Appendix: Video Transcripts
Introduction
Chief Gordon Planes – Introduction
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: My traditional name is HYA-QUATCHA, I’m named after my great grandfather from Scia-new the salmon people. And I’ve been chief for over a decade now. I [00:00:10]live in the village SCIA-O-SUN of overlooking the Northern straits of the Salish sea and it encompasses a territory all the way up from race rocks [00:00:20] all the way up to the entrance of the straits of Juan de Fuca.
[00:00:24] So it just paints a picture of a little bit of the size scope and scale of our [00:00:30] territory because our territory also extends to the American side and our people relied on those resources [00:00:40] of elk on the other side, and also how we shared those resources with the tribe of the lower (unsure) and the (unsure).
Coralee Miller Introduction
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: (Introduction in her Language). Hello, good day. My name is Coralee Miller and I’m from the Syilx Okanagan Nation.
We’re in West bank and our territory is about 69,000 square kilometers. And we’ve got the major communities, that line that, Upper Similkameen, lower Similkameen, Penticton, Vernon Westbank, upper Nicola, lower Nicola.
David Isaac – Introduction
[00:00:00] David Issac: My name is David Isaac and my traditional name is actually Wugadusk, which was given to [00:00:10] me from, or by my grandfather. And the Chief of my community chief when I was born, which actually means Northern lights. [00:00:20] I had the good fortune of, uh, Of spending or growing up, uh, partly on both coasts of Canada. So but primarily here on the North shore and Coast Salish territory, where I’m coming to you, now and I’m originally from Listuguj and make more community on the border of new Brunswick or sort of New Brunswick or sort of right in the beginning of the Maritimes.
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Introductions
[00:00:00] Elijah Mecham: My name is Elijah Mecham I’m from the Nuxalk nation and Bella Coola, BC. We are a small coastal rural community. We live on our own a non-integrated [00:00:10] system through BC hydro.
[00:00:12] I work as the climate action coordinator, as well as the community engagement coordinator for our clean energy department. So I work [00:00:20] quite closely with climate change adaptation, as well as resiliency and working in integrating our culture into it as well.
[00:00:28] Clyde Tallio: My name is Snxakila, Clyde [00:00:30] Tallio. I hold the position as UNSURE within our community, which is a potlatch speaker. Here in the administration building I carry the title as cultural [00:00:40] coordinator, and I also am a fluent speaker of the language and I work closely with our college and our schools to help promote language [00:00:50] proficiency as well as the history of our community.
Module 1: The Historical Context of Indigenous Environmental Management
David Isaac – Communities are in different places with colonization
[00:00:00] David Issac: Every community across Turtle Island across Canada is in its own phase that’s particular to that community of feeling from the colonial of [00:00:10] experience. And so they’re at different stages of, of decolonizing as one and one has to just sort of be aware of that.
Chief Gordon Planes – Working in partnerships
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: The legacy of the Indian act really hurt our people. And it’s still happening today, residual effects. [00:00:10] We’re still working our way through. I think if we’re able to work on it together, then I think that what could [00:00:20] happen is we can find ways of working with professionals, big corporations. Introducing traditional [00:00:30] knowledge into everyday way of life will actually find the balance of trying to use less instead of more.[00:00:40]
[00:00:40] And maybe we’ll figure out a number. You know, there’s a number out there that we never even considered as human beings. [00:00:50] And that number is how much is too much, how much is not enough. How much is the balance, how can we spread out [00:01:00] wealth? And maybe if we were able to do that, we could do it locally. And maybe over time we can, we can be able to [00:01:10]look at a way of living that is more sustainable than it is now, because I really believe we’re working as Canadians towards [00:01:20] sustainability.
Chief Gordon Planes – Indigenous worldviews and western science
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: One of the things is that I see is when you have someone coming to our community and [00:00:10] you’re talking about certain elements, you’re talking about history, you’re talking about our old way of living, we talk about our spirituality [00:00:20] and may it be an engineer, may it be, may it be fisheries biologists anyone that comes in here and, [00:00:30] they have their views and because they’ve gone to university and got these degrees that maybe they [00:00:40] come in with a different viewpoint thinking that they have more knowledge, Western science knowledge, that will probably be [00:00:50] the the superior knowledge when they come and see us or other first nations.
[00:00:56] We have a relationship with all living things.[00:01:00] And we don’t really care about your Western science, if you believe it or not.
[00:01:04] Our spiritualities wrapped around our territory and [00:01:10] our ancestors taught us that the only way to take care of the environment is to know that everything’s living and you need to respect all living [00:01:20] things. So that perspective’s a little different than Western science. That’s a place for very good conversation because [00:01:30] we’re starting to get a voice and that voice is wrapped around our ancestors and our ancestors knew how to take care of mother earth. And I [00:01:40] don’t think you could have this kind of conversation 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, this conversation is coming up more.
[00:01:49] And the [00:01:50] reason being is they handed that down and I think it’s important to note that those teachings are our university. [00:02:00] They have their university, we have ours.
David Isaac – Indigenous Worldview as guiding light in tackling climate crises
[00:00:00] David Issac: I really do think that in this post COVID world that the First Nations Indigenous worldview perspective is really going to be a guiding light for communities, not only [00:00:10] in first nations, Canada, but to the general public in Canada.
[00:00:14] Cause this is the first time really in history that first nations can be part of a [00:00:20]global solution and something that is actually compatible with our indigenous world view in terms of technologies, in terms of moving towards a sustainable economy.
[00:00:29] That’s really been at the [00:00:30] heart of the sort of It’s been the issue, the competing paradigm with indigenous world views, it’s based on this very antiquated [00:00:40] rather Eurocentric economic system that’s premised on infinite resources and has been entangled in a colonial agenda.
[00:00:48] And to this [00:00:50] day is being enacted on our lands and resources. So until we can address these sort of colonial underpinnings, we’re not [00:01:00] going to be able to truthfully deal with the climate change adaptation strategies. So we’re on the right track.
Chief Gordon Planes – How can professionals help Indigenous re-adaptation
[00:00:00] Janis Brooks: What are some of the ways that outside professionals or companies can support indigenous communities in climate adaptation? [00:00:10]
[00:00:10] Gordon Planes: I think formal recognition of our traditional territories being one. That would mean that you’d have to understand what that map looks [00:00:20] like, because it’s made up in ways that it overlaps with other territories, but it also respects each other as well.
[00:00:27] We follow the water. The [00:00:30] territories are there that were made by all living things. And that means that over time we created those territories because of the way we [00:00:40]live. At the same time we use the teachings of all living things to help us get there.
[00:00:45] I think also at the same time as we can’t forget the past, [00:00:50] we have to understand the sad chapter of Canadian history. I think we try not to bring that up. [00:01:00] And when do we really understand it? I think there’s still a lot of healing happening in Canada right now. And we’re still trying to work our way through [00:01:10]. Formal recognition of our territories, do people really understand it?
[00:01:15] And you know, when you think about Canadians we were always [00:01:20] here and we had a responsibility to our ancestors, to the creator, [00:01:30] and there are unwritten laws and those kinds of things are so important. And I think that [00:01:40] those kinds of laws need to be built into the Canadian constitution
Coralee Miller – Impact on Traditional Territories
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: We’re a semi-arid community. It used to be a wetland specifically where I’m living, but of course, all of that got destroyed to make way for agriculture and [00:00:10]development. And that has caused a good slew of issues, environmentally, a lot of extirpation of species like [00:00:20] certain frogs and salamanders and even the beavers lots of different plants, like our Bitterroot are having a really hard time growing. And the biggest impact is our fish due to the [00:00:30] channeling of the waterways. There’s no rest for them, so they get really overheated and they get way too stressed out or they just can’t seem to make it past some of the [00:00:40] obstacles and our fish. They are making a bit of a comeback, but it’s been, it’s been difficult.
