Nuanced. - 109. Eddie Gardner: Secrets to Finding Peace Through Indigenous Wisdom

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Join Aaron Pete as he sits down with Elder Eddie Gardner, also known as "T’it’elem Spath," to explore Indigenous culture, tradition, and the Halq'eméylem language. As a respected Indigenous Elder from the Skwah First Nation and an elder-in-residence with the University of the Fraser Valley, Mr. Gardner shares his knowledge and teachings with students and faculty. In this episode, he highlights the beauty of the Halq'eméylem language by breaking down a few words for the listeners, while also discussing opportunities for reconciliation with Indigenous people. As a knowledge keeper and protector of his Indigenous language, Mr. Gardner works with other Indigenous leaders to revitalize the language and ensure its practice. In addition to his advocacy work, he is committed to preserving and continuing the practice of Sweat Lodge ceremonies in the Fraser Valley. Tune in to learn from Mr. Gardner's insights on Indigenous culture and his tireless efforts to promote reconciliation and healing.Chapters:0:00 What Does it Mean to Be an Elder?9:33 Indigenous Culture & Science13:55 Indigenous Creation Story25:26 Lessons for Young People30:45 Connection to the Ancestors42:59 Indigenous Language54:58 Teachings from the LandSend us a textThe "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a barbershop....Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

This episode is sponsored by the Real Estate Foundation of BC. REFBC is a philanthropic organization that supports sustainable, equitable, and socially just relationships with land and water. Learn more about the foundation's grants and initiatives at REFBC.com. This is The Bigger Than Me podcast. Here's your host, Aaron. Reconciliation is a term we're hearing more and more. My guest today is a pro-form. efficient, Halklamelam speaker, a thoughtful leader within his community, squaw first nation, and an elder in residence at the University of the Fraser Valley. We dive into the helclamalum language, lessons and teachings within indigenous culture, and how we can grow and

reconnect with our cultures. My guest today is Eddie Gardner. Mr. Gardner, it's such a pleasure to sit down with you again. We had the pleasure of doing it a couple of years ago now, but it's such an honor to share some space with you. I'm wondering if we could perhaps start with, you're often called an elder, and I'm wondering if you could, for listeners, describe what it means to you to be an elder. Well, first of all, my homeok name is Tatum Spathamian, and I'm from Squat First Nation. And we're a part of my home. We're a part of of the Palau tribe. But I've been recognized as an elder by the people.

And it's really the people who decide, you know, if I carry myself as an elder, I'm 77 years old. But to be a true elder, you need to carry yourself in a good way and be experienced in what it takes to care for the land and the water, the language and to be engaged, you know, with the community. So when you're an elder, you make sure that you capture as much knowledge as much knowledge as you can from what we inherited as as Hulmoch people

and embrace the values, embrace the laws of principles, what we call our Snow Wyeth. And those are teachings, you know, from our ancestors. And it's really, it's really an honor, a huge honor to be acknowledged

as an elder. And be responsible for sharing, you know, what we have. Elders come from different backgrounds and they have different experience and skills and training and life experience and can share what they know. So one elder doesn't know everything, but there's a lot of pressure on elders when there's those kind of expectations put on elders. But, you know, Each elder has a gift that they've been able to cultivate and we have that spiritual connection to the land and to the ancestors. And we continually guide ourselves from that spiritual connection that we have.

Do you find that it's a lot of responsibility? Obviously, as we lose matriarchs and elders in our community, there's more pressure and responsibility placed on the individuals for youth, young people, to go to for knowledge and insights. Do you feel like that's a lot of responsibility? Well, I think it's a good responsibility, and there's a lot of reciprocity that goes with it. You know, there's the giving and the receiving. And elders in our community are held in very high regards and are very well respected. So in exchange for that, elders do a lot of sharing.

