Studying at Camosun has inspired me to further explore my Indigenous identity. My k’wala’yu (reason for living), my child Frankie, is a daily reminder of the importance for me to reconnect with our Kwakwaka’wakw culture. I’ve started learning some of the language, thanks to online resources like FirstVoices and lessons uploaded by Kwak’wala speaker Pewi Alfred. There are an estimated 200 fluent Kwak’wala speakers, with many more semi-speakers and silent-speakers alive today.
My great-grandparents Chief Harry and Mary Hanuse were Mamalilikala from ‘Mimkwamlis, a sub-group of the Kwakwaka’wakw, or Kwak’wala-speaking people. The famous potlatch of 1921, hosted by Chief Dan Cranmer was held in their gukwdzi (Bighouse) in ‘Mimkwamlis. Over 40 people were imprisoned for dancing and gift-giving, and many ceremonial objects were surrendered under duress to avoid imprisonment.
‘Mimkwamlis, “village with rocks and island out front,” was uninhabited by the mid-1900s, with villagers leaving to join larger communities like Yalis on Cormorant Island. My great-grandparents’ potlatch collection can now be viewed in Yalis at the U’mista Cultural Centre, thanks to the hard work and resilience of the community members involved in their repatriation.
Many stolen Indigenous treasures find their way into colonial institutions, like Victoria’s Royal BC Museum. After many decades of pressure from Indigenous communities, the Royal BC Museum is working to return Indigenous property and correct misrepresentations of Indigenous cultures in BC. The First Peoples Gallery has been closed to allow for this process. Items still held by the museum are in the transition of being moved to a new space in Colwood that will open for viewing sometime next year.
Frankie and I recently visited the museum, as I was keen to experience the Our Living Languages exhibit and Jonathan Hunt House, which have reopened. As we approached Thunderbird Park, located on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen First Nations, we marvelled at the totem poles and could smell the smoke from a ceremony held in Wawadit’la, or the Mungo Martin House.
This gukwdzi belonged to the late Mungo Martin, a Kwakwaka’wakw master carver, and is a smaller version of the Bighouse in Tsaxis, where he was from. Martin inspired pride in Kwakwaka’wakw culture while colonial laws still prohibited potlatching. Wawadit’la now belongs to his grandson, Chief Oasťakalagalis ´Walas ´Namugwis (Peter Knox of Fort Rupert).
We continued to the museum, where in partnership with The First Peoples Cultural Council and their advisors, recordings of many Indigenous languages can be heard with the press of a button, which is especially fun for little ones. Next to this exhibit is the recreation of Chief Jonathan Hunt’s House in Tsaxis. Frankie and I walked into the ceremonial house, which was constructed by renowned artists Henry and Richard Hunt, who are also responsible for many of the works in Thunderbird Park. I showed Frankie how to move their feet around the fire as a recording of ceremonial songs played from beneath the log drum.
Living in Victoria, relatively far from the potlatches and Bighouses of Yalis and other Kwakwaka’wakw communities, I appreciate the thread of connection to my Indigenous culture and language that the museum’s Thunderbird Park and current exhibits offer me. I’m also relieved by the ongoing repatriation efforts of the museum that allow for the return home of invaluable Indigenous cultural property.