[00:00:48] So for us, because it does [00:00:50] get super rainy. When settlers came, we said, don’t build your houses there. You’re going to flood. And then they flood and then they go, Oh no, how did this happen?[00:01:00]
David Isaac – Indigenous knowledge systems & fire management
[00:00:00] David Issac: Wherever you go in indigenous communities whether it’s BC or Canada or Australia, or the U.S. there is an old history of fire [00:00:10] managements and indigenous knowledge systems, indigenous science, really that has really just been suppressed and forgotten in many ways. [00:00:20] So I think we can, we can, you know, Hopefully start to see some modern recognition of this indigenous science and, and start to [00:00:30] operationalize it both in our communities, first nations and indigenous, but also in non-indigenous communities.
Chief Gordon Planes – Learning from the past
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: Climate adaptation is one thing, learning from the past is another and I think we’re having a hard time with that because we live in a [00:00:10] material world.
[00:00:10] We depend on a material world, we’re passing teachings to our children on the materialworld, where we should [00:00:20] be in the school systems talking about how to get out of the material world. So I hate to [00:00:30] say this, but I think we’re going to a bad place unless we, and I mean, all human beings on this planet find a way to [00:00:40] reversing a trend and we need to do it now. That’s our challenge.
Janis Brooks – Western Time Driven vs. Indigenous Values
[00:00:00] Janis Brooks: We do a lot of work with communities and we see these sort of third parties come in as the experts in these areas.
[00:00:07] And so, I sort of reverse [00:00:10] engineered and I’m like, what have I watched these people walk into or stumble through that they shouldn’t have done? What could they have maybe learned beforehand that might’ve [00:00:20] helped them?
[00:00:20] As much as indigenous communities are different, we’re very much the same in a lot of the core values so, that always translates. You could ask anyone from here to the East [00:00:30] coast, is family an important value. Absolutely. Is culture, is food, is feasting. All of those things are so interconnected and that’s often where the disconnect is [00:00:40] like between culture and work. That doesn’t intersect for a lot of Western people.
Chief Gordon Planes – Environmental Currency – different ways of seeing
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: Professionals, outside professionals, might see it in a different light because maybe it’s because of the [00:00:10] superiority of Western science. But at the end of the day, I think professionals will look back and say, what’s the best for our children?” [00:00:20] Those teachings, those indigenous people have is actually a good way of putting away a [00:00:30]environmental currency. Environmental currency teaches us how to share and we make sure [00:00:40]every living thing has that sharing ability.
[00:00:46] That currency today we have today doesn’t help us. [00:00:50] It actually weakens us because everybody wants so much of it. They want to store it in their bank. They want to go buy cars. They want to go [00:01:00] to buy houses.
David Isaac – Culture is not static
[00:00:00] David Issac: There is this sort of inherent bias to see first nations culture as static. People always reference pre-contact and post-contact well, [00:00:10] Culture is not something that just stays in one place. It’s not static. It’s something that evolves through time.
[00:00:19] [00:00:20] We first nations are.. we’re technologists, scientists, futurists. I think it’s important for the rest of Canada to also understand that things like [00:00:30] solar power, things like modern fishing cleats are in continuity with our culture, they’re not necessarily separated to [00:00:40]versions. It’s important to also understand what it is to still embody indigenous worldview perspectives, but to do it in a way that allows itself to become modernized. [00:00:50] I think we’re starting to see that more and more.
David Isaac – Community leadership can’t be reduced to who invited you
[00:00:00] David Issac: Understanding that if you are invited to a community and you’re working with the community that we’re also generally working within a [00:00:10] colonial governance structure and as such, who you work for and are invited to that community by are also [00:00:20] just sort of just, one aspect of leadership and the responsibility to the community as a whole.
[00:00:28] It’s more of a lateral [00:00:30] hierarchy in first nations communities it’s generally matriarchal. There’s a bit of balance between the direct day-to-day leadership that you interface with, [00:00:40] but there’s also the community members themselves quite often that’s part of a systemic issue around our sort of governance. And it’s sort of a divide between traditional [00:00:50]governance and modern day elected leaders.
[00:00:52] It’s something that’s to be aware of. It goes to why it’s important to spend time in the community to make connections with [00:01:00] community members so that you can get some of the spirit of the community and some of the wisdom that comes out of that.
Chief Gordon Planes – Indigenous “asset” management – cycle of life
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: You think about our long-houses. At one time along the coast there’s 10,000 long houses and 30,000 canoes, [00:00:10] and they’re made out of Cedar. They lasted a very long time. They’re a light footprint, they’re renewable. There’s a spiritual prayer ceremony to [00:00:20] even take a tree down. To be able to utilize that, that tree is honoring that tree in a way that after the life of that tree is done, it goes back to the [00:00:30] mother and replenishes again. So the cycle of life that happens to all of us is that we are a part of mother earth. The creator brought us [00:00:40] here for a reason.
[00:00:40] At a later time we’re all going to go back to the mother and include the Cedar tree. So that’s just one instance of first nations, [00:00:50] respecting mother earth in a way that no, that at a later time, we’re all going to go back and we’re all gonna go back to be a part of helping mother [00:01:00]earth. And that means that we’re going to go to the ground.
[00:01:03] May it be other ways, anything that you see around us is all going to [00:01:10] go into the ground. And if we don’t treat it respectfully, then there’s going to be recourse to that.
Chief Gordon Planes – Introduction 2
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: My traditional name is HYA-QUATCHA. I’m named after my great grandfather from Scia-new, the salmon people. And I’ve been chief for over a decade now. I [00:00:10]live in SCIA-O-SUN, overlooking the Northern straits of the Salish sea, and it encompasses a territory all the way up from race rocks [00:00:20] all the way up to the entrance of the straits of Juan de Fuca.
[00:00:24] So it just paints a picture of a little bit of the size scope and scale of our [00:00:30] territory because our territory also extends to the American side and our people relied on those resources [00:00:40] of elk on the other side, and also how we shared those resources with the tribe of the lower UNSURE and the UNSURE.
[00:00:49] [00:00:50] If you were to draw a map of our territory, you would understand how water plays a huge role in everything that we do. [00:01:00] I think water plays a big role in all our lives. For us water plays two key roles it’s our identity [00:01:10] of who we are, our territorial map is made out of water. And also we [00:01:20] relied on water for transportation. And when you talk about what our biggest concerns are that would be our loss [00:01:30] of our old way of life. So for us, it’s like we have a lot of gifts in our territory, but [00:01:40] we have to figure out what the future brings for us, because if we do look a hundred years ahead, it might not be very [00:01:50] good.
[00:01:50] So I just want to relay those words in regards to climate change and adaptation. Our old way of life protects us. [00:02:00] I’ll leave it at that.
Module 2: Climate Adaptation from an Indigenous Lens
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Advice to Professionals
[00:00:00] Clyde Tallio: Listen to the community, go and talk to the people, find out what the community the everyday person experiences and how [00:00:10] can that help? Because even for us, I mean, we’re working in this building, we’re doing our best to meet the needs of our nation, but people get overlooked and sometimes us [00:00:20] being right in it and right close to it, even ourselves, we might not see.
[00:00:24] As an outsider with those fresh pair of eyes, get out there and listen to what the people are saying, talk [00:00:30] with the people. I’m sure that so much more knowledge can pass through to them where we can make a better plan.
[00:00:36] With indigenous communities. I always say like, when you go to an indigenous [00:00:40] community, oftentimes we’re not going to get to the work right away, because we’re going to get to know you first.
[00:00:47] We’re going to share a meal. We’re not going to just [00:00:50] right off the bat, jump into the work and to, to understand that there is a cultural difference there. We value time with family. You know, the work is [00:01:00] important, but work is not the number one. We don’t live to work, you know, we work to live is that how you say it?