And the work of an elder is never over. We continue to learn, to grow, to adapt. to be forward-looking, carrying the heritage, the wisdom and the teachings that come from previous generations, seven-generations theme. You know, I've talked about that before, we're always at the center,

and what we need to do is remember, you know, what we inherit through the past seven generations and live our life in a way that will be of benefit, carry on the good teachings, carry on the good values and our culture and our language

and live it in such a way that future generations will continue to benefit from what we have. In our previous conversation, and one thing that still stands out to me today that I actually recite for people is that you described bugs as the ones that crawl

rather than bugs. And you talked about trees and you didn't say trees, you said the rooted ones. And what I really loved about that and what I thought a lot about since that conversation is the derogatory term

that can come with the idea of a bug, that we sort of look at it, like get it off of me. And when you describe it as the one that crawls, it's almost like there's an added respect to it. Is this intentional? Is this something that you think about?

Or is this just a teaching? Well, everything has that shui, that life spirit. That life spirit is in the insects. It's in the rocks. It's in the water. It's in the animals and the moon and stars. And it's in us. You know, that's shulis, that sacredness that's within us,

that connects us with everyone and everything. So we can't take for granted anything, you know, and so we need to be very mindful about how we relate, you know, to the insects and to everything that we have here. Biodiversity is something that we depend on. And if we lose biodiversity, then we won't survive. So the ones that will survive are the insects, the bugs, the ones, the little ones, you know. They're the ones that are going to last a lot. When we're long gone, they'll still be around. So we need to acknowledge that life that they will continue to carry on.

And with climate change, if there's a huge disaster that happens and life, the big ones like us and the large animals and whatnot, if they go by the wayside and those little ones are still there, they're the ones who are going to revitalize and allow things to grow back again later. So, yeah, we need to give high respect to the little ones. Have you always been connected to the land deeply, or was that something that you learned over time? It seems like my generation can often be very disconnected from the land and not understand how everything is connected to each other.

Is this something you always knew, or was this a journey as well? It was something that I sensed as a very, very young person. And it's that energy, spirit has an energy. And when we say there's a life spirit and everything, we look at the physical side of who we are, but scientists have now explored that much further and has come to the conclusion that everything is energy, matter is energy.

When you break down the molecules and they break down the atoms and you go deeper and deeper, you're looking at space. There's a lot of space, and that space carries a lot of energy. and energy carries information, and information is what brings about matter and life. So, yeah, I kind of sense that, and now that we have this quantum, what we call quantum physics, that is, that reconfirmed what I felt, what I sensed when I was a young person. That's so interesting because you do seem to enjoy the science and connecting that with the belief systems of indigenous culture. Yeah, absolutely.

This concept of two-eyed seeing is real. Science and Western thinking have strayed away from that. spirituality that energy that comes with spirit and that's in everything and everyone and has only looked at at breaking down matter and and so when we look at when we look at our way of living our teachings our our practices It's challenging to convey that or communicate that in a way that would capture the attention of Western thinkers because our way of our way of dealing with energy and matter and everything around us is through ceremony. And so that's, I think, is what is lacking, you know, in Western culture. There's not enough ceremony that is put into the work that they do.

And when you do that, there's magic that happens. There's things that come about that you wouldn't, that is so unexpected. So prayer, spirituality, ceremony. together with Western ways of thinking and doing and being is really where it's at today. And I think more people are coming to be a little more familiar with this and there's a growing comfort with the need to integrate that, you know, with how we're going to create a vision for the future

that will respect and honor natural laws that will respect and honor that Shuli that's in everyone and everything in our mother earth. And when we treat, for example, the salmon, when we treat the deer, when we treat the rooted ones, the cedar and all the medicinal plants and foods, when we treat those as relatives,

when people talk about their relatives, they show a lot of care and love. And so if they looked upon the salmon as a relative or the cedar or the other rooted ones that feed us, then as relatives, then they would have much more respect and would walk much more lightly on Mother Earth. This reminds me of the origin story,

of the creation story in indigenous culture, this idea that they give themselves the plants, the animals, the ones in the river, they give themselves to us, but they ask for something in return to be respected be remembered, be honored, and then respect certain times of not fishing, and then to give to those less fortunate. Do you have any thoughts on how we think about this? Yeah, I think religion, Christianity, Western thinking, there's this concept of dominating the earth for their own youth.

and that's not the right way to go because if when people look at a loss of biodiversity today there's alarm bells that are ringing all over the place, hey, we're going down this wrong path, you know, and we need to change. What are they going to do to change? They're going to need to change how we relate to the land and the water and all of what we call shakamas in our language, all our gifts from our creator. We were, in our origin stories, we were the last ones to be recreated. Everything came before.

