Snow is not something we normally get in Tsulquate, but over the last couple of days we've had several inches of the fluffy white stuff, making everything look wintry and clean. Today I decided that I should wander around our community and take some pictures of it before it completely melted away. It is an interesting time of year to take a close look at our community... many things are still green, like the cedar boughs and salal bushes. Some things are still looking pretty shriveled up, like the rose hips and blackberry bushes. And some things, like the dandelions I saw out at Thomas Point last week, are already starting to bloom!
As I walked around Tsulquate, I noticed that many of our houses are quite colourful, like Herb and Sarah's, Dorey and Betty's, Richard & Silena's, and many others. I also noticed that people are good at building sheds, dog houses, fences etc. from whatever scrap wood they can find. The Eke Me-Xi students are going to be working on a community smoke house in the next while, so any of you builders out there that want to help out, please talk to Jamaine at the Eke Me-Xi school (949-8332).
I had a visit with Dorey (who was working on the handle for a shovel to go clear snow out of his boat), where we talked about the need to be more involved in the four seasons: harvesting foods all year round, at the proper times; getting to know the different places in our home lands where you can gather and process foods; learning about who comes from which areas; and using the gifts that we each have to give back to the community. We also talked about how we need to make information coming out of the band office more visual, maybe in the form of cartoons or other graphics. Any cartoonists out there that want to share your talents?
After the visit, I went up to the school to take some pictures up there. The children's artwork is so beautiful, it's pretty neat to see all of the different projects that they work on. I think it' so neat to see projects from years past, like this quilt that we worked on when I was a student there, and I'm sure many of you worked on it as well. The four corner patches, with the buttons, were done by elders (including my grandmother, Lucy Smith) to represent how our elders are like the four posts in the big house, holding up the whole community with their wisdom and strength.
I hope you have enjoyed this walk through our community with me today! Please leave your comments below! You can see many of the pictures I took today in the banner slideshow on our website, www.gwanak.info
Jessie Hemphill