[00:01:07] So I think that’s very important. A lot of times, [00:01:10] non-indigenous people especially get culture shock when they come to a small remote community. When there’s a funeral here, we close down. Because our community shuts down to go and [00:01:20] support the family, go through the four days of the burial ceremony and the spirit dancing and the feasting
[00:01:26] It’s just really understanding that the community has a [00:01:30] culture, and even though you might be coming in for work and a job that you gotta remember, the community will operate and move at its own pace.
David Isaac – Food Sovereignty as part of a needed shift
[00:00:00] David Issac: We’re seeing a big movement right now in particular around traditional food systems and food sovereignty. Of course, I think COVID has [00:00:10] not only highlighted the need for that. This goes to all Canadians beyond First Nations communities, of course, but I think looking at the [00:00:20] vulnerabilities of communities, looking at the need for communities to really have direct access to their own resources, whether it’s food, water, is critical. [00:00:30] It is going to become a new standard and we’re hopeful.
[00:00:34] We see movement towards not only this energy sovereignty movement, but also a [00:00:40] food sovereignty, food independence movement, and really decolonizing not only the technologies in our lands and some of the economic systems, but [00:00:50] decolonizing our food systems.
[00:00:52] That’s where I think we’re going to see this new generation of communities where they’re, they’re generating typical food, [00:01:00] leafy greens and all that kind of stuff, organic, but also blending that with traditional harvested medicine, medicinal, herbs, and plants. So that’s exciting.[00:01:10]
[00:01:10] I feel that’s one of the pillars really, of what makes a healthy, robust, vibrant community. Beyond governance beyond the obvious [00:01:20] social needs is our own access to our food systems.
Coralee Miller on Accessing Food and Medicine
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: The timing of everything has been sort of knocked off kilter. Stuff is either coming in way too early, or it’s coming in way too late. [00:00:10] And the food just doesn’t taste the same anymore. Because a lot of the development that’s been happening too, and just the, you know, pouring of yuckies into the water a lot [00:00:20] of our foods and medicines are no longer edible. You’d have to go really, really high up into a mountain to find the good stuff.
[00:00:26] It’s bad because it’s also interfering with our cultural and [00:00:30] traditional aspects. So for a good example, black Cottonwood. Black Cottonwood is our tree of choice when it comes to river travel, it’s a soft enough wood that it can bounce off a [00:00:40] rock pretty easy, and you’re fine. It’s actually a very endangered species because it relies on wetland and wetlands have been destroyed. And so we have to go [00:00:50] really far to actually find a good Cottonwood and that when that had fallen out of practice within our community, it was quite [00:01:00] devastating. And it only now has been brought back.
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Climate Change Concerns
[00:00:00]
[00:00:00] Elijah Mecham: We have five big concerns and we’re actually going through a phased approach right now to climate change resiliency.
We’ve been polling our community for the last, I’m going to say about five years now to kind of identify the biggest risks that our community, our hereditary structure, as well as our band office sees to our Valley and our people. Number one is going to be flooding, overland flooding specifically. Past 10 years, we’ve had increasingly more and more flooding situations that have put certain key [00:00:30] areas of our Valley at higher risks every year.
And it’s quite detrimental as well as wildfire risks and groundwater rising levels. We also have other risks such as, you know, sea level rise since we are a coastal community and we do live quite close to the coast, as well as tsunamis. Other ones we have are more ecological stresses onto the environment that we’re noticing less habitats. Less medicinal herbs, less animal returns every year, less fish.[00:01:00] So it’s a, it’s a food security issue in our community right now.
[00:01:05] Clyde Tallio: From a cultural perspective a traditional perspective the way we think is UNSURE is that we like to look back to our tradition. In order to make clear decision of to move forward.
So we have within our traditions, what we call the four catastrophes, which are climate change related events that the ancestors had experienced. [00:01:30] And so from those experiences, names, dances, and traditions evolved, which then helped you validate that management. So that way, when we come into a situation, we have a clear management plan and that was handed down through those traditions grooming the next generation in.
The ones who inherit the names from the older generation would enter that society. And there they’d be trained in understanding how they can be a part to prevent [00:02:00] catastrophe or to preventing catastrophe from affecting the people in a, in a devastating way. So one example that we like to share is the story of the great flood.
And when we were talking about indigenous communities you have to always remember that we function as a unit together. That each of the families and the lineages within the nation all do their part. And together we we work in that that format as a, as a nation, as a, as a [00:02:30] community. So that’s a really important thing to understand.
So let me reflect back for example the flood. So when the story of the great flood. It talks about how our ancestors would they latch their canoes together to form big rafts. And from there, they were able to float safely to the mountain talks where they roped up and waited till the floodwaters receded.
And so we say that that story represents teamwork. It represents [00:03:00] coming together to survive at that immediate crisis. So that’s where rooted into our tradition, having our community be aware and how each community member can be involved in helping prevent flood damage or, you know, other issues that seem to come up out of nowhere, how to react and respond clearly.
And so we’ve, we’ve inherited that communication that we see very prominently within our community and that involvement from the community it’s rooted in that tradition.[00:03:30] They say after the floodwaters receded a flower UNSURE which is the lupin flower began to grow in the Valley.
And so they say that when you look at that flower it represents all those canoes latched together. Each pedal is its own canoe. And the cone of the flower is all of them latch together. So it becomes a symbol of unity of cooperation and working together. And that understanding that when we have a major issue that is [00:04:00] affecting our community, we have to come together first in order to find a good solution.
We move from other stories. For example, we have the four together are the falling of the sky, the burning of the world, the flood and the famine. And so how we interpret these as from these catastrophes and from what the ancestors experienced and learned, we get our protocol, we get our system of how to respond.
We have our chain of command through [00:04:30] leadership. So that way we have all of those those, those base jobs responsibilities when the community is set. So that way, when when another catastrophe approaches us, we’re able to respond. And it’s also allowed us to be prepared in creating an emergency response plan, which came in very handy this year, especially with COVID.
And we kept our community pretty safe. Our leadership did an amazing job. We kept COVID out for quite a while. And when it did get in because of all the good [00:05:00] work that the nation did, we were able to isolate those members and we had no losses of life and no spread within the community. And now we’re, we’re still COVID free.
So all of these, I believe are really rooted in that system, which then is practiced in potlatch. And so as coastal people, as potlatch people, we validate those names and rights and ceremony. We share our wealth with our community. And so in doing that, we acknowledge who has those leadership roles and who we can [00:05:30] rally around and support when it comes time to deal with different catastrophe issues.
And just to add a bit more about climate change when we’re sitting and talking with the elders, you know, they’ve witnessed a lot of change in the Valley with climate. For example, my grandparents are commercial fishermen, and there was this place out in the inlet where you would be able to take your boat up right to the mountain side and scrape ice off of the glacier to fill up the hatch.
[00:06:00] And now that glacier is completely gone. And I witnessed that glacier in my own life. I’m 33, and that glacier now is completely disappeared. We’ve noticed a lot of this change. We’ve noticed that, we have more flooding now. 2010 was a big flood year for us that really opened our eyes to making sure that we really look at our emergency plan, what our elders did.
And so that’s allowed us to grow capacity within the community. Next what hit us was the fires right [00:06:30] after that when we had that bad fire year in the central coast and interior. So that also then prepared us to say, now we need to coordinate that emergency response plan within our administration, having our hereditary leaders, having our admin and council be all prepared.
With staff hired on UNSURE staff hired on to be able to facilitate those and navigate those situations and again, if it wasn’t for our [00:07:00] stories, I believe that our history helped us come to a good understanding. When we sit down at a meeting, everyone may have different ideas and perspectives on what we want to do, what actions we want to take.
But when we reflect on the history, we realize that we’re not only looking at our own immediate concerns, but future generations and our history teaches that. So it gives us all of those, foundations for us to communicate properly, to set a good plan and then to put it into motion.[00:07:30]
When you come into an indigenous community, especially for someone who hasn’t had the experience, it’s really important to sit and talk with the members of that community and understand where, where people’s village sites are, where are they where their mountains are, that their ancestors came down. What are the stories that connect to the land?
