In this eight-episode series, host Ry Moran (founding Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation) goes in depth on why the truths of Indigenous Peoples are so often suppressed and why we need truth before reconciliation.
Over course of this season, we visit with Survivors, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, academics, artists, and activists, exploring the opportunities and barriers for truth telling, and ways we can move forward together.
This podcast is presented by the Libraries and Archives of University of Victoria where host Ry Moran is the Associate University Librarian-Reconciliation. It is produced in the territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.
Visit www.taapwaywin.ca for transcripts, shownotes and more information.
Ry Moran
In the early 2000s, Rob Hancock was a graduate student at the University of Victoria. While working as a teaching assistant, he would ask the students what they knew about the land they were on.
Rob Hancock
and I would ask them, ‘Well, what was here before the university was here?’
Some knew about the jam factory, or the military base, or the orchard.
Rob Hancock
And I say, ‘Yes. And what was here before that?’ And most of the students, like in the range of 90 to 95%, would say, ‘well, there was nothing here before that.’ And I thought that that was really interesting, because it's not just, I think it's not just a matter of information, but a matter of imagination, that it was it was not just that they weren't informed that this was Lekwungen territory, that this was home to a significant number of families for an extremely long time. But that the markers that they were looking at, for people being here, were deeply culturally constrained and that they didn't have an opportunity to reflect on the fact that there were other ways of being on these lands, than putting up fences and planting trees and building greenhouses and putting up radio antennas and, and flying airplanes.
Today, Rob is a professor of anthropology here at UVic, and he often recounts this anecdote when he’s teaching the University’s Indigenous Cultural Acumen Training course. This Module was introduced several years ago at the University to provide staff and faculty information necessary to understand the history and present-day aspirations of Indigenous peoples who have called this place home since time immemorial.
Rob Hancock
But its intention is to encourage people to think about how they know what they know. And the way I frame it, what are the stories that that you've been told about Indigenous people? And what are the touch stories you tell about Indigenous people?
The training program spends time exploring the layers of colonial history within the land the University is built upon.
Rob Hancock
So the story we tell is different if we start by thinking about the structures, about the policies and the practices, and then reflecting on the impacts that those have on Indigenous people and Indigenous families and Indigenous communities and Indigenous nations,
And although general knowledge of the history of these lands has improved somewhat, we still have a long ways to go.
Rob Hancock
And so I reflect on that in the Indigenous Cultural Acumen Training to say, ask people about the assumptions that they make, about places that they're from, and where the university is now and really encourage people to start thinking about what that means, as a community committed to the pursuit of knowledge, that we aren't really well versed in our own history, or our own presence in this place.
Ry Moran
The teaching module asks participants if they can name the treaty that covers the land they’re on and challenges students to locate and name the nearest residential school and Indigenous communities surrounding the University.
Rob Hancock
And I stress to the participants that I'm not really interested in the answers. But I I'd like them to reflect a little bit on the process of trying to answer those questions.
And as part of the conversation that comes out of those reflections, we talk about the fact that it's not an accident that people don't know the answers to those questions. Because lots of people don't need to know them. Like many of us weren't taught that. And we're able to go through our lives without needing to know it. And so we think about the implications of that for how we move through this place. And then I go on to say that, you know, if you haven't learned it by accident, by now, odds are you're not going to learn about learn the answer to those questions, by accident in the future, you're going to need to put some intentional effort into learning about it.
Ry Moran
In this episode, we’re digging into the stories we’ve been told about the about the history of the lands now known as Canada. We’re reflecting on the role education has played in disseminating colonial myths, and the hard work underway untangling these narratives to get to the truth of our collective history.
We’re hearing from Pia Russell and Chaa’winisaks about how school textbooks were central in promoting and spreading colonial ideas.
Chaa'winisaks
We underestimate the role of education in creating the society we live in currently.
Ry Moran
Before talking to Paulette Steeves about her work reclaiming two hundred thousand years of Indigenous history on these lands -
Paulette Steeves
Every community everywhere in the world has a basic human right to know their history, to tell their history and to claim their connections to their homelands.
