By Tricia Thomas

Youth from Homalco and Tla’amin nations are reclaiming their culture and getting summer jobs guiding visitors to the traditional territory at the mouth of Bute Inlet thanks to a project called ‘cultural boot camp’.

Shawn O’Connor, manager of Homalco Wildlife Tours, calls the learning opportunity for 21 youth under 30 years old “Cool-ture… we are making culture cool.” Youth are learning to drum, sing, prepare food traditionally and paddle canoes for the upcoming spring and summer tours to Orford
Bay.

After many weeks of training, the boot campers helped guide the first tour on May 31 with a second scheduled for June 21, National Aboriginal Day.

The early season tours mark an expansion from the late summer Bears of Bute excursions. And I’Hos Tours of Tla’amin nation is a partner as the two nations have been working together since March to support their youth to reclaim their language and culture.

Chief Maryann Enevoldsen of Homalco is a big backer of the project. “To have our people singing, dancing and practicing our culture – and up until now it has been non-existent – and reclaiming that for Homalco has always been a very strong dream of mine and I am so grateful that it is actually happening now.”

She talked about the huge impacts, in terms of culture, the residential schools had on all First Nations. “My grandmother made my mom promise not to teach us the language and culture because she was afraid that it was going to happen again. Because my father is non-native, my grandmother believed that my skin was fair enough that I could get by unnoticed.

Adeline Billows and Chief Enevoldsend

“My mother really struggled with the promise she made to my grandmother before she passed away and to have us really wanting to learn. It took a few years before she finally opened up and started teaching us.”

“My mother Adeline Billows was five years old when she was taken to residential school and she couldn’t speak English at all. I am really glad that she was able to hang on to as much of the language that she did, as she still can speak our language fluently.

“It goes to show how important the early years are.” said Enevoldsen. “We started doing burnings for our ancestors again and my mom played an integral part in teaching families how to do that.”

Homalco councillor Dorothy Andrew-Paul also grew up on the reserve, not knowing anything about her culture because there was no one teaching it.

“My son started my journey for me. He was doing a history project in school and he needed to know who we are’ and where we come from. And he had all these questions that I couldn’t answer. So, when I wanted to learn, I reached out to Adeline, knowing she was my grandmother’s niece and started asking her how to say certain words in our language and it became a daily thing. Growing up we didn’t have this and it’s something we want to change for future generations.”

In early May, youth travelled to Haida Gwaii for a week and performed every night for the host nation, learning more about protocol and processes.

More info at www.bearsofbute.net