We came as dependent on all of this that came before us. And so when we raise, when we acknowledge that the salmon and the trees, the grass, everything is above us, you know, they're all up there. We're down here. We need to live in harmony with everything that's around us instead of dominating it. That is the biggest, I think, most important distinction, you know, between those two ways of thinking. I couldn't agree more. You're an individual who does a lot. And before we started, you were talking about all the things you do.

Yet you bring energy to it in a way that it seems like some people aren't able to. They go into their job. They're not excited about that. They go into their day-to-day work. They're not excited about that. They come home. They don't want to do their chores. But you seem to bring the sincere, genuine willingness to engage and support and build others up.

I'm just wondering, how does this come about for you? How do you, you seem like a person very much at peace. And I'm just curious as to how you found this. Did it take a lot of work? How did you start to work towards this? Yeah, that's a good question. I think that what is important, for me is putting a lot of joy and love in what you do. Every human being is put down here

for a purpose and that is to learn an awful lot of lessons. And I'm one who has learned a lot of lessons about how we need to think and to feel and to behave. And we all go down this road where we know that we're, you know, when we're out of balance and we ask ourselves and challenge ourselves, why are we so out of balance? And why are we feeling this tension and why are we stressed and all those feelings about being a feeling like we're a victim

or circumstances and that kind of thing? We have to go through a river of change to release and let go of all those ways of thinking and why we winded up feeling and behaving under stress and strain and trauma and all those things. And once we go within, I think the important thing, for every human being is to really go in and find that peace within themselves. And when we talk of that word, Shui Li, there's a, there's a sacredness that is inside each and every one of us. People call it divine energy, divinity.

And it's real. That sacredness can never be destroyed by opinions. It can never be destroyed by bullets. It could never be destroyed by anything. Hatred. Nothing can destroy the sacredness that's within us. Once we're able to go within and focus on that purity that we have, then we can sense why we, you know,

that fundamental question, every human being asked, why did I show up at this stage, you know, during this era, What am I doing here? What is my role? What is my true role to be here? And once we find that out, then you can make peace with yourself. And instead of focusing on all the negativity of the past, what we do is we think, we create a good vision for ourselves through these great minds of ourselves and elevate our. our good feelings of joy, of happiness, of empowerment, of that sense of self-agency,

that ability, that will that we have, you know, to move towards that vision, but in a way that will bring about joy and happiness and doing things for the greater good and making peace with ourselves and knowing that we have that confidence within ourselves just to be who we are and accept our limitations, but accept the enormity of power that we have within ourselves. Each and every one of us has it,

but we have to wake up to it. And that is forgetting. that is making it easier for us to forget, not to live by the memories of stress and strain and trauma, but to live by creating a future that we can create and anticipate and actually predict by elevating, you know, our emotional connection to that vision for the future. And that brings about joy, that brings about happiness,

that brings about oneness, it brings about singleness, it brings about our connection to everyone and everything. And so when we go to meetings, when we get out into any social event of any kind, if people are disagreeing with you or if people are treating you, you know, in a way that's disrespectful or anything, then if you have that centeredness inside of you, you won't allow that to interfere with you anymore.

You will feel sorry for those people, in fact, you know, and recognize that, hey, I was once there before, you know. I was like that person before, and there are a little bit of a reflection of how I was, So I can release and let that go because I'm not that person anymore. I'm an evolving person. And that's how we need to feel about ourselves. We need to feel that every day when we wake up in the morning, we can create a good vision for the rest of the day.

And we can celebrate that we can make mistakes and fall backwards and that kind of thing. But we use that as lessons, as stepping stones, as that ability. to cross the river of change and evolve and move forward. And we're always evolving. We always have something to learn until we, it's our time to go into the spirit world. And then we can do our work on the other side and provide good guidance to future generations. Oh, that is so beautiful. I really appreciate you describing that because I think that that's where so many people fall.

You talked about the benefits of ceremony. I often see you on the Vedder River just enjoying some peace by yourself. I'm curious as to how do we start to work towards this feeling of oneness? Because so often in the business world, we have an agenda. We go through A, B, C, and D, and then we all get up and leave. There is no breaking bread. There is less connection. How do we strive towards finding that sense of oneness?