[00:07:47] Elijah Mecham: Knowing how to respect their sacred places and understanding what their sacred songs are. So that when, when you do go to a ceremony, you feel comfortable to ask somebody when you should have your hat [00:08:00] off when you should be standing or sitting. You know, being respectful and being respectful of the land too. Where you should go and where you shouldn’t go, where you should ask permission.
[00:08:08] Clyde Tallio: And all of our cultures, especially coastal cultures are rooted into the environment.
So even our name, Nuxalk is the name of our river. So when we say Nuxalk’m, we are the people of the Bella Coola river. So our identity is rooted right into our environment, our stories, our songs, and our dances helps support us as community members, into focusing our [00:08:30] energies and caretaking for our territory.
And I think it’s important, especially for non-indigenous people to remember that every nation is unique in its own way. We may have a system that we follow up and down the coast that we share. But the communities are shaped by the land, that they inhabit that we have that we come from. We’re inlet people where we have valleys and fjords and mountains.
When we think of our plans and reflect on our history to put into an emergency [00:09:00] plan, it’s all based on the environment we come from. What we decide here in the inlets and the valleys might be completely different from what our neighbors and the outer coast plan and then to also know that there is connection.
Realize that the neighboring communities also play a part, the salmon that spawn in our rivers travel out to our neighboring territories, the UNSURE people, and they grow in the outer coast oceans before returning. So those salmon connect us together [00:09:30] as a coastal people.
And so that’s why when we make decisions, when we’re planning things in preparation for climate change, we need to be talking to local communities and seeing the experiences that they have at present what the ancestors went through and what would be a good path, a good working path together. So that way we don’t have loss of life. We don’t have damage to property or the effects that are too great for people to [00:10:00] recover. We also have to remember, we are still in a sensitive state. Our nations are only recently in the past 20 years able to really make decisions and be involved in our territory. Whereas before the struggles of our leadership before is that Canadian law provincial laws prevented them.
We’re really a good place right now and I think the fusion of traditional knowledge, ancestral knowledge local community knowledge with [00:10:30] Western science. Would be the great way to bring awareness. We have a really unique case on the central coast and in British Columbia that we can fuse those two together.
Because as our elders say climate change, isn’t just going to affect the Nuxalk it’s going to affect all of us within the area it’s going to affect the animals, the, the birds, the salmon, everything we’re relying on.
Indigenous knowledge really helps root us into a larger picture beyond ourselves thinking of the UNSURE [00:11:00] generations to come and reflecting on the knowledge of the, of the ancestors.
Chief Gordon Planes – General statement of what changes are needed
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: We need to prepare ourselves better. We need a lighter footprint on mother earth. And we need to work together and look at ways of adapting [00:00:10] at a faster pace than we are in the past.
[00:00:13] You know, the village right at the big river at the mouth, they call it the Sooke river. It’s getting undermined [00:00:20] and falling into the river and we’re trying to find ways of working with different people to try to mitigate that. And that’s so important to us.
Chief Gordon Planes – Multi-generational knowledge transfer
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: When you think about all this, the first thing I think about is those changes that happened over the course of a hundred years.
[00:00:08] And what are the [00:00:10] changes you anticipate could happen in the next hundred years? So if you always think a hundred years ahead and you look a hundred years past, that’ll give you kind of like a measuring stick [00:00:20] on what you can achieve in this certain amount of time and what kind of information you can hand down to the young ones and how can those young ones have not [00:00:30] down to their children, not born yet.
[00:00:32] And those are the most important elements of first nations is that knowledge exchange from our [00:00:40] ancestors all the way to our babies that aren’t born yet.
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Current Adaptation Projects
[00:00:00] Elijah Mecham: Currently, we’re actively monitoring our groundwater levels, as a building infrastructure is something that’s quite difficult with the rise of water levels and the flooding that we’ve had [00:00:10] as well as the precipitation that comes down from all of our different watersheds.
[00:00:13] It does affect our groundwater. And so as our community continues to grow, we need more space [00:00:20] to build, but some of that infrastructure is not safe to put in with how the groundwater is. Even similar sites like our old cemeteries and new cemeteries are at risk right [00:00:30] now because of that rise of the groundwater.
[00:00:32] We’re also currently tracking some contaminants in a portion of our water sources. We are [00:00:40] still trying to find the source of it, but we’ve detected some GHG emissions. We’re actually working with a company called Kala Geosciences, to narrow that focus in. Other than that, we [00:00:50] have a wildfire protection plan that’s ongoing as well as a flood risk mitigation plan.
[00:00:56] We are just in the process of installing a new tsunami [00:01:00] siren. I just got the BC hydro pole installed with the mounting hardware on it. So that should be going up in the next couple of weeks. So we’re slowly starting to get there where we want to [00:01:10] change. We want to adapt and it’s just, it’s a slower process.
[00:01:14] We do like to think and move slowly so that we can analyze everything properly, but [00:01:20] also be a community and make sure that we get the feedback and we’re as, as transparent as we can so that, our elders do know what’s happening here at the band office.[00:01:30]
[00:01:31] Clyde Tallio: Reflecting again that climate change is a human issue. That’s what we’re experiencing here. The original four catastrophe stories two are [00:01:40] two of them are in fact, climate related natural events, but the other two are man-made man-caused. And so we both have a tradition now on how to [00:01:50] correct our path when we damage our immediate environment and cause those changes, and then also understanding the natural effects of our planet.
[00:01:59] We [00:02:00] inherited a lot of bad habits from colonization, through the Canadian institutions that took those cultural knowledges from us and those ways of [00:02:10] being. One example is when we used to harvest our Oolican our (Nuxalk word), we would use the long funnel nets, which allowed the (Nuxalk word) [00:02:20] to go up to the spawning grounds and spawn and then as they returned back, they would be caught in the nets, allowing the next generation of Oolican to return and [00:02:30] allowing humans, the people to harvest the species for what we needed was the grease. And because it was a native food fisheries and not on [00:02:40] DFOs radar, not a part of Canadian protection when DFO allowed shrimp trawls to happen in the outer coast waters, they had destroyed our Oolican. Those [00:02:50] shrimp trawls had destroyed so much and the bycatch, I remember, one boat they had said was 90 tons of bycatch that were thrown overboard. And for 20 [00:03:00] years we haven’t had (Nuxalk word) we haven’t had that Keystone species.
[00:03:04] And so As a community, we have to come together, figure out what was going on. One of our ladies [00:03:10] she became a Marine biologist and she did her study on (Nuxalk word). We returned to our ceremony and we had a (Nuxalk word) and the whole purpose of using the culture [00:03:20] is to bring the human aspect to it, bringing that human awareness. Taking it out of the administration level and the leadership level and bringing it down to every person.
[00:03:29] And so [00:03:30] now through that, we created a book. It was the first piece of literature produced by the nation as a whole. So we even got to decide on what Nuxalk literature would [00:03:40] look like and how information would be presented to our people. Every household got a copy of the book and in it, it explains our history. It explains the [00:03:50] problem. It also explainsour solution.
[00:03:53] Because of that, we were able to put in protection in our estuary. We’re able to get the community together, to know [00:04:00] how to look after that part of the river and to preserve that spawning ground, and also the plan for when they return. Switching from the seine nets that DFO made [00:04:10] our people use back to the traditional funnel nuts, which allow the (Nuxalk word for Salmon) to spawn and allow humans to take our harvest.
[00:04:17] So this is one example of a modern day [00:04:20] circumstance where we’ve prepared a plan and our community. And it really goes to show that using tradition and science is like, [00:04:30] left-hand in right-hand, you know, they go together. It’s the best way. Best of both that we can uh come to a good solution.
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Indigenous Land Management
[00:00:00] Clyde Tallio: In this tradition, this happened about maybe 1500 years ago around there.
