I've spent a good deal of my life living in the land of the Salmon People, People of the Totem, People of the Potlatch. For more than 40 years I've been studying the art and culture of my, Haida, Heiltsuk, and Tsimshian ancestors. I've been an artist and teacher and perpetual student in Totem Country.
The culture is rich and deep and thousands of years old and it continues to thrive through generations of hardship and colonization. People have been ashamed of their ancestry and culture since the ravages of residential school and antiquated educational system. There are now signs of change of a return to the land values, the core values of a people tied to the land.
I move with this change, I thrive in a spirit of recovery from years of unhealthy living and thinking. I have a new sweatlodge, a place of prayer which honors the old ways. I realize today more than ever our old ways have a profound and simple truth to share with the world, a way to heal the many scars. We must learn to live in reverence with the world around us, learn to love this land we call mother earth. There are pillars of truth that continue to stand and remind us there is a better way to live in Totem Country. Whoever you are wherever you come from stand in the strength, truth, and beauty of you.