I think everything is there for everyone. You know, like we, people from all backgrounds, when human beings, wherever they come from on this planet, we all have a special connection to the environment that influences us. And there are conditions that, that are there. And it's how we respond to the conditions that are around us

instead of allowing the environment to control us. We can have some control over the social and physical environment that we're living in. And so Chinese people, they have Taoism, you know, and that philosophy of Taoism is connected to the natural world. They draw a lot of really good teachings. There's a lot of really good stories that they have. So the Chinese have a way, they have a philosophy, they have access to this.

rich heritage that has been left down through the Chinese generations. And every other culture has that as well. So I think because of technology and the fast pace of work and developments and everything that's going on around us, we have a challenge of disconnecting, from what is really important, right? And being connected to these technologies that create separateness instead of wholeness.

And so people need to learn how to be more connected, you know, with the physical surrounding and look upon them as teachers, not learning about them, but learning from everything around us. You know, so that's where we need to go with it. Is there a moment that stands out to you teaching young people supporting them? Is there advice or a teaching that you have that stands out to you that seems to be lacking for young people at this time? Yeah, I think what young people need to focus on is, is,

You know, that connection to what the elders have to say and listen and open their minds up to the teachings that are there that they elders have to say and listen and open their minds up to do the teachings that are there that they that the elders have, you know, both men and women. be a little more curious about who they are and where they come from. Looking at their mother and their father and their great lineages that trace back to this land for thousands and thousands of years, when they realize how rich they really are, they can elevate a sense of self-worth again,

a sense of self-esteem. and that's that is the power that those are the engines those are those are the healing qualities that will that will allow them to change the way they think and behave and feel and so so our culture our language our stories and that that that relationship uh to the ancestors is uh is critical and And not to be afraid, to be curious about all that. Because we have been subjected to colonialism that has taken away our language, that has created division, you know, in our family systems that we have. And that divisiveness, that separateness is what is troubling, you know, our young people. Once they start to reconnect, you know, with that culture, that language, that heritage that we all have, you know, as Wilmoch, then they will get a sense of empowerment within themselves.

and they'll stay away from the drugs and the alcohol and reduce their time and energy that they spend on technology and refocus their attention to back to the land, you know, back to the language, you know. Don't be afraid of learning the language, making a mistake when you try out the language, right? I find that a lot of our people are intimidated by learning the language because there are so many dialects and they don't want to be, they don't want to feel bad because they mispronounce something and they feel inferior to those who can speak the language a lot more. I find that when people are, our young people are brought into the language are, you know,

we have to be very creative about motivating and getting them engaged in learning the language. Once they make those small, simple steps, just one, two, three little steps to, gain a little bit of growth in a language. Once they've taken them, then they will become more familiar and more comfortable and more sure of themselves about learning a little more, taking a few more steps, you know, to learn the language.

And feel good, feel proud, feel like I felt. You know, when I had that thirst to learn our language, every word, every phrase that I was able to learn in the language, I told myself, those are words and phrases that the Indian residential school legacy couldn't take away from me. And I felt good about that. So that's part of the attitude that we need to cultivate with our young people. so that they can come into their own.

I really love that comment about looking at your lineage with a sense of pride and a sense of admiration because I look at the things that my family lineage had to endure in order for me to be here today, my mother being born with fetal alcohol syndrome disorder as a consequence of her mother drinking, but she drank to cope with what she saw at Indian residential school. And so to see what they endured, to see how resilient and strong. strong they were. You could look at them with judgment and say, why, how, why would you do that? But to understand that they did those things so I could be here today and so that my children

could be here and grandchildren and to see them with admiration and understand that they learned things and they survived things and they were strong and to think that you come from them, that you're connected with them. For others it might be that their parents or grandparents fought in World War II or World War I and that they stood up for the rights of people to be able to be free, to be able to speak, to be able to have their own thoughts, to see your family lineage with some sense of admiration. It seems like sometimes we lack that. We feel like we're one person and our parents are over there doing their own thing.

