tribe there. It is really devastating to see the impacts of relocation because it can create such a disconnection between culture, family, community, and even language and teachings.

With teachings and listening to teachings, this part reminds me of the Indigenous perspective and the holistic approach because to look after yourself, you need to recognize what is going on on the inside and the outside around you. For some Indigenous communities, this may include the medicine wheel and/or other teachings, varying with nations and communities.

• It is very interesting hearing about naming processes within Indigenous communities, and the legacy of the names with the importance of them being passed down to future generations. I also think naming processes highlights the importance of how it takes a community to raise a child/ren and be involved in the community.