[00:00:06] The system that had been developed over the [00:00:10] generations of land management and land use was monitored by the ancestral family. And validated through potlatch, but as, the land became [00:00:20] more plentiful. Populations increased the system that was established at that time. The practicing system did not recognize the [00:00:30] expand of the population.
[00:00:32] And so many families were, were unable to harvest and use land appropriately. And so what [00:00:40] happened was a famine came, the weather had shifted no berries were produced. The salmon stopped running even game became scarce. And so we call this the swollen belly [00:00:50] time, the time when there were so starving that their belly swelled and because of the management laws at that time, people couldn’t just get access to food.[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] And they say that the, now this is the human perspective of it. W how we have to examine our thinking is that at the time the leadership, they CA they [00:01:10] wanted to continue to benefit from the system that they were born into. And so the wealth, the food resource was theirs and theirs alone, and [00:01:20] this caused those people to.
[00:01:22] To become what we call them, the no outs, et cetera, not a very good word to be called in our language. It translates to meaning stingy with [00:01:30] food and that’s, you know, on a, on a human to human level, a person stingy with food is, you know, as indigenous tradition, that’s probably the worst thing to be called, [00:01:40] right?
[00:01:41] So these people who are hoarding it, and the story I’m going to share comes from our South inlet attack, where my lineage, the Italian [00:01:50] people come from. And in the middle of the inlet, there’s a village called South me and the people used to have ocean fish weirs up and down the inland in different [00:02:00] camps for different families, where they would go to work during the summers, the harvesting months, and then move back to the main village for the potlatching and winter ceremonies.[00:02:10]
[00:02:10] And so when this famine hit. The people have talked to me and the leaders there kept all the food for themselves and they became to become cruel [00:02:20] eating the food in front of the starving people. And so many young men and women throughout the territory, reflecting on the traditions, went to the land. They cleanse [00:02:30] themselves.
[00:02:30] They fast. If they meditated, they came to an understanding on how they can help the people. And because of this cleansing the young man from South meme. [00:02:40] Who had went to our sacred Island in, in the inlet received division, the Island spirits spoke to him and told him to take his spot, his fishing spirit, and to [00:02:50] throw it into the water.
[00:02:51] And when he pulled it out, he hit out of the salmon. It was told to fill his canoe and to bring it to all the people and distributed around amongst the people, the [00:03:00] ones who were starving. Now this was his right, the lab gifted to them to do this. This was above now the ownership rights that the that the established many of you have [00:03:10] had because the land and the creator gave it to him to share.
[00:03:14] And they told the spirit of the, and told them if you do this, I’ll continue to graduate the blessings to help the [00:03:20] people. The new house now came and they spied on this young man. And after he left, they copied his method. Building their canoes. They returned to the [00:03:30]village where they prepared a barbecue and they barbecued all of that salmon and the smell of the cooking sound and was wafting up and down the inlet.
[00:03:39] And the [00:03:40] people came thinking that they were ready to feast, but when they arrived, they were, they weren’t given permission to come ashore. And instead then I was proceeded to [00:03:50] teas, to ridicule the people, and they went to eat that food. But once they put it in their models, it rotted. It, the food then reflected their, their [00:04:00] spirits and their hearts.
[00:04:00] And it would rock just as their hearts and perspective were rotten. And so they weren’t able to enjoy the sustenance of that food until they changed their [00:04:10] thinking. And so they changed their thinking. Now they gave the food to the people. They apologized to the people and they created a new system of land management.
[00:04:19] [00:04:20] And this is where our law to always share a meal. And that goes right up to the leadership, leadership level management management of spawning [00:04:30] grounds, no harvesting, spawning grounds, letting the first round him go up to ensure that there’s some to come in the next generation or the next the next four years.
[00:04:38] To harvest only what we [00:04:40] need and to, to distribute. And so as each village is harvesting a certain section of land. They’re distributing that wealth rather than everyone harvesting [00:04:50] that and depleting it. And then up with the rotation of the names you give one area of land for generations to recover.
[00:04:57] While another section of land was used. [00:05:00] So all of this came into a perspective because of that story. They made that management system that benefited the people at that population. [00:05:10] And that’s that human aspect in, in, when it comes to governance. And management of the resource and now filtering rate down to just even the the most simplest [00:05:20] of human engagement, such as coming over to visit someone.
[00:05:24] What would you say to someone when you go to, to stop by, to pops up, pay someone to visit, and [00:05:30] when you arrive at their house, They provide you with food. So in our tradition, even, you know, today you go to someone’s house, they’re going to feed you. And that’s, that’s how rooted that [00:05:40] tradition is. So you can see from just in the home from a small friendship, personal level to the feasting, to the, the politics, to the management, that story [00:05:50] is reflected in all of it.
[00:05:51] And it gives us a, it opens the conversation to talk about food, security and management. And to also talk about how us as human [00:06:00] beings. Can affect our environment. So that’s how we use that story. And I always think that story is very appropriate because the climate change we’re experiencing [00:06:10] now is, is is because of human cost.
[00:06:13] And so we need to find a human solution, changing our behaviors, not understanding, not just at the [00:06:20] political and leadership level, but right down to the personal level, the, every household.
[00:06:25] And so they would caretake for that land, you know, it’s [00:06:30] it’s, we’re not just Hunter and gatherers are we’re, we’re agricultural people as well. It’s just that our garden is natural and we care for that garden. We help it to grow to its [00:06:40] fullest. And so those people who carry those names and rights to manage, they will look at a section of forest section of trees, young Cedars, and they’ll you know, prune [00:06:50] them up.
[00:06:50] So they grow straight and tall and they’ll say, These are for seven generations to come that we’re caring for them. Cause one day these will be a canoe. These will [00:07:00] be a house being, these will be wallboards for future generations. So that’s that management of, you know, long after you’re gone long after your grandchildren and [00:07:10] great-grandchildren are gone, they have these things set and prepared for that generation.
[00:07:14] So I’ve bought out, you know, thinking of generations to come.
[00:07:17] That rooted thinking has allowed us to make [00:07:20] these changes, these bad habits that we inherited through the colonial system. We’re able to change them now because the culture gives us a solution, gives us a reason to [00:07:30] change. It inspires us to do better, not only for ourselves, but for those who were handing this, this lamb down to.
Module 3: The Intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science
David Isaac – Project Ownership and going beyond consulting to reconciliation
[00:00:00] David Issac: The ownership of projects is very important to us. Quite often just by way of the apparatus of, of grants and funding and allocation [00:00:10] of resources. It quickly becomes not the intention of companies, but you know, a lot of the funding and resources can oftentimes be [00:00:20] absorbed by consultants and different firms.
[00:00:23] There is a bit of a history there that I think the whole sector needs to be aware of [00:00:30]and, and to have an effective way to both manage and address that. These projects are making these engineering and planning firms quite wealthy. [00:00:40] That wealth needs to be redistributed both from a monetary perspective, but also of course, from a day-to-day perspective, back into the communities.
[00:00:48] How is that? [00:00:50] I don’t have the answers, but I think there needs to be more of a concerted effort in at least acknowledgement and understanding that the system that’s deployed [00:01:00] currently though, it’s, well-intended tends to favor the grant writers and the engineering firms that [00:01:10] are trying to assist first nations communities.
[00:01:13] So I think in the spirit of reconciliation, I think going beyond that and looking at how you do, [00:01:20] operationalize that. And I think that’s where companies can actually partner with, with communities and actually create special purpose [00:01:30] vehicles to create more of a cooperative model, I think for first nations.
Chief Gordon Planes – Indigenous constitution (environment as teacher)
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: There’s a lot of teachers out there and they’re a lot smarter than professional people. And those teachers are actually the environment and the animals and [00:00:10]the trees and the water that you name it, the wind. And we’re not listening to it.
[00:00:17] I think that’s the problem we face [00:00:20] is that every day mother nature is talking to us, the animals are talking to us, the trees are talking to us, the water’s talking to us and we’re not listening. [00:00:30] So I think first nations are going to help everyone else listen. And then if we do that collectively working together, we could [00:00:40] actually make positive changes.
[00:00:42] Because we’re looking a hundred years ahead thinking about those babies not yet born. And then all of a sudden we enter into [00:00:50] a constitution. Canadians cannot understand that a first nation constitution, like ours, is not meant for us just living on [00:01:00] where we are. It’s about the future. And if we do that, that means that we’re investing in the environment and that investment is going to pay off big [00:01:10] time.
[00:01:10] That’s all it is, is investing in something that’s here that sustains us forever. And it always [00:01:20] will. If we stay with the constitutional laws that the creator gave us and told us to stick with it, you guys will be fine. If you [00:01:30] don’t stick with it, you’re not going to be fine. It’s as simple as that
[00:01:34]
Coralee Miller – Benefits for All Relations
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: Because we are self-governed is built into our constitution when it comes to anything that happens on our land. There needs to be, well, there’s a checkbox that people need to [00:00:10] undergo. Is it sustainable? Is it messy? Is it affecting the wildlife? And how can we profit off it? How does this benefit the whole [00:00:20] community?
[00:00:20]
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Multi-Generational Connections
[00:00:00] Clyde Tallio: When you come into a community, that community will remember you if you do good and you have that connection, it’s a lifelong connection.
[00:00:07] That’s very important to remember. We’re not [00:00:10] sharing our knowledge with outsiders so they can just take it and go. We’re sharing it so that way we can create something that works for us all. And that’s rooted back to our [00:00:20] traditions of UNSURE reciprocal generosity
[00:00:24] Elijah Mecham: There are going to be youths that are going to be elders, there’s going to be everybody in between and [00:00:30] everyone wants to learn. Everybody’s eager. Be patient, be kind and take your time. Try to explain things, do your best, like if it’s somebody who’s just [00:00:40]started their position and maybe doesn’t know anything about engineering or a specific type of science that you’re working in, maybe have a sit down and a coffee share meal and [00:00:50] just, talk about your work with them and just catch them up because you never know.
[00:00:53] Maybe you might inspire them to go out of their community to, you know, do a program or four years or 10 months, [00:01:00] and maybe they’ll come back and they’ll take over that position for you, you know, pass your knowledge on.
Coralee Miller – Working with Professionals
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: To be blunt, we’ve tried it their way and it’s not working be doing all the things that we told you not to do and look where we are, the planet’s on fire. You can’t just go to one nation, learn about them and go, okay, cool. I’m an expert. That’s not how it works. We’re all very different people. And the land dictates your culture. It’s where our language comes from. It’s where our knowledge comes from. And that has to be respected, not just respected, but it has to be followed understood.
It is imperative [00:00:30] that anyone who’s coming to work within a first nation community come and learn the culture. That historical and traditional context is needed if we’re going to build some form of understanding, between our two communities and for us to work and be successful together.
Module 4: Working With and Within Indigenous Communities
David Isaac – Renewables and traditional worldviews
[00:00:00] David Issac: All the projects we do. They have to be in alignment with the indigenous worldview perspectives and with those old values. It generally [00:00:10] transfers very well when you’re dealing with things like renewable energy. Renewable energy is really a modernized technological embodiment of these values and these beliefs [00:00:20] and it’s harmonic.
[00:00:20] It’s not tearing up the top soil of your ancestors to pump out and extract and disrupt the natural carbon cycle. It’s the [00:00:30] technology of hope. It’s really a technology that lends itself well to ancestral perspectives in that it honours the relationship with the land.
[00:00:38] So [00:00:40] that’s an easy one for renewables.
Coralee Miller – Support on Climate Adaptation
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: Just listen and not just listen, but, but do. We know what we want. Our people know what to do and we know what to want. We are asking for your help to make it happen.
Chief Gordon Planes – Working with professionals
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: The way I see it is when we work with professional people that come to our nation, we look at it in a way of a capacity building element. And I [00:00:10] think it goes both ways. We want to share in experiences that happened in our past, and we want to find out all [00:00:20] the information about how the world works in your eyes and also, when it comes to economic development, [00:00:30] They see having first nations on side is a good way of a partnership going forward.
[00:00:38] In the past, it wasn’t like that.[00:00:40] I think what we’re doing right now I really believe we’re building a different Canada. We’re building a better Canada. We’re building a better open [00:00:50] Canada. We’re experimenting right now.
[00:00:53] When I just think about that question in itself, “Talk about your experience working with non-indigenous professionals on climate [00:01:00] related projects in your community?” We think about how we can prepare for what comes next and what kind of [00:01:10] values can first nations add to it that will really help? I’d say look a hundred years ahead. Don’t look at the next election cycle.[00:01:20] Maybe if we do that and put our minds to a different place as we go forward. We can take the greed out of it. And if we take the [00:01:30] greed out of it, then we get to disperse more all over. Not only to human beings, to all living things, including cedar trees.[00:01:40]
[00:01:40]
Chief Gordon Planes – Advice to professionals coming to community for first time
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: I would say to anyone coming to our community, let’s invest in the environment. Let’s invest in a real Canada. We’re as much a part of the environment [00:00:10] than anything. It is great to know that those ancestors we have that lived here forever, that went from generation to generation, [00:00:20] where you looked at the world totally differently and you didn’t need much to survive because we were taught that.
[00:00:27] If you did go out into the [00:00:30] territory, you could find what you need to survive. In today’s world, you need to put a hundred pounds on your back to go hiking somewhere. In our [00:00:40] world or my ancestors’ world, they didn’t have to have a big pack on their back and all, everything was out there.
[00:00:45] Those lessons that were learned weren’t only from other humans, they’re from the [00:00:50] birds, the elk, the deer, the trees, everything! And I think we need to get back to that.
[00:00:56] That wind has power [00:01:00] that helps us every day. All these gifts that we’re looking at every single day, the water, [00:01:10] the plants, the animals. When you stand there and look at it, you know that with those gifts is responsibility. [00:01:20] So we’re able to teach that to young children growing up.
[00:01:23] And that’s our classroom. That’s how they taught our children. [00:01:30] And that’s how I was taught. A classroom doesn’t have to be in a big school. A classroom can be anywhere you want it. I think the classroom is right [00:01:40] there. When I look out my window. And it’s teaching me something every single day.
Coralee Miller – Advice to professionals new to community
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: Come to the museum and if they don’t have a museum, you go to the knowledge keeper, someone who knows their history.
And you get that, that context, that historical context. You need to know who these people are, need to know, what their values are, and you need to know what, what they are wanting from you. Don’t ever go into a community and assume.
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Climate Change Concerns
[00:00:00]
[00:00:00] Elijah Mecham: We have five big concerns and we’re actually going through a phased approach right now to climate change resiliency.
We’ve been polling our community for the last, I’m going to say about five years now to kind of identify the biggest risks that our community, our hereditary structure, as well as our band office sees to our Valley and our people. Number one is going to be flooding, overland flooding specifically. Past 10 years, we’ve had increasingly more and more flooding situations that have put certain key [00:00:30] areas of our Valley at higher risks every year.
And it’s quite detrimental as well as wildfire risks and groundwater rising levels. We also have other risks such as, you know, sea level rise since we are a coastal community and we do live quite close to the coast, as well as tsunamis. Other ones we have are more ecological stresses onto the environment that we’re noticing less habitats. Less medicinal herbs, less animal returns every year, less fish.[00:01:00] So it’s a, it’s a food security issue in our community right now.
[00:01:05] Clyde Tallio: From a cultural perspective a traditional perspective the way we think is UNSURE is that we like to look back to our tradition. In order to make clear decision of to move forward.