And there's the sense of disconnectedness that we have with our family lineage. And then you're talking about the language and this thirst for it. I'm curious as to how that came about for you. Well, I was born in Hope, BC, and that was in 1946, and when I was 10 years old and 56, my dad found a job working for the Quebec, North Shore, and Ivedore Railroad. And so he moved the family over to Setzill, Quebec, and that's where I learned I speak French. and we lived in Setzil there was this indigenous

nation there they called them Innu now they're Montagnier before and they all spoke their language and and when I

tried to learn their language I picked a little bit of it up here and there and then I asked my my father and my mother about our language and they only knew one or two words and i felt pretty bad about that you know and gee we don't even know our language we're not speaking uh don't even know the name of our language you know when i was a little guy like that so um i grew up uh I grew up back east and I went to other nations and some of them, a lot of their, the people were kind of assimilated because of the residential school.

They took away the language and we were treated like savages and that kind of thing. but there were others who were able to survive that dark era and and we're still able to keep their language as I traveled through Canada I met some of those amazing people and there There were some inspirational stories that was told to me about how they kept their language. There's even closer to home up in Lytton First Nation, there was an elder up there. And he used to tell us everybody, you know, at gatherings, he said you would take pride and he would say, I was an Indian every day of my life. I never missed one day.

When I was going to residential school, I spoke Indian to myself and to others who were able to speak the language and we shared their language in private. Some of the others were not able to do that, but I did. And so when I heard that, I was an Indian every day of my life

and I still speak my language and he did that was so inspirational and Dr. Siamia Tiliad and our last fluent speaker she would share with us that she would go to the end of the field

that separated the Indian residential school out in St. Mary's and she would speak Indian to herself. And she would always remember the language. She just was not, she was determined not to allow them to take

the language away from her. And so she survived the Indian residential school herself by continuing to speak the language. And then when I, like I, I knew there was something

missing, you know, when I was growing up back east. And then I finally made it back home in 1994, and I went to the Kukalitsa Longhouse there, and there was, I heard some singing going on, and so I went in there, and there was, there was, uh, Tila Yatholet, you know, she was, she was singing, singing in the language with some students of hers, and, and it sounded so beautiful. And I thought, wow, there's, there's, singing in our language. And so I went to see Sula Hathwaite, and I said,

hey, you guys are singing in our language. Wow, that's amazing. And she said, don't you know how to do that? Eddie? I said, no, I don't know how to do that. So, well, you need to learn then. So I said, how do I do that? So she told me all about the movement of foot, you know, here to revitalize our language,

bring our language alive. And I got so thrilled and so happy about that. I signed up, you know, with the four classes that we had going. And those four levels of language levels, I took all those course. levels. I took all those courses and and there were there were a few linguistic courses after that that that that that I took and I finally was able to to get a certificate

called intermediate fluency in Halcamelum I thought that was quite generous to say It was intermediate. I didn't feel intermediate. But I kept going. I kept learning. And my sister, Stalamithet, she was very, very well-educated

and had that ability to fundraise for getting resources to revitalize our language. And so she created. created an opportunity for those who attained intermediate fluency to go up another level and be able to get certified to teach in the schools and therefore get paid an adequate salary, you know, for doing so. So our language is being taught in the schools. It's being taught at UFV. It's being taught in the schools in our communities, which is absolutely wonderful

because the young people are the ones who are going to be very strong in the language. And nowadays, there is another program, Stalo Shwili, whereby they work with Dr. Siamia Tiliat and linguists to create even more tools, you know, to enhance that ability. for those who are more advanced in the language to take steps and grow to greater fluency. So I'm really happy about that, and I've been participating in it. And now I'm a teacher in the language. You know, I teach the language in our community.

I develop language courses online, you know, for family. And so the family, our family is growing in the language. And what I want to do is be a teacher of the language in our community, but more intensely involved, you know, and continue to work with all the others who are really making our language come alive. One of the dreams we have is to have a radio station, you know, where all our fluent speakers can chat, you know, in our language on the radio. So that's something that we're going to work towards. But there's other initiatives we're taking, and one of them is the A. Stelmach, the Good Medicine Songs.

