A wealth of knowledge is held in the skills and memories of the Canim Lake Band Elders, who help to pass down important traditions by connecting with the community’s children and youth.
At various formal and informal gatherings, the Elders share their cultural experience, language, skills and stories with younger generations.
Elders Activity Centre program co-ordinator Shirley Fraser says these range from a story time at their centre for smaller children to larger events held at the Eliza Archie Memorial School (EAMS) or other community locations.
“We have the Elders talk about the trap lines and talk about what they did when they were younger.”
Says Elder Virginia Archie: “Storytelling is very important for the youth to learn all traditional ways – food, language, medicine, hunting, fishing and trapping.”
Elder Edna Sellars agrees.
“It is important for the Elders and youth because the youth have to remember the traditions of our culture.”
Recently the Elders and the younger generation have been gathering together to make traditional moccasins, regalia, dream catchers, drums and rattles (small drums with rattle attachments), she explains.
Fraser says she collects moose and deer antlers that are sliced into segments to make necklaces and ornaments.
A recent outing to Gustafson Creek had Elders and children collecting eagle feathers scattered on the ground to use for traditional beading.
Sage is gathered for opening prayers, blessings and other ceremonial purposes, which she notes is often placed in abalone shells for smudging with the smoke dispersed with a feather.
The children recently joined the Elders on a trip to Farwell Canyon west of Williams Lake to pick sage, and the EAMS students participate in ceremonies with sage in their daily regimen.
“They use it every morning for prayer before they start school.”
Cultural days include the passing down of many different customs, from dip net fishing and trout smoking to gathering sage and making medicine bags.
At Gustafson Creek, some of the fun fishing activities included “spook-em,” during which the children walked down the creek swishing the water with a stick to flush out fish while and others stood ready with dip nets downstream.
Fraser adds Elder Elizabeth Pete showed the children how to clean and fillet the trout they caught, and then they all went back to set up the fish on racks in the Elders’ smokehouse.
“They want the children to clean those fish as soon as they get them, and show them how to do it. Some are a bit little, so they get an adult to help them.”
These young people learn the tradition that when anything is taken from nature, a gift of tobacco is put back in thanks, such as placing it in the waters where fish are harvested, she explains.
“Tobacco was something that was very precious back in history.”
The Secwepemcstin language is another important heritage aspect to pass down to future generations.
Even the youngest children learn in this traditional language, the Canim Lake Band is called Tsq’escenemc: The People of Broken Rock, and is a member of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) First Nation.
Some Elders and children participate in the opening dance ceremonies at the annual Canim Lake Traditional Pow Wow, Fraser notes.
Children as young as two years old pick berries with Elders, she says, and then older youth, who attend school in town, have a chance in the evenings to learn how to make jelly.
Pete says all of this cultural experience and information needs to be preserved for future generations.
“As a person and a grandmother, I need to pass down any Secwepemc knowledge and skills to my grandchildren.”
Everyone in the South Cariboo has an upcoming opportunity to experience some local First Nations culture and heritage, as the Canim Lake Band has invited the public to help them celebrate National Aboriginal Day on June 21 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at EAMS.
