My traditional name is xixaniyus, I am of the Qualicum and Musqueam First Nations and have Italian ancestry on my father’s side of my family. I was born and raised off our reservation and away from our culture and traditions in an urban environment. My goals to connect on deeper levels to my culture and to foster deeper understandings of my identity have been active since I was very young and have now set me on the path of an artist within my community in my adulthood. My studies at UBC have allowed me to contribute to language reclamation work within my community of Qualicum, and to begin reconnecting not only myself with our culture on deeper levels, but others as well as we continue healing from the forced disconnections from our traditional language individually and collectively. This type of verbal expression of culture and identity has walked hand in hand with my own journey as an artist to express myself visually through our traditional forms of art and understanding of their significance and histories.
A major turning point for me towards this work was in 2019 when I was able to participate in the Coast Salish Canoe Journeys with many members of my family and community. On these canoe journeys, groups from different Coastal Nations in BC travel by canoe from Nation to Nation participating in cultural protocols, sharing, and learning before all coming together at one final host Nation to end the Journey. I wish to contribute to the efforts of making experiences like Tribal Canoe Journeys and their culturally significant experience possible and accessible for my community through this proposed project. Carving much needed paddles for our community’s canoe family that will allow us to undertake the physical aspect of our journey together individually and collectively pulling us to our destination together.