Ry Moran
My name is Ry Moran, this is Taapwaywin: talking about what we know and what we believe, a podcast from the territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, and the libraries and archives of the University of Victoria.
Both here in Canada and around the globe, education was historically a powerful tool in supporting imperial interests. One of the ways we can trace the roots of many misconceptions about our past is to go back and look at the historical textbooks that spread these ideas.
Here at the University of Victoria Libraries, there is a project underway to better understand the way the history was taught in schools.
Pia Russell
They really tell us about how people were thinking about British Columbia when British Columbia was very new.
Pia Russell is the principle investigator on the BC Historical Textbooks Project. She’s the Education Librarian here at UVic and a doctoral candidate studying the history of childhood, the book, and education.
Chaa’winisaks
And that’s actually powerful to look at, in those textbooks to see that the beginning of exploitation, it’s really straightforward at that time.
Ry Moran
Chaa’winisaks is a co-researcher on the project, and a doctoral candidate studying Indigenous education, Nuu-chah-nulth haa-huu-pah, and storytelling through podcasting. She’s also a member of the Chekle-sath and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations.
We sat down with Pia and Chaa’winisaks to learn more about what these historical textbooks can tell us about the development of British Columbia.
Pia Russell
So our project focuses really on the first 50 years of British Columbia. So those textbooks that were prescribed for use in British Columbia in public schools, and that's an important distinction. They were not the same books that were used in residential schools, for instance, or in separate schools. But in public schools in British Columbia from 1871, so when British Columbia joined the Confederation of Canada, the Canadian state, till 1921, it's a really fascinating time in the history of what is now called British Columbia.
And it tells us a lot about a settler - a settler mindset, and what people learned, what young children learned about what it meant to be a citizen here, and - and honestly, these textbooks are a fiction. And Chaa'winisaks and I and others on the project have gone through textbook by textbook, word by word. And the most interesting ones for us are the history and the geography textbooks, because they are history of racism, of white supremacy, of sexism, classism.
Ry Moran
Pia explained that many non-Indigenous people are beginning to look more critically at the way history has been framed to them.
Pia Russell
And also, there was just a greater awareness, people were waking up to this settler mindset that there was perhaps a different way of viewing the world, right, that settlement it was not a peaceful process, it relied on dispossession, and repossession, for example. And so, people would want to know about well, ‘why do I have these attitudes? Or why might my - my parents or my grandparents have had these attitudes?’ I was like, well, we can - we can look at these textbooks. And like Murray Sinclair talks about that, too. He's like, how did we get into this mess of like the way Indigenous-settler relations are how did we get here? And he said, a lot of it can be placed on how - what we were taught about each other. And I knew exactly what we were taught about and it's all in these books.
Chaa'winisaks
It made me think immediately of settler folks, you know, unraveling their history and stories and understanding their own family members, which is what my hope is, is that people will be able to sit around the table and be able to unravel that history with - in their own families. But it also made me think of my late grandfather [Nuu-chah-nulth name] took up a struggle from his grandfather [Nuu-chah-nulth name], who went to the government traveled in a canoe for three days and wanted them to understand he kept trying to get them to understand, you know, through rational discussion that [Nuu-chah-nulth], for example, there and [Nuu-chah-nulth] were main villages, they were not permanent places from which they weren't allowed to travel
And my grandfather also English was a second language. So, I could really see in his face physically in his emotions in his expression, the puzzlement, disappointment, of not understanding why these very common sense things to him and his father were not being taken up, why was it difficult to name an area that's now technically Parks Canada? Why? Why is it still not given a Checleseht name, a Nuu-chah-nulth name? So, he would have loved learning about this and looking at these textbooks, he would have appreciated being able to understand why people thought that way about him and his family and his parents.
Pia Russell
And at the same time that your grandfather would wonder about that, my grandmother is reading, she's sitting in a little - a little school in North Vancouver, in the 1920s. And she's reading these books and she's learning about what it means to be a British Columbian quote unquote, and - and who's not part of that.
She's learning about things like white supremacy, and she's learning about any number of really difficult things that are, you know, these are conversations that endure that we have over time, right? And they go through generations.