So we have within our traditions, what we call the four catastrophes, which are climate change related events that the ancestors had experienced. [00:01:30] And so from those experiences, names, dances, and traditions evolved, which then helped you validate that management. So that way, when we come into a situation, we have a clear management plan and that was handed down through those traditions grooming the next generation in.
The ones who inherit the names from the older generation would enter that society. And there they’d be trained in understanding how they can be a part to prevent [00:02:00] catastrophe or to preventing catastrophe from affecting the people in a, in a devastating way. So one example that we like to share is the story of the great flood.
And when we were talking about indigenous communities you have to always remember that we function as a unit together. That each of the families and the lineages within the nation all do their part. And together we we work in that that format as a, as a nation, as a, as a [00:02:30] community. So that’s a really important thing to understand.
So let me reflect back for example the flood. So when the story of the great flood. It talks about how our ancestors would they latch their canoes together to form big rafts. And from there, they were able to float safely to the mountain talks where they roped up and waited till the floodwaters receded.
And so we say that that story represents teamwork. It represents [00:03:00] coming together to survive at that immediate crisis. So that’s where rooted into our tradition, having our community be aware and how each community member can be involved in helping prevent flood damage or, you know, other issues that seem to come up out of nowhere, how to react and respond clearly.
And so we’ve, we’ve inherited that communication that we see very prominently within our community and that involvement from the community it’s rooted in that tradition.[00:03:30] They say after the floodwaters receded a flower UNSURE which is the lupin flower began to grow in the Valley.
And so they say that when you look at that flower it represents all those canoes latched together. Each pedal is its own canoe. And the cone of the flower is all of them latch together. So it becomes a symbol of unity of cooperation and working together. And that understanding that when we have a major issue that is [00:04:00] affecting our community, we have to come together first in order to find a good solution.
We move from other stories. For example, we have the four together are the falling of the sky, the burning of the world, the flood and the famine. And so how we interpret these as from these catastrophes and from what the ancestors experienced and learned, we get our protocol, we get our system of how to respond.
We have our chain of command through [00:04:30] leadership. So that way we have all of those those, those base jobs responsibilities when the community is set. So that way, when when another catastrophe approaches us, we’re able to respond. And it’s also allowed us to be prepared in creating an emergency response plan, which came in very handy this year, especially with COVID.
And we kept our community pretty safe. Our leadership did an amazing job. We kept COVID out for quite a while. And when it did get in because of all the good [00:05:00] work that the nation did, we were able to isolate those members and we had no losses of life and no spread within the community. And now we’re, we’re still COVID free.
So all of these, I believe are really rooted in that system, which then is practiced in potlatch. And so as coastal people, as potlatch people, we validate those names and rights and ceremony. We share our wealth with our community. And so in doing that, we acknowledge who has those leadership roles and who we can [00:05:30] rally around and support when it comes time to deal with different catastrophe issues.
And just to add a bit more about climate change when we’re sitting and talking with the elders, you know, they’ve witnessed a lot of change in the Valley with climate. For example, my grandparents are commercial fishermen, and there was this place out in the inlet where you would be able to take your boat up right to the mountain side and scrape ice off of the glacier to fill up the hatch.
[00:06:00] And now that glacier is completely gone. And I witnessed that glacier in my own life. I’m 33, and that glacier now is completely disappeared. We’ve noticed a lot of this change. We’ve noticed that, we have more flooding now. 2010 was a big flood year for us that really opened our eyes to making sure that we really look at our emergency plan, what our elders did.
And so that’s allowed us to grow capacity within the community. Next what hit us was the fires right [00:06:30] after that when we had that bad fire year in the central coast and interior. So that also then prepared us to say, now we need to coordinate that emergency response plan within our administration, having our hereditary leaders, having our admin and council be all prepared.
With staff hired on UNSURE staff hired on to be able to facilitate those and navigate those situations and again, if it wasn’t for our [00:07:00] stories, I believe that our history helped us come to a good understanding. When we sit down at a meeting, everyone may have different ideas and perspectives on what we want to do, what actions we want to take.
But when we reflect on the history, we realize that we’re not only looking at our own immediate concerns, but future generations and our history teaches that. So it gives us all of those, foundations for us to communicate properly, to set a good plan and then to put it into motion.[00:07:30]
When you come into an indigenous community, especially for someone who hasn’t had the experience, it’s really important to sit and talk with the members of that community and understand where, where people’s village sites are, where are they where their mountains are, that their ancestors came down. What are the stories that connect to the land?
[00:07:47] Elijah Mecham: Knowing how to respect their sacred places and understanding what their sacred songs are. So that when, when you do go to a ceremony, you feel comfortable to ask somebody when you should have your hat [00:08:00] off when you should be standing or sitting. You know, being respectful and being respectful of the land too. Where you should go and where you shouldn’t go, where you should ask permission.
[00:08:08] Clyde Tallio: And all of our cultures, especially coastal cultures are rooted into the environment.
So even our name, Nuxalk is the name of our river. So when we say Nuxalk’m, we are the people of the Bella Coola river. So our identity is rooted right into our environment, our stories, our songs, and our dances helps support us as community members, into focusing our [00:08:30] energies and caretaking for our territory.
And I think it’s important, especially for non-indigenous people to remember that every nation is unique in its own way. We may have a system that we follow up and down the coast that we share. But the communities are shaped by the land, that they inhabit that we have that we come from. We’re inlet people where we have valleys and fjords and mountains.
When we think of our plans and reflect on our history to put into an emergency [00:09:00] plan, it’s all based on the environment we come from. What we decide here in the inlets and the valleys might be completely different from what our neighbors and the outer coast plan and then to also know that there is connection.
Realize that the neighboring communities also play a part, the salmon that spawn in our rivers travel out to our neighboring territories, the UNSURE people, and they grow in the outer coast oceans before returning. So those salmon connect us together [00:09:30] as a coastal people.
And so that’s why when we make decisions, when we’re planning things in preparation for climate change, we need to be talking to local communities and seeing the experiences that they have at present what the ancestors went through and what would be a good path, a good working path together. So that way we don’t have loss of life. We don’t have damage to property or the effects that are too great for people to [00:10:00] recover. We also have to remember, we are still in a sensitive state. Our nations are only recently in the past 20 years able to really make decisions and be involved in our territory. Whereas before the struggles of our leadership before is that Canadian law provincial laws prevented them.
We’re really a good place right now and I think the fusion of traditional knowledge, ancestral knowledge local community knowledge with [00:10:30] Western science. Would be the great way to bring awareness. We have a really unique case on the central coast and in British Columbia that we can fuse those two together.
Because as our elders say climate change, isn’t just going to affect the Nuxalk it’s going to affect all of us within the area it’s going to affect the animals, the, the birds, the salmon, everything we’re relying on.
Indigenous knowledge really helps root us into a larger picture beyond ourselves thinking of the UNSURE [00:11:00] generations to come and reflecting on the knowledge of the, of the ancestors.
Coralee Miller: Do the Work! Learning about First Nations Communities
[00:00:00] Coralee Miller: I think having like an echo chamber would be great where people could kind of get together. Either through newsletter or through the, the internet and let people know that there are grants available. Working at a museum that’s what we do to help each other and it’s spectacular, but also I think get the youth involved.
Get the young minds coming in job, shadow them. They, they love that. They’ll come in and get them to understand what’s happening and listen to their feedback. [00:00:30] But also then you’re going to go to the elders and ask them what to do and then go to, well, people my age and ask us because traditionally that’s how we did knowledge sharing was you get everybody together, all the voices have to be heard because all of those voices are going to tell you where the gaps are.
Chief Gordon Planes – Indigenous approaches to land management – balance
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: Over time, the first nations laws that governed ourselves, those laws came from the environment. We [00:00:10] stayed with those laws because they taught us how to survive,and one of those laws is if we’re out of balance, we’ve got to bring ourselves back into balance.
