First Nations

I am not sure where to begin with this.

We visited the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay. I had been looking forward to this but the reality of being there and understanding the history has made things quite bittersweet.

The focus of the cultural centre is the Potlatch exhibition - a stunning collection of carvings, weavings and anything to do with the ceremony of the potlatch, which is a key element in north west coast First Nations lore being the centrepiece of their belief system and the epitome of their soul. The meaning of Potlatch is “to give” and the people of Alert Bay are far more eloquent in explaining this than I could ever be - U’mista Potlatch

You were asked not to take photographs of the carvings and masks inside the Potlatch so we respected their decision of no photography inside the exhibition but you can take a virtual tour of the Potlatch exhibition  - Potlatch - Virtual Tour

To understand the persecution of the First Nations in the last 150 years or so and the impact this had on people and culture is to understand how white imperialism spread across the globe.

It is worth remembering that the First Nations have been in Canada for thousands of years.  They are its history, despite the commonly held belief that everything began with General Wolf in the late 1700s.  It is likely that the First Nations originated from a migration of Asian, probably Mongolian, travellers when the lands were still linked and not separated by vast swathes of water some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.

This makes utter sense in that there are similarities in the way Tibetan Buddhists, for example, celebrate and the way First Nations in Canada do.  There is also a similarity in their connection and belief in supernatural elements of the world which are invisible to our western eye. And it is these myths, legends and histories which draw you in from the mischievous Raven finding the first small humans in a clam shell to the people who cross the boundaries into the animal world and back again.

But there is an underlying sorrow connected with the treatment of the First Nations. From around 1850 onwards the white European had made Canada his very own and expected everyone to conform to his world view despite the First Nation’s completely different culture and belief system. Savages, obviously, who needed converting!

Residential schools were built and children forcibly taken from families to be ‘educated’ and for the culture to be beaten out of them - literally. The Potlatch was banned and all elements of it had to be given up to the Indian Agent - a white man appointed to oversee all First Nations and make sure they were conforming.

I found Alert Bay quite depressing, but I understand why.  Outside the Cultural Centre there is a symbol which stands on the site of what used to be St  Michael’s School - one of the schools to where many First Nations children were forcibly relocated in the attempt to erase culture from the collective mindset.  It is only recently that Canada has become aware of itself and it’s past and it’s treatment of its indegenous people.  This has resulted in a day earmarked each year in order to reflect on the past.  This is National Truth and Reconciliation Day on September 30th - a day when everyone should wear orange to remember the children who went to school, went missing and never came back and those who did come home but who were permanently scarred - #everychildmatters.  You can read more about this important day here - National Truth and Reconciliation Day.  This will link you to all sorts of information.

Whether it is by accident, design or self protection Alert Bay, once a thriving fishing community, now feels a lonely place with a sadness hanging over it.  There was much debate about whether to leave the school building up as a reminder of the past but in the end it was demolished in 2015 with people throwing stones at it as it came down. Now it is a memory.  Integration does not feel likely here though, rightly, the Namgis nation are proud of U’mista but it is a haunting reminder of the past - the taking away of souls and the crushing of a culture. I read some very dangerous words uttered by white agents of the Indian Office - chillingly reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Demolition of St. Michael's School

But the spirit can never be crushed and in Vancouver we had the honour and privilege to visit the Bill Reid Gallery of First Nations Art.  Bill Reid (1920 - 1998) was an internationally famed Haida artist - although he would always call himself a maker of things.  Bill would only discover his Haida roots in his teenage years.  His mother was Haida but his father was an American of Scottish-German descent and he was brought up in Victoria.  As Bill explored his Haida ancestry he was able to use his talent and voice to shine a light on many of the injustices that befell his, and other, nations - all speaking the same truth.

I am constantly entranced by the beauty of North West Coast art; it’s simplicity of form with its underlying telling of the myths and legends.  The story of Bill’s last major work - The Spirit of Haida Gwaii - is an unbelievable joy of his life and a reflection of the Haida and overall human condition.  It is now represented in two places in the form of The Jade Canoe at Vancouver Airport and The Black Canoe at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC.  It is worth flying 9 hours to see the Jade Canoe at Vancouver Airport.

"When Bill Reid began his exploration of Northwest Coast art, he did so as a 'white man' investigating a set of formal design problems. Over the years, perhaps inevitably, his success in unlocking the principles of Coast Indian art have progressively unlocked the Indian in Bill Reid himself."
Roger Downey, "Apprentice to a Lost Art," Pacific Northwest, vol.17, no.8 (October 1983), p.39

There are huge contradictions in Canada.  Being off the beaten track a lot this time has brought these to the forefront for us.  Someone, on realising we were from the UK, said: “Oh, the place with all the history!”  Yet here they are sitting on thousands of years of history and culture without realising it - or maybe deliberately blanking it out.  That sentence said so much.  It told me there is still a long long way to go in recognition of the First Nations.  We have seen it in Alert Bay; we have seen it in Prince Rupert and in Terrace.  It is no coincidence to see people who are downtrodden, with little life opportunity and, in many cases, extremely poor transporting their total belongings around the street in a shopping trolley

But Bill Reid has been followed by a succession of Haida and other artists - all finding a voice to express their culture and history.

Bill Reid - 20 Years On

Bill Reid - Life and Work by Gerald McMaster

Go and read about it, learn about it. Learn about the indigenous struggle and learn how Bill Reid shone a light on it. You will be changed forever.