Ry Moran
And I mean, I think it speaks to the ongoing nature, the persistence of the education system in so many ways, because, you know, what has been taught in these textbooks has also equipped a citizenry of today, with the tools to not see anything wrong with this, to just take it at face value, and to not really question the presence of these myths, these - the presence of these lies, or just the remarkable presence of absence in a section as vitally important as Canada's history.
Chaa'winisaks
And what that makes me think of in terms of our textbook project Pia, is how the sentimentality part to me is about empire. There's lots of references in the text you’re little children and - and the homelands are England. And so, in imperialist society, of course, citizens have to give up their mental autonomy in order to support Empire their - their job, even at you know, five years old in kindergarten is to, to feel something about that and do their part to build the nation. And so, you can see that that hasn't changed even though a young person might look at these textbooks and say, 'oh my gosh, we don't talk like that now,' but what I encourage my students to do is to say, 'well, let's look at that, we do talk like that now.'
Ry Moran
But I think if we've heard anything along the way, you think about the TRC? I mean, if I've heard this once, I've heard it literally 9000 million times is 'I didn't know.'
Chaa'winisaks
Yes.
Ry Moran
Because I think there's - there's two sides to the statement, because on the one hand, we can look at work like yours, and we can see that absolutely, there is this erasure. And there is this very deliberate non-representation, or inaccurate or lies or myths being told, you know, so that's absolutely the truth. Yet, we also live in a society where people are supposed to be asking questions, and asking why things are the way they are, and it still troubles me to think of how many people you know, could see the questions that needed to be asked, and then just didn't ask them.
Pia Russell
I think those settler blinders are so thick for so many people, and it's been easy to close your eyes, right? Like it's been a luxury that a lot of people have been able to participate in. But it's - would it help if I read like a short piece from one of the textbooks?
Chaa'winisaks
Yes, it would, because I think what I have experienced looking back at those textbooks, is understanding that children were thoroughly brainwashed via those textbooks, about being little citizens of the nation. And they're incredibly sentimental. That actually struck me quite a bit. And it - it gets children on all fronts. So, if you read an example, that would be excellent.
Pia Russell
So, here's an example from a book that was first printed in 1906. And it was used in BC schools from about 1906 until the mid-teens. It's called a history and geography of British Columbia. And it's by Maria Lawson and Rosalind Young. And this is the introduction, it's just three short paragraphs. It's called introductory.
“This little book has been prepared for the use of the public schools of British Columbia, in the hope that the children who study it will derive both pleasure and profit from its perusal. Its aim is to show how from a wilderness, this province has become the home of civilized men. We shall see how the explorers came here, first by sea afterward by land, and how they were followed by the fur traders, the fur traders by the gold seekers, and they in their turn by the miners, lumbermen, manufacturers, fishermen, and merchants, who now occupy the settled parts of the province. In the course of our story, we shall learn how from a fur trading territory, British Columbia became a province of the Dominion of Canada. And it was linked to her sister provinces by the great railroad, which has done so much toward making of the inhabitants of widely separated provinces a united people. If, while reading these pages, the children learn to love better the grand and beautiful province, which is their home, and resolve that, by honest work and brave endeavor, they will do their part toward making it a great country, the earnest wish of the authors will be accomplished.”
So, our project really pushes back on those narratives that these lands were empty, and unproductive. These were - these lands were and are Indigenous spaces. This project, it really pushes back on the idea that Canada and British Columbia were inevitable, they weren't. And it pushes back on the idea that colonization and settlement were peaceful and progressive, quote unquote, occurrences. They were highly violent, and they were based on dispossession.
Ry Moran
I mean, because when we talk about what's in these textbooks, we're also talking about what's not in these textbooks. And when we talk about what's in our histories, we're also talking about the other histories that we have to be aware of, and, you know, the histories of genocide that are reflected in the absence, they're reflected in the - in the erasure.
