 First off, I'd like to say thank you to Snanomukh for allowing this to happen in their territory. I'll be introducing myself in my language of Nujanol. I'd like to say thank you to Snanomukh for allowing this to happen in their territory. I'd like to say thank you to the late Eileen Charles and the late Spider Thomas. I'd like to say thank you to the late Eileen Charles and the late Spider Thomas. It's my family who I come from and where I come from. It's really important for me to know that because it helps me to identify with all of my ancestors, with my grandparents and with everything that makes me me today. Well, just by introducing myself there in my language and saying where I come from is the protocol and all of the business that we do, not just as elders and elders in training, but as youth, as children to know where they come from. For me, as a residential school survivor, it took me many years to identify where I came from, even though I knew. And when I mean identify, I mean go back in history to know my bloodlines from my mother, from my father, from their mