Indigenous Highlights: September 2024 Activities

(Time to Read: 4 mins.)

ʔa səy̓em̓ ʔiʔ tə nə siyey̓ə ʔiʔ tə nə siyal̕əxʷeʔ – Respect­ed ones, friends and elders 
ʔəm̓i ce:p kʷətxʷiləm tə n̓a təməxʷ – Wel­come to the land of the 
xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlil­wə­taɬ (Tsleil-Wau­tuth) peo­ples

The Indige­nous Edu­ca­tion and Com­mu­ni­ty Engage­ment (IECE) team at VCC brought spe­cial guest speak­ers and pro­vid­ed Indige­nous oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn about the his­to­ry and cul­ture of Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties. This is a glimpse of a few of the activ­i­ties that were offered dur­ing Sep­tem­ber.

Cedar Hat Weaving with Shy Watters, September 13, 2024

Shy Wat­ters is a mem­ber of shishalh (Sechelt) Nation who also has Squamish, Sliammon (Coast Sal­ish) and Kwakwaka’wakw ances­try. She weaves intri­cate designs and weaves pat­terns from her rich cul­tur­al back­ground. Her medi­um is cedar. Shy has pas­sion­ate­ly been weav­ing red and yel­low for well over 25 years, and con­tin­ues to explore her art with tenac­i­ty and enjoy­ment. The pat­terns used by Shy’s cedar hats are pop­u­lar and much of her work in sought after for cul­tur­al cer­e­monies. Shy is well known for her work and she gen­er­ous­ly offers weav­ing cours­es through­out the year, here on the coast and through­out B.C.  

Shy joined us to teach the VCC com­mu­ni­ty how to work with cedar, cre­ate and care for our cedar hats. This oppor­tu­ni­ty brought togeth­er some of our VCC com­mu­ni­ty to share in this beau­ti­ful expe­ri­ence. Teach­ings and songs were shared, and every­one pulled togeth­er to sup­port one anoth­er through the process. This was tru­ly a beau­ti­ful day that was shared with vary­ing gen­er­a­tions at Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege.

Flag raising ceremony, September 23, 2024

The Broad­way cam­pus raised a flag to share a moment of reflec­tion ahead of Orange Shirt Day and Nation­al Day for Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.

VCC’s flag rais­ing cer­e­mo­ny honour’s the chil­dren, their fam­i­lies, and com­mu­ni­ties whose lives were for­ev­er impact­ed by Res­i­den­tial School. The Pole Rais­ing event is an impor­tant event at VCC. It gives us a way to acknowl­edge the his­tor­i­cal injus­tices faced by Indige­nous peo­ples, hon­or the sur­vivors of the res­i­den­tial school sys­tem, and cel­e­brate the resilience and strength of Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties.

Cedar Basket Weaving, September 24, 2024

Todd DeVries is a Hai­da cedar bark weaver based in Van­cou­ver. He is also known by his Hai­da name, G̱íihlgiigaa. Todd first start­ed weav­ing with west­ern red cedar bark in 2001 fol­low­ing a mys­te­ri­ous vision he had of the Old Woman of the For­est. 

Todd is pri­mar­i­ly self-taught, but his weav­ing style has been impact­ed by some impor­tant teach­ers. His first teacher, Ter­ry Russ of Mas­set, Hai­da Gwaii taught him how to process cedar bark. In 2005, he learned an impor­tant tra­di­tion­al Hai­da tech­nique from Sher­ri Dick of Old Mas­sett, Hai­da Gwaii, weav­ing his first Hai­da hat. Five years lat­er, Hai­da weaver Hol­ly Churchill of Ketchikan intro­duced him to a few more sig­na­ture Hai­da tech­niques and shared impor­tant cul­tur­al sto­ries.   
 
For the past nine years since his move to Van­cou­ver, he has been shar­ing his skills, and teach­ing oth­er weavers how to mas­ter mate­ri­als of their own choos­ing as well as cedar bark, through demon­stra­tions, work­shops, weav­ing cir­cles and infor­mal men­tor­ships. He has taught com­mu­ni­ties as diverse as elders and youth through com­mu­ni­ty pro­grams through­out BC. Todd also sells his woven items, main­ly hats through his own web­site as well as gift shops and gal­leries.
Todd DeVries — Bill Reid Gallery Edu­ca­tion (brgeducation.com)

National Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day activities,
September 26, 2024

Our spe­cial guests came to share with us their per­son­al sto­ries and learn how colo­nial laws, poli­cies and prac­tice con­trolled Indige­nous peo­ples and their tra­di­tion­al lands. Thank you to those of you that made time to hon­our these spe­cial guests and the com­ing togeth­er of peo­ple from all walks of like to share in heal­ing through drum­ming and singing.

Campus Wide closure to recognize National Truth and Reconciliation Day, September 20, 2024

Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 30, 2024, VCC was closed to rec­og­nize and hon­our those that attend­ed Indi­an Res­i­den­tial Schools across Cana­da. There were many events around the low­er main­land, and we hope every­one took some time to vis­it an event to learn more about the His­to­ry of Tur­tle Island (Cana­da). 

As we begin to teach the true his­to­ry of Tur­tle Island (Cana­da), we become aware of the dis­crep­an­cies in Canada’s his­tor­i­cal infor­ma­tion regard­ing the First Peo­ples of Cana­da, we then accept and acknowl­edge the hard truths of our his­to­ry through the lens of the First Peo­ples of Cana­da. Our Indige­nous peo­ples have a right to be heard, seen, and involved in shar­ing the his­to­ry and the pieces of our cul­ture that were elim­i­nat­ed from his­to­ry. These events cre­ate a space for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and decol­o­niza­tion with­in our edu­ca­tion­al facil­i­ty at Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege.