THE SECRETS OF RAVENSPACE
Explore Indigenous history online
What does an elder of the Tla’amin (formerly Sliammon) Nation have to say about her experience with colonialism, community and even wellness?
You can find out now by looking up online RavenSpace, UBC Press’ new digital publishing model that has been created to make Indigenous knowledge and heritage accessible to everyone.
The new site’s first offering is the wonderfully interesting and media-rich As I Remember It: Teachings (ʔəms tɑʔɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder by Elsie Paul with her grandchildren Davis McKenzie and Harmony Johnson and UBC history professor Paige Raibmon.
The online content — including animated videos, interviews, language and curriculum guides — focuses on Paul’s heritage and the wealth of information and stories she learned as a child in the Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation (upper Sunshine Coast including Powell River) and has been a caretaker of for years. The new project is an extension and a sort of reimagining of the book of the same name that came out in 2016.
“I was so happy to see the digital book get out there because it shares who we are as a people. I’m very proud to be Tla’amin. I’m very proud to share our culture not only with the next generation of Tla’amin people, but to build understanding with people that have come here,” Paul said via email. “We need to have respect for one another. With all that is going on in the world right now, I think it’s more important than ever.”
McKenzie explained that the university wanted a peer review for the project. He said his grandmother knew exactly whose opinion she wanted when it came to the work of communicating her Tla’amin stories.
“You have to be close and have some skin in the game,” McKenzie said of his grandmother’s preference of Tla’amin people versus academics. “She actually picked young people who were sharing and learning the culture very actively and she picked them from the major families in the community. She sees them as the next generation to pass these stories on.”
McKenzie said Paul is naturally curious and is quick to try new things like technology and social media.
“I think she was 84 when she joined Facebook. She is so awesome. Anything that comes our way in life she picks it up and adopts it,” McKenzie said about his soon to be 89-year-old grandmother who is familiar with Zoom. “She says don’t get stuck. She is present, fun and likes to see what is coming next and she is thrilled by it all and pragmatic about how we can put it into use, which is amazing.”
Paul speaks the Tla’amin language and was raised by her grandparents on the Sunshine Coast. Her upbringing was traditional and she acquired many cultural skills while amassing plenty of stories.
“She is a gifted storyteller with a huge amount of insight,” said Raibmon, who started working with Johnson and Paul on the original book over a decade ago. “She has this very insightful way of how these teachings, which are ancient in a certain way, are relevant today and how they can be adapted. There is a spirit behind these teachings. Whether you live in the city and work in a bank, it doesn’t matter. She, I think, has a real talent and insight for navigating that.”
While tradition is the bedrock of Paul’s story and teachings, Raibmon explains it isn’t about lingering in the long ago but building on history for a well-rounded and thoughtful future.
“She isn’t advocating for people to go back to the past, she values education and university, but she also really values knowing where you come from,” said Raibmon. “She really wants to foster people’s pride in who they are.”
That idea is what makes this project and Paul’s engaging way of sharing information a perfect fit for all sorts of outlets including — and especially — schools.
“The online digital format creates a whole variety of different audiences which is really exciting,” Raibmon said.
“There is a need throughout B.C. for Indigenous curriculum and this meets that new curriculum that is up to date and has the proper protocols around Indigenous knowledge,” Raibmon said, adding it can be tough for teachers to find really good resources.
“I am very excited and proud about it and we have got some phenomenal responses from the school district,” McKenzie said. “Just recently we did a learn in for all of the teachers here in the district up here in Powell River and they were very excited to have local content to teach about.
“When I was growing up, we learned about the Haida and the Cree and I think that’s all good, but it had nothing to do with us here, right? Our teachings, our history and the current realities of this place,” said McKenzie, who operates his own PR firm.
One of the current realities of the place is how many members of the Sliammon community have moved away over the years. That group of expats can now enjoy, whenever they want, the words and teaching of an elder from their nation.
“The internet is a place where we live and 50 per cent of our people live away from home for many reasons. We’re not all in the village. We’re not able to just walk down the road and knock on an elder’s door every day,” McKenzie said, adding that the site is getting web hits from around the globe. “It’s a different time. So how do we use tools that are there to promote and keep our culture alive?”
For those who read the original book, the online experience will be different as McKenzie explained the project went from a life-course approach — child, wife, mother, etc. — to a schematic approach with stories being filed under topics like community, colonialism, territory and even wellness.
As I Remember It: Teachings from the Life of a Sliammon Elder is the only active file on RavenSpace. Soon, though, it will be joined by Ḵa̱Q’s hiłile (Making It Right).
Another media-packed publication this work explores is the performance side of Kwakwaka’wakw customary dance traditions.