And those are sung in English and Halcumelam. And we're merging, you know, our drumming and singing, plus our language with eco-rock. And that just really, really lifts the crowd every time we sing them. Because when we create these songs, those songs are steeped in our, in our, Shwokwiyam stories and our Squelquil stories. And so it provides a lot of fun, you know, to learn the language because people are singing in the language. And also it's a cross-cultural thing.

And people from all backgrounds can come and kind of get a real good taste of what it's like, you know, to what it really means, you know, to speak. and indigenous language because the words and the phrases bring so many really beautiful teachings about who we are and where we came from and and some of the stories people you know can't relate to as you know they're just fairy tales or they have a maybe an opinion about them that has changed but when people kind of come to appreciate the, and look at some of the stories that we have. We see archetypes in there, and those archetypes are very powerful teachings about how

we need to be, how we need to relate, you know, to the land that we lived in here for thousands of years in Ahtamok. So, yeah. This leads me into my question. I'm wondering, what do you, you understand French, English? what is unique to you about the Halklamylam language? What stands out to you? What stands out to me is that every word that we have in our language

it carries a richness that cannot be found anywhere else. And it's, Halcamelum is, provides us with a, with a world view that is so unique and so rich and so valuable that we need to treasure it and we need to cultivate it. It's an endangered language. When I was learning French, it was on TV, you know, it was on the, you know, it was on. the radio, it was in the magazines, so you go to the stores, everything is translated into English and French, you know, so you walk down the street and that, you know, people, you could speak the language. And when I was learning the language in Setsil, I made mistakes, you know, in the beginning, but I didn't take it personally, you know. People

laughed and giggled, you know, when I said something funny, you know, and they would correct me. And so when I got corrected, you know, I felt better, you know, because I had so many teachers, you know, learning the language. But as my sister noted, Stalamuthet, Ethel Gardner, she said that we need to make our language a lot more visible. It needs to be in print. It needs to be on the radio. It needs to be. It needs to be on every street corner, you know, in Chilliwack. You know, we need to have our Halcamelum up everywhere. And we need to motivate more of our people to take up the language

and cultivate that sense of responsibility. everybody carries a little bit of responsibility to revitalize our language to take back our language like I said before land back language back Helcomail them back

we need to we need that we really do I couldn't agree more I'm curious can you walk us through some phrases that stand out to you that are worth knowing the challenge I see right now is that people are in the stage of learning but it feels like as you said there are some people there who are eager to correct and not in the polite, hey, just so you know it's

actually this, it's more of like a you're saying it wrong, stop it, you're doing it wrong. And I've seen that quite a few times when people are trying to pronounce certain words. They're curious, but they make a mistake. And it seems like sometimes there's not enough empathy for those people. Can you walk us through some terms that you think it would be useful for people to know if they're just getting started? I think that there

was some some really, really intelligent thought that was given to learning the dialect of Halcumelam

over on the island. And Because there are more speakers over there than there are over here for Halcamelum, Up River, right? So, and even here, there's a lot of dialects, you know, Sjaheles, Chahoyuk, Tite, Palauv. They're all different. They all carry different dialects. And so when we learn a language, some of the words, those dialects come into play. And we need to acknowledge that each dialect is special.

and some of the old ones who left the language to some of the people let's say out at Sjahilis or Chahyuk

they say for instance out in Shihalis they would say Chet instead of Zet which means

we right and so you can interchange them you know and whenever we find whenever we find out how somebody

pronounces or says a word or a phrase we need to and it's a little bit different than than what you're learning we tell our students that honor whoever says it a little different

and say that's good where did you learn huddle or not and uh and this is how we say it you know um it's just like english right you say tomato tomato you know it's a little bit different you know so so we do we just need to get people to to to accept that there there there there are several dialects out there in our area and we need to respect them all. But when we have a set of teachings, how we learned the language, we learned it from elders who came together and said, let's create these tools, let's create upriver Halcumelam, dialect.

and the ones that at Shihailis and Chahoyuk and Tate, they're all a little bit different, but they have so much in common. And so all these tools and all the words that have been brought down to us, you can hear them on some of the old tapes now. You can hear them in some of the tapes of our teachers that have gone before us now. Sala'athlid, Yama'amalat, Huyalamat, Tzatulahwat, all those great teachers, you can hear their recordings now and go back to them. And you can tell there's a little bit of difference in every one of them, but they're all good, of course, right? Because they were the fluent teachers of the time.

and we had such a great time learning from them. And they respected everybody who was learning the language and they never ever laughed at them or were too strict with them. They just kept repeating and repeating and repeating the language until they were able to capture it and become familiar with the different ways of saying it in our area here. So people just need to be. be mindful of some of the changes, you know, in dialects.

Are there some phrases, some words, some areas that stand out to you that you think it's worth people learning about? Because it's like when you learn, lechiam means always wild strawberries. Every time I tell people about that, they're intrigued, they're interested. Is there some that stand out to you that mean a lot to people? There's a lot of key phrases that people say on a regular basis, especially at meetings when we're talking about the land, you know, when we say Sath tamakhtam it, that means that this is our territory. We need to take good care of everything that belongs to us, right? That needs to be on the lips of everybody. You know, our leaders, our people, every day, title holders,

we're the title holders. Every title holder needs to be able to say that, you know. When we welcome people to our territory, we say, yeah, amit, a slatliyo, tamayo. That means welcome to our unseated territory. Every title holder needs to learn that, you know, in our language so that when they say it in our language and then they translate it into English, it carries a greater weight and significance and awareness about, well, yeah, you know, our territory has not been resolved yet in terms of land, what we've. call land claims today, you know, it all brings to the fundamentals of our situation. When we look at the Pope and what the Pope said recently about repudiating, you know, the doctrine of discovery and

taranolias, right? This is empty land. And then we say, it's al-Tamach, our territory, right? Then saying those words mean something ever more. Because

this notion of white supremacy or this notion of assumed crown, you know, land, it's assumed. It's not real. This, we know that this is our land. This is, this is real. This is our territory. This is not assumed. This is something that we've, that says that we've occupied this territory for thousands of years and, and, and, and, and, uh, people. people have just assumed authority over our land, you know. So it does make a big difference, you know, when you say those words now. Yeah. I think it's really valuable because people can start to see the depths of the language.

And you can start to admire things about it like you can with the French language or other languages. You can start to see the unique characteristics about that language. Is there anything that stands out to you in regards to how Halclamylam is somewhat unique? from other dialects or something it does that's special. Yeah, the, the Helcamelum is a very special language because it's steeped in the land. It's really steeped and focused on our land and our ancestors who looked after this territory for thousands of years. And all those words like

Schachamas, that's the gifts from our creator, right? When we say Mother Earth, Tamuk Thetal, that's a special relationship to our Mother Earth. And other nations have looked at that term, all my relations, you know, mok tells kakaa, you know, that means all our relations, you know, in our language, right? So when we look at that phrase, muk, what does it really mean? It means that we're related to everyone and everything here, you know, and then you think of Shwili right after that. And that's that.

life spirit. What does life spirit mean, you know, to you? What does life spirit mean to other people, right? And our elder Yamalat, she said, life spirit is in the rocks, it's in the trees, it's in the river, it's in you, it's in your mother, it's in your grandmother, your great grandmother. It goes back thousands of years. Life spirit will last forever, you know. It's that's that's pretty pretty significant right so yeah we are we are looking to make our language grow much stronger and what we want to do is is all the different texts that are related to a vision you know for future that needs to be translated into Halcamaelam. And there are some words, there are some words that are hard to translate, of course, you know, in our language, and elders need to think about it, you know.

And when they asked the elders, how do you translate science in our language? And they say, what do you mean by science? And so they went on about what they meant about science. And so they came, they talked about that amongst themselves. And then they came back and they said, well, to us, science is Iwas Tatamu. And they said, what does that mean?

That means teachings of the earth. So that means we're getting teachings from the earth. We're not learning about the earth, which is a different worldview, right? So our language carries such a broad and unique and a meaningful worldview that helps guide how we live and how we think and how we feel about living in this part of the world. That's one of the things I was thinking about is like the philosophical differences between how we speak in English versus the Hellclamalian language. The often indigenous cultures is considered more community oriented, that we're more together.

