‘How are you healing?’
Maria Shallard (30, Indigenous community helper and advocate, Penelakut First Nation/European ancestry, Coast Salish)
‘When we drum together, our hearts are in unison, beating at the same pace. To have a drum by the water is to connect the heartbeat to the journey of where it is we’re going. We might not know the way forward, but we’re going to continue just as long as the water continues.’
Understanding begins with conversation. Storytelling has been used throughout history as a way to exchange knowledge. As an explorer of Indigenous well-being, Maria Shallard believes true reconciliation lies in building cross-cultural relationships and connecting different world views to the environment.
“See that plant? That was once food, and it spoke to the people that lived here for thousands of years. The land and water hold the memories and stories of those who were here prior, and our responsibility is to make sure that it is here for future generations,” she says.
“It’s frustrating when you see that that respect has been lost, or a relationship has been damaged.”
As Maria looks out across the water, many stories come to surface about relationships to the land, and the necessity to protect it not only for the well-being of Indigenous people, but for the well-being of us all.
“There is so much beauty in this way of thinking about our world,” she says. “When I feel a strong wind at a certain time of year, it reminds me that salmonberry shoots are in harvest back home. The word for this is lila, and there is a sense of pride in being able to share it. I want to tell someone. It’s hard to translate these things, but the point of explanation is to create a connection with someone of a different understanding and foster kinship.”
Maria’s connection to land and to music was ignited from a teaching passed on to her as a young girl, from an Elder in Victoria, B.C. “I had just made my first drum, and I didn’t yet know how to awaken it. He brought me into the forest and said, ‘Look out at the tree line. See all those trees? Each one is a different note. I want you to sing how you see those trees.’ I was really nervous, but I started to sing from what I saw. He said, ‘That is the song of your drum. Imagine if all of those trees were cut down. You have no song to sing. You have no culture anymore. You have no story to tell because the land no longer has that voice either. That is why we need to protect that land.’ It resonated in a way that made me feel the wisdom of my ancestors.”
What will happen to our voices if our natural environment continues to be destroyed? What does healing look like, not only for our environment but for ourselves?
“I was thinking of healing the other day as I sat by the river,” Maria says. There was a tree growing out of a rock, and the river was pounding over it. That’s life. The fact that the tree can still grow and have strong roots, despite the river pounding against it, is a symbol of what we go through in our lives.
“There is strength that can be had. You can see it when you look at something like that tree. You can see it in nature. I realize that the answer is actually so simple. That healing is really just sitting by the river, looking at that tree, and thinking ‘I can be like that.’ Water, like adversity, comes in waves, and the river slows down, but as long as it continues, we continue.”