[00:00:19] When we [00:00:20] talk about wildfire risks and things like that, if we know how to balance that risk, we’ll probably do better. When it comes to floods, like things of that nature, our [00:00:30] ancestors knew how to balance that and prepare ourselves like going to the highest mountain and have those places that are prepared for us in [00:00:40] in case the bad times come.
Clyde Tallio & Elijah Mecham – Advice to Professionals
[00:00:00] Clyde Tallio: A lot of times we have great people coming in with all these skills, but they come in with this idea somehow, It’s not like a [00:00:10] conscious decision to think this way, but they come in with this savior complex.
[00:00:14] We’re going to come save the Indians. And because of that, thinking they put a wall up [00:00:20] and they’re not able to listen to the knowledge within the community. We see that so many times happen. And so that would be the first thing is to really you know, [00:00:30] evaluate in yourself, why am I going to that community?
[00:00:32] Am I going there just for a paycheck and for a job. We’ve had so many people come in where we’ve trained them and developed them to [00:00:40] becoming great you know, assets, but then they move on to another part of their career. And then we’re then retraining someone else.
[00:00:48] I mean, now, today we’re [00:00:50] focusing on training our own people so that way that longevity, so they can remain rooted, they can pass those onto their children and grandchildren, but we can’t [00:01:00] just cut ourselves off from the rest of the world. It’s important that what we have, the knowledge we have that we share it because it can be used in a positive way to help the entire world, you know, [00:01:10] like what is our contribution? We’re here on this earth? What is Nuxalk’s contribution? What are we going to do and share? So that’s the first one I’d always say is to really evaluate why you’re coming [00:01:20] and to not come as a savior to understand that the community has its ideas and it has its traditional knowledge and practical knowledge.
[00:01:28] And what we’re looking [00:01:30] for is a skilled person to now take their skills, knowledge, and train knowledge, and fuse it together with ours to create something that works for people. [00:01:40] So that’s very important. It needs to work for people we’re doing this work for people. And that that’s, that’s gotta be at the front of their mind.
[00:01:48] I would also I’d like to actually share [00:01:50] this one little story. Dr. Nancy Turner. She works for UVic. She’s a, I guess she’s like the leading botanist on, on the entire coast. [00:02:00]And she always shares the story about when she first came to Bella Coola and the elders took her up to pick (Nuxalx word), which are the soap berries.
[00:02:08] And so she went with [00:02:10] them they each had their bucket, they went off and when they all regrouped. She only had collected a little bit and the elders, had full buckets and she said, how did you get so much? [00:02:20] And they demonstrated their picking method, which is this picking tool that allows you to pull the berries off without breaking branches and, you know, collecting too much leaves. [00:02:30] And whereas she was individually picking.
[00:02:32] She said, well, “why didn’t you share this with me and let me know.” And, and they said, you’re the professor. You said you knew everything [00:02:40] about plants, you know, like you didn’t ask. When she shares that story, she said, it’s very important to ask those questions.
[00:02:47] Where are you are the local people know their [00:02:50] area and you can’t just come in with your, your knowledge and thinking that that knowledge is superior to the local knowledge. I would say, it’s you think of [00:03:00] it as being equal and being like left and right hand, they go together. They work together. So that would be a really good suggestion.
[00:03:07] Ask questions be involved. And [00:03:10] I would always say, do not step in to taking on a leadership position if that’s not your job. To allow the nation to [00:03:20] represent and speak for themselves. And that when you’re invited to speak and share, make sure you have permission to share because many of our traditions and stories belong [00:03:30] to families and it’s their rights to share those stories and give permission to it.
[00:03:34] So just acknowledging that we have a system, we have an ancient system that is [00:03:40] connected to everything within our environment. And even though we haven’t been able to legitimately practice our system as a governing system, it still exists and it’s [00:03:50] still believed in, and it’s where we as indigenous people want to move forward.
[00:03:53] A good fusion of the modern present day with the rooted tradition. That’s not unique to [00:04:00] the present time. We have the word, (Nuxalx word), which means to drag across. So when a person say marries someone from afar and [00:04:10] that person comes in to the community, they’re bringing with them knowledges, traditions, names, and treasures that when children are born, it fuses Alliance with the community [00:04:20] they came from and with the children that they now produced in that nation.
[00:04:23] And so those knowledge, words, teachings, can now all pass into a new generation, [00:04:30] in another nation. The bringing in of new tradition as part of our culture we’re always looking for ways to interpret how we can make something our own.
[00:04:39] [00:04:40] Buttoned blanket is a perfect example. Our old rogues are made of goat wool, and we’re buttoned with abalone shells. And when this new material and [00:04:50] fabrics came in with these mother of Pearl buttons, instead of copying how the white people use that commodity. We interpreted it and how we would use it [00:05:00] creating the iconic Northwest coast button blankets that are used up and down the coast.
[00:05:05] Not one person would say a button blanket isn’t traditional, but in fact, all the [00:05:10]materials and everything all come from a different cultural background, but it becomes fused as our own. It’s incorporating our tradition.
[00:05:18] So that’s where I would say that. With [00:05:20] the knowledge that an outsider is coming in, they can share that and help find a good path to use that knowledge into the community in a respectful and [00:05:30] healthy way.
Chief Gordon Planes – Languages came from the environment
[00:00:00] Gordon Planes: I just want to close by saying the language, that our ancestors handed down to us, [00:00:10] our language follows the salmon route, but at the same time, it came from the environment. I think all languages did come from the environment at one time, maybe [00:00:20]language has changed because it’s languages changed because of the resources.
[00:00:27] Maybe language has changed because it [00:00:30] taught us how to extract more resources. Our language was there because it taught us how to take care of the environment. So I think [00:00:40] languages in Canada, if you want a real Canada, We would invest in hundreds of first nation languages.
[00:00:49] That’s [00:00:50] the true Canada. If you did that, that one little example of spending dollars on something that will have a huge ripple effect that will actually help [00:01:00] us save Canada. If you were to teach that in schools, across Canada, all of the children would learn how to [00:01:10] take care of mother earth faster than what we’re doing now.
[00:01:14] And if that’s the case, those children being born, growing up are [00:01:20] your next future politicians that will actually make the right choices and actually help to do something that will ensure.[00:01:30] We’re sustainable for the next hundred years. And I think if Canada wanted to do something and make an investment into [00:01:40] reconciliation, that’s what they should do, because then you’re going to be able to protect the water, the air, the forest, everything [00:01:50]will be able to be protected because every single Canadian will learn an indigenous language.
[00:01:57] And when they do, they will get the [00:02:00] connection. And when they get that connection, they’ll see we’re all out of balance because I believe everyone on the planet knows we’re out of balance, but we would be able to [00:02:10] manage that balance better if we knew that we are connected to the trees, that they’re alive, everything, [00:02:20] every living thing here has a reason.
[00:02:23] And we need to protect that because once it’s gone, it’s gone.
David Isaac – Renewables and Traditional Worldviews
[00:00:00] David Issac: Spend as much time as you can in the community. And try to spend more than a day or two, try to get out there and try to go and have a [00:00:10] coffee at the local restaurants. Try to get to know and allow people to invite you to various activities.
[00:00:16] There’s always a bit of shyness, but it’s there. And I think [00:00:20] it’s important to spend time and to be in the community to really truly understand it. And once you truly understand it a little bit more, I mean, you’ll never fully [00:00:30] know, but you need to immerse yourself in the community so that you can take that perspective then when it becomes a desktop exercise back in your office you have that connection you can [00:00:40] attach faces and you can attach smells and places to the community.
[00:00:45] Particularly remote communities some fly in they’ll spend a day or two and then they’ll be [00:00:50] out. You really need to get to know the community. You have to represent the community. A lot of communities will regard you as, as a, as an agent of change and [00:01:00] positive change in the community. There’s a responsibility that comes with the work. So that’s a why you have to pair that with with the experience in community.