Whereas with Western culture, it's always referred to as individualistic, the individual. And so I'm just curious as to how that relationship. Yeah, that's, when we say we're title holders, where title, title to the land is kind of a foreign concept in a way, but it, when we say we're all title holders, that means we're collectively, you know, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, uh, nobody can take that away, you know, you know, um, um, And in Western views, it's, you know, fee simple kind of thing is, you know, you have ownership. And once you have ownership, then you have more power than the collective, right? Because this is private property to stay out. Whereas collectively, when we own something communally, then the community really, truly genuinely benefits, not just one person, right? So that collective concept is something that cultivates the importance of sharing, the importance of community, well-being,

and opposed to power and control, you know, in Western thinking. I love this. Would you mind telling people how they could get started if they're interested in learning more about the language? Yes, I think there's several courses now that are being offered at the University of the Fraser Valley. And then we have Stalo Shulay, which is a program that is run out of the Stalo Research and Resource Management Center. and they are there developing a lot of really powerful tools, booklets, the phonium chart that helps us get a good start in the language. And some of the, this Stalo Shulay program is connected with a lot of teachers who are in the schools

or in the communities and they're actively out there teaching the language so they would be a rich resource and they also have a library there there are several books

the wisdom of our elders is one of them that provides a really strong and powerful foundation on learning the language and it's a really rich resource and I would I would

encourage people who are interested to look at that book Talmos Yes, Siliolikwa You know, the wisdom of our elders You know, that's a really good book Yeah, and I'm teaching the language I think

There's a I'd like to You know, really really encourage our people in the communities, not to be afraid of the language, not to be afraid to learn the language, but be really curious about how are the simple, easy steps that you can take to begin learning the language and just have fun with it, you know, just enjoy it.

And they'll grow in the language. And all they have to do is ask. You know, just go to their chief from counsels. I want to learn the language, you know, and you need to develop a language course and things will happen, you know, because if you never ask, if you're never curious, you'll never know, you know. So people just need to be, to relax, be comfortable to just know that there are teachers out there who have a lot of people. who have a lot of really beautiful good tools, you know, to facilitate and make learning the language easier, you know. So just have confidence in yourself that, yeah, you can learn the language too, you know. You speak so elegantly.

I really appreciate your time. The last time we did this, it was like 38-degree weather at the Blue Heron Reserve. And so I'm glad that we could have a cooler conversation and dive into these things. Do you want to leave listeners with anything else, any comments, any last thoughts? Yeah, I think that what we need to learn is to drop our differences and focus on what is really important. And that's within our community as well and external community. We have a lot of wonderful partners out there who are interested in respecting, you know, our language, our culture, our lands, our title. And in this age of climate change, that is becoming more and more important.

But when people are able to pick up a phrase, like loyikasutaloch to say elok, skakato, to say ala, that means we have to learn to live together in a good way, right? That, when they learn that that comes from Tachwalatza, you know, the stone, you know, that this man is, his name in our Shkuhoyab times was Tachwalatza. And today, Herb Joe, you know, he carries that name. So that's his ancestor. So that stone was found in an agricultural field out by Samath, Sumas. And the people who found it at the gate, it winded up being in a museum down in the state of Washington. And Tchwalatza, Herb Joe, and he found out, he went down there.

And he saw his relative down there. And so you got really motivated to call the family together, to call people together, to approach the museum. And they finally worked out a plan to bring it back, you know, to our territory here. And now it's that building number 10. But that story, that teaching, Tchaulata left us. We need to learn to live together in a good way.

is so profound. It's so, so meaningful. And it can be, it's a teaching that can be applied, you know, to families in a community. Sometimes, you know, families can get so divided. It's really important for us to drop our differences and focus on what's important, you know, for the well-being of everyone instead of seeking division and feeling separated and that kind of thing. But coming together, you know, and doing something good for everyone. And today's world, we have to learn to live together in a good way. Lands have been taken away from us. Our culture and language has been eroded.

Now we need to seek out those. people who come to live in our territory, they need to learn to live together with Wilmoch in a good way as well. And it's mutual. There's that mutual respect that needs to be there. So that teaching is so powerful, it can be used within our communities, and it can be used between our communities and the world around us there as well, so that we can come together and learn to live in a good way, in a good way that will respect our land, or our culture, our waters, our fish, and all for the better of not only ourselves, but for future generations.