Pia Russell
It's an interesting time period in the history of our province, too, because, uh, you see in 1871, like we've gone through and looked in old annual reports of schools at student pupil numbers and how that's changed over time. And so, in that - in that first 50 years, the province of the - the population of the province increases by about 13 or 14 times. But if you look at the number of children, or at least the number of pupils registered in schools in that period, it increases by about 85 times. So, you see about 1000 students in 1872 ish in BC schools, public schools again, and then by 1921, there's like over 85,000 and so children are active agents, unbeknownst to themselves, of settler colonialism. So, they're learning how to read their ABCs. But they're also learning how to read what it means to be a settler.
Ry Moran
On the occasions Indigenous peoples are part of the stories told in these textbooks, the representations are inaccurate and stereotypical.
Chaa’winisaks pointed out that the long history of Indigenous resistance to colonization is almost never mentioned in these textbooks.
Chaa'winisaks
We've passive experiencers of colonization, not people who resisted and fought back and continue to. Our people are absent. So, I absolutely don't see myself as a Nuu-chah-nulth person, or any of my relatives, or, you know, other nations on this island in those textbooks. Not at all. Not at all.
Ry Moran
We've already talked about it in a lot of ways in - in this conversation so far about the damage that this erasure and these lies have done to Canada and to people living in these lands. And I just wonder like what opportunities have we missed out on and - and what have we lost by virtue of not speaking truthfully, not telling the truth, as we've traveled this, you know, winding road together for over 150 years as a country and all this kind of stuff?
Chaa'winisaks
Yeah, there's a lot. Because one of the things about erasure is that that Indigenous people also are impacted by these stories and in fact have, depending on the generation, perhaps some of my relatives in my family, because these narratives become ingrained in the bodies, minds, and emotions and spirits of people, that unfortunately, some of my relatives and including myself have swallowed some of these stories about ourselves. And that damage is, difficult to apologize for, and really, really hard work for Native people to move through.
While I appreciate the idea of resurgence, resurgence would have been for us just who we are, being who we are. And so, I continue to struggle through this process of also having to rationalize to spaces about why I need to take that time to be myself to do something Nuu-chah-nulth, in a Nuu-chah-nulth way, and so that's frustrating, it comes through me as frustration, and also anger, as well.
But the reality is, at the end of the day, there are still racist laws and policies that manage my body and being and my movement on the land. That's definitely one of the impacts, because not only are you wading through, you know, what is presently happening, you're - you're sort of excavating and wading through the stories that settler folks have been told about us. And it's really difficult to push through that if settlers haven't looked at that themselves.
Ry Moran
What we owe kids in classrooms today. I mean, it's such a - such a huge responsibility.
If we think about how vitally important facts and critical thought and truth telling are, you know, because and how - how on guard, we really need to be as a society to because not only do these ideas continue to exist, but new ideas are also being manifest -
Chaa'winisaks
We underestimate the role of education in creating the society we live in currently.
I think about the word like truth telling. And I'm not an expert But it does make me think of something that Haa’yuups, Ron Hamilton, had taught me about. And explained actually, that at one point in time, my grandfather was testifying in a court case for Nuu-chah-nulth people. And he was explaining how important being honest was, and that we actually had chiefs whose job was to tell things correctly.
But when he told me that, and he gave me this little book called the [Nuu-chah-nulth] language, which is called the correct speaking people. And so, this project and in the work that Pia is helping facilitate for people, is an opportunity for people to be able to tell the truth, by first being honest about what occurred.
Ry Moran
While Pia and Chaa’winisaks are looking at historical misrepresentations of our history, there remain significant flaws in our representation of the past to this day – something Paulette Steeves has worked diligently to correct in the archaeological record.
Paulette Steeves
Okay, tanisi, hello, my name is Dr. Paulette Steeves, I'm Cree-Métis. I'm a professor in Anthropology and Sociology at Algoma University and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous history, healing, and reconciliation.
Ry Moran
We spoke with Paulette back in episode one about her work creating the Canadian Residential Schools and Colonial Institutions Database. But she’s also doing incredibly important work in the field of archaeology.
Paulette Steeves
Well, as an archaeologist, I've worked on reclaiming Indigenous histories of the Western Hemisphere, North and South America. So that's a huge piece of work.
Ry Moran
Her recently published book, Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere, is a reclamation of over 200,000 years of Indigenous history in the Americas. It is also an account of the many ways archaeology has erased Indigenous history and presence.
