These belongings

you get a date or draw a picture of the boundaries we have sort of like we know it extends further east and west but I think a lot of them that it has been destroyed from from development and one analogy I could kind of describe the boundaries of a situs um I'd say a thousand years from now they they no muss cream was here and we know how big it is today on the boundaries but a thousand years from now we don't know the boundaries but the archaeologist Douglas had someone's la Tour address and then that let's say it was the ban office love there's no that must be must be because we exposed the ban Appa so they draw a circle around the pen office and that we know the mushroom was bigger than that but that was years from now that's what they have to go by so but and they're the same things happening today you you have to explain to people or this must be the size of sus map because there's there's the site boundary but we don't know how far it extends I don't know why we're calling the museum collections that's one thing that I don't agree with they're not they don't belong to them and I don't believe they ever will the whole process of colonialism and how they are the ones that should take them from the ground and move them to wherever they're supposed to go is wrong and we're letting that happen and I don't believe in it and I'm not 100% agree a bowl for them to they may not maintain them and I'm hoping they come back to our cultural center after they've been pro and I hate to use the word as well but we have to we live in this contemporary world and maybe that's why people think it's so important for archeologists or people who we have to work with to make things in their world right for them so I believe that they should come home to where they originally came from if they're even removed and I don't even know why we have to remove them I don't know why they can't just stay where they are what is it in us as human beings that want to take things and put them on display when they were put in the ground for a reason so I'm always not just agreeable to have them removed from the ground Collin belongs because when we dig into the earth when when our killers dig into the earth they dig up graves many times their grave sites their official grave robbers and I said that to the archaeologists and many times people are buried with things that are important to them or they are important to the family that is putting away their loved ones for that person to be able to be in the other world in the spiritual world with their belongings with them so that they can use them in the other world and that they belonged to somebody they didn't just appear in some pile of dirt that was already carved or shaped or whatever it was used for it belongs to someone and that's how it was always explained to us as a boy the mortuary houses along Cielo Drive were still existing there were several mortuary houses that my older brother and I could see through the windows or through the cracks in the wall and we could see things in there that were very very interesting to young boys and asked her mom how do we get in there and there's stuff in there and mom said don't you touch that it belongs to somebody love to whom belongs to that person that's in that house if that person's dead but that's his belongings his or her belongings they belong to that person leave it alone they have to take it with them and that's why I used to read belongings mm-hmm bring them out and display them so we know we know and we understand it's beautiful for grandchildren nieces and nephews to see they get to see their there's physical evidence beyond us they just see Musqueam now while those beautiful tools those instruments those household items those beautiful things it shows them that we're anchored here for 7,000 years we're not only anchored here but here's the beauty that we created while we're here I only raised it because at that point in time I hated museums I thought they were the worst thing that anybody could ever do you know they've got these glass things with all our artifacts what they call artifacts which is our life well being kind of and then I changed I got to a point where I was doing research on our beautiful swelleth and I our blankets and I discovered a relationship with the museum that I never had expected because of my own bias and I criticized the non-aryan people for imposing their value but I had the bias and then as I went through the museum's and I travelled to New York I went to Washington I went to all these different museums across the country and into the States and I started to become aware of something else because of the influence and the kind of overpowering of the Europeans into our communities and how they destroyed so much of who we are with all of our regalia and everything if it wasn't for the museums protecting them we wouldn't had the opportunity to go back and look at them hold them honor them in the way that they should be honored and try to bring their life back again and and I think that this the the turning of awareness of the museum people themselves has done a lot for that so I really am respectful of museums now I think that we as long as we engage and dialogue and work together to continue to bring those pieces back to life and that's the key they have to be brought back to life in my opinion so every one of them in some way can help the teaching that we're talking about with our young people if we can start to bring those pieces back into our community in a way and I'm not saying they have to store here I realize they need certain things to protect them as air and everything but as teaching tools I was reconnecting as honoring the memory of those people who made all of those things I think it's huge and I really am thankful for museums now we bought the Fraser Arms Hotel not for economic purposes we bought it to protect what was underneath the freezer Arms Hotel it was a part of this now and for me I think the the new logical next step for SAS Nam is to reassemble all of the land because there are not a number of pieces of land that are still not in the possession of muscular and to be able it really protects us Nam in its in its whole entirety we need to do that and I think the parcels that we do have right now need to be protected I think we have an understanding that we're not going to be doing anything underneath that land and I think Musqueam is really on the right track to being able to protect the rest of the site in the site as it is now really does need protection but I'm not confident that the province under the Heritage Act will do the job I think we have to do some public education more public education to get support from people in the general public and from the property holders in this Islam area I think they're interested but they have an investment and we have to come to terms with how do we resolve their interests and our interests and the public interest in protecting the history that's in the site why would I like to see happen assist now ideally nothing I would like it I'd like our ancestors to take back over I'd like to see grass and trees and plants flowers if if there needs to be a societal way to pretty it up I think it'd be a park when we could have a couple of house posts and commemoration maybe a plaque parkland is the best the best possible use for it I will go back to vigil mode if anybody tries to develop on it again to be frank though I'd like to see I'd like to see nature reclaiming it means a lot to our whole community to protect that site that's one of the oldest sites we have to do whatever is in our power to make sure that we protect that whole site sis nam site with the attention that happened to it this year we have other properties there that we need to get back into our control those are our ancestors are our big huge connection to the more Pole site it keeps that sense of pride it keeps the sense of culture going forward and we as Aboriginal people without culture I've always said if we lose our culture we're just another municipality and that's not who we are our grandparents fought to keep these things here and it's not our place to give up that fight if we were put here to be stewards we will be stewards and if all we have left is our voice make it loud I think that's that's our rule there's many little facets that will outreach from that and everybody has their own job but in unity I think those are our two things to make sure that they know it's not right that these things are happening and that we preserve our history moving forward so in the ugly event we lose something it's never lost if it's remembered

Channel: Museum of Anthropology

Views: 478

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: EuYQ28VpQZo

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 09 2020