Paulette Steeves
So I really came to understand through becoming an academic that our histories are not taught or discussed by Western academics as how we know them; they don't teach the fact, they teach what fits the nation state.
Ry Moran
Paulette became aware of the racism and bias baked into the field of archaeology early on in her studies. While she was in grad school, she was surprised by what she read in one of her textbooks.
Paulette Steeves
This was maybe in 2009, or 2010, and the book was for first year archaeology students and it was explaining what an artifact was. And it said ‘an artifact can be a beautiful 20,000 year old spearpoint from France. Or it can be an indistinguishable flake, some weary Indian chucked out in a Mississippi cornfield.’ And I just about off my chair.
You're teaching, you know, first year students, and why would you say in archaeology, ‘some weary Indian 1000 years ago,’ did you see the Indian? No, it was 1000 years ago. So why would you frame it that way? Because archaeology was born from colonial parentage.
Ry Moran
While in grad school, Paulette’s knowledge that Indigenous presence was being erased from the archaeological record pushed her to question certain long held beliefs in the field.
Paulette Steeves
And so I kind of asked myself the question, 'well, I wonder how long we've been here because our oral traditions say from time immemorial' and I started reading oral traditions and talking to some, you know, Native American communities. And then I asked this archaeologist Steve Holan, at the Denver Museum, I said, 'do you know of any sites that are older than 11 or 12 thousand years?' Because, you know, archaeologists have said we've only been here that long. And he said, 'Well, I know 10 sites, but don't tell anybody what you're researching, they're just going to call you crazy.’
Ry Moran
For decades, the prevailing belief in archaeology maintained that Indigenous peoples have existed in the Americas for at most 12 thousand years. Now largely a disproven theory of settlement, this was known as the ‘Clovis First’ hypothesis.
As a grad student, Paulette began looking for references to sites that were older than this.
Paulette Steeves
Of the 10 sites he gave me, and in two weeks, I had a list of over 500 sites that predated 11,200 years on I went, ‘wow.’
And I learned there was a really violent, critical review of anybody who published the site older than what they call Clovis, are older than 11 to 12,000 years, that there were a lot of Western archaeologists that published their results on older sites, and they suffered greatly, some lost their funding. I know of one that was fired, they were called crazy lunatics. And so I said, 'well, what - why would they do that?' Like, what makes it crazy?
Ry Moran
For Paulette, it was obvious that there would be sites in North America older than 12 thousand years old.
Paulette Steeves
Well, prior to the last glacial maximum, there was a land connection between what we now call Northern Asia and North America. And there was a sustainable environment. And we know that because mammals were migrating. So across millions of years, you have mammals going back and forth. And then I looked at ‘okay, what about the rest of the world?’ Well, look at in Northern Asia, we have sites that date to over 2 million years. So we're supposed to believe that early Hominin, came out of Africa, traveled 14,000 kilometers, got to Northern Asia, were surviving there well, and stopped and didn't go any further when the mammals were coming and going? I'm like, that doesn't make any sense.
And now you have sites in North America, you have human footprints at 23,000 years, you have archaeological tools, and mammalian bone that can only be modified by humans, going back over 130,000 years.
And so in my book, I only talk about the last 200,000 years with, like I say, the outliers being at 200,000 years—but very good sites—very good sites in 130,000 years, a ton of sites between 12,000 and 60,000 years in the Americas. So why has this been denied? Because of racism and political bias within American archaeology.
Ry Moran
The denial of long-term Indigenous presence on these lands supports the fabricated story of terra nullius, a justification for the doctrine of discovery that was used by settlers attempting to legitimize colonization.
Paulette Steeves
Apparently, every Canadian federal law today is still linked back to the doctrine of discovery, and that needs to be disavowed. And that needs to happen.
So archaeologists come along, and they're supporting the nation state, the story of the nation state, that stole all the land from a bunch of “savages” that weren't using it. That's the story that was Indigenous history coming out of American archaeology for a long time. And people began to challenge that in the 40s and 50s, and 60s, and make changes.
Ry Moran
The critically important work of Paulette and some of her colleagues in the field pushes back against these long-held ideas.
Paulette Steeves
We really pushed for change in education, but old habits die hard. And those old habits of a colonial archaeology and a biased racist archaeology are well documented. You know, and it's very uncomfortable for a lot of archaeologists, when I discuss the truth about their own academic profession is being racist and biased.
Ry Moran
Much of our retelling of the past has been coloured by attitudes of racial or cultural superiority. Paulette’s work makes this especially clear when looking at the record of the past contained within the land.
Paulette Steeves
Yeah, the land holds stories, I call archaeological sites stories in the land. And so our ancestors left us their stories in the land to tell us about their time here. And then you have a, you know, a group of white archaeologists, Eurocentric archaeologists come along and ignore those stories, and deny those stories, and erase people from the land and dehumanize Indigenous people, and cleave their links to their homelands. That's very, very damaging.
Every community everywhere in the world has a basic human right to know their history, to tell their history and to claim their connections to their homelands. And I guess that's a part of my - my healing journey is to continue that - that fight to reconnect all Indigenous peoples of North and South America back to their ancient homelands. And to get that acknowledged, and I think that if we listen to Creator, He's going to show us the stories on the land that will help us reclaim the land.
Ry Moran
This kind of archaeological work continues to have ongoing importance for Indigenous nations. Beyond a general understanding of the true depth of Indigenous presence on these lands, it has a significant impact on matters like land claims.
Back in 2014, as part of their legal case to establish Aboriginal title, the Tsilqhot'in Nation used archaeological data alongside other historical evidence and oral history to demonstrate their uninterrupted occupation of their traditional territory.
Their strategy was ultimately successful, and the Supreme Court of Canada recognized Aboriginal land title for the first time in the history of this country.
While we were speaking with Mavis Underwood back in episode four, she told us about how the Tsawout First Nation have filed a claim for the return of ȽEL¸TOS James Island.
Tsawout is also one of the First Nations currently working in collaboration with an archaeologist from UVic to document local archaeological sites.
Mavis Underwood
We are trying to reclaim our traditional Island back, because we believe it should have been protected under the Douglas treaty. And so, it's very important for us to bring forward a lot of the history of how land has been taken away or taken up by settlement or homesteading or expropriation. So, we wanted to really bring it forward that - that land, and that island had continued to be in use, right up until 1970, we never really felt that we had lost it. And we would just really love to have that place back. It's an important geographical landmark, it's a sand dune geographical system that is actually quite fragile. And we would like to really have it as a place for traditional use.
Ry Moran
Currently, the Island is under private ownership, and hosts several large homes and a golf course.
Mavis Underwood
It's a beautiful spot. It has a lot of beaches there. It also has a lot of history of our ancestral rebates, artifact - artifact remains, and that's the concern for us is that there's not enough heed paid to the extent of the civilization of our people, the hundreds and thousands that occupy the coastline, particularly eastern part of the Saanich Peninsula. So, it's important for us to be able to assert our way of life to integrate that history, that recognition into if you want to call it Canadian history, local history, settlement history, we really need to have that recognition and understanding that we were self-sufficient, very independent people. We had a way of life that was very important to us, and still is important to us. And we would really like to begin to educate and pass that along to children.
Ry Moran
And Mavis emphasized how critical returning this land to the Tsawout people is for the future.
Mavis Underwood
And I really, I really hope that there's some solution for the land, because we do need to have a sense of belonging and restoration of your place because that's where your history is. And how can - we can't even speak our history a lot of times because there's no anchor for it. So, we have our language scholars working so hard to restore language, the language grows out of the land. It grows out of the history; it grows out of the saltwater. So, we need to, to be able to anchor that. So that is not something that people think what's only in the past, that it actually has a future as well.
Ry Moran
While we spoke, Paulette told us about her own healing journey.
Paulette Steeves
So growing up in, you know, traditional, non-Indigenous communities, you don't ever listen to your thoughts or your dreams, you don't listen to the land, that's crazy. So I had to teach myself to re-listen. And I would go out to archaeology sites when I was a grad student, and I would go before anybody else came for a day or two, and I would just sit and listen to the land, listen to the spirits, and just knew there was a story in that land that our people had left for us to tell. And I learned to listen to those dreams and those thoughts that Creator brings. But I learned as I went, and I learned to re-listen to the land.
And I think when you do that, it's really healing for your heart and your spirit. And because I see doors open, I see paths open. And I know that Creator and our ancestors have opened those doors and those paths and I have to run really fast to keep up to what it is they're asking me to do.
Ry Moran
The work Paulette is doing is opening minds to the long histories here within the lands now known as Canada – paving the way for long held ecological knowledge gained over tens of thousands of years to further emerge, both as metaphor and practice.
Paulette Steeves
So what if we cleanse academic literature, of all these dehumanizing discussions of Indigenous history and we bring in Indigenous voices, Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous histories, oral traditions, and people can really get informed about Indigenous histories, right? So it's Pyro- Epistemology, we're renewing the academic landscape and trying to clean out all these dehumanizing talks.
Ry Moran
This calls for a necessary and transformative shift in how we tell the story of our own history.
Paulette Steeves
So when we rewrite Indigenous histories, and we clean the academic landscape, and we make new room for new growth of good teaching materials, we push back against racism, bias, and discrimination.
And that's what's been missing in academia because Indigenous knowledge and voices have been blocked by Eurocentric Western scholars, right?
There is not ever one story. There are many stories, and you need to inform your understanding of worldview of people based on many voices, including the voices of the people themselves.
Ry Moran
A couple years ago, Paulette’s daughter attended a young woman’s healing summit.
Paulette Steeves
You know, a lot of our communities suffer from really high suicide rates, a lot of political and social disparities, there's a huge loss of hope, as there would be in any community after such a long genocide. And she said, 'all the girls sat around in a big circle and they were all supposed to share one thing that gave them hope.’ So this meeting was to like, try to build hope in those communities, hope these girls could take back and share with their communities. And she said, 'this one girl, her face just lit up, and she got, you know, excited.’ And she said, 'Oh my God, there's this archaeologist in the US and she says, we've been here over 50,000 years, and now it gives me hope that we'll get our identity or history and our land back.’ And my daughter said, 'tehehe I didn't tell her it was my mom' [Laughs].
But, you know, that was important for me to hear. Because what's really at the very center, the very heart of all the work I do is how can I be a part of bringing hope back to these communities? You know, specifically to young Indigenous people. I know what it's like to live on a reservation, You know, an isolated - I know what it's like to be dehumanized your entire life because of your cultural background. How do you challenge that and bring back hope, you know?
And then I asked Creator, and this is what he gave me to do.
Ry Moran
Paulette’s story and her work are a call to all of us to participate in sharing these truths.
Paulette Steeves
Yeah, it just means trusting your heart. You know, listening and trusting and knowing that I think everyone's been given a path to walk, everyone's been given their job and their place. I think Creator really asked many of us to step up into unfamiliar places, and to learn, but this is a part of the whole process of healing. I think every Indigenous scholar, and every person that works, you know, in - anywhere in education in tribes and communities—they're one flame in this big healing fire. So they talk about that eighth fire of healing when we'll all live in peace. And we're building that fire.
So you know, moving forward, there's a lot - there's a place for everyone to be involved in this. And I think that's part of the healing journey is working together, to do this, supporting each other to do this.
But the more work that we can all do, to discuss these truths, right? And to get these truths acknowledged in the public, the more that we can add and open those paths to healing.
Ry Moran
This podcast was created through the direct team work of an incredible group of people. It was written and produced by Karina Greenwood and myself, editing and consulting by Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas, mixing and mastering by Matheus Terra, and music by myself, Ry Moran.
Special thanks to the University of Victoria Libraries team that assisted in countless ways on this production.
Maarsi to our guests Chaa’winisaks, Pia Russell, Paulette Steeves, Rob Hancock, and Mavis Underwood.
Taapwaywin is made possible through the University of Victoria Strategic Framework Impact Fund, and with direct support from the University of Victoria Libraries and CFUV Radio.
This podcast was created in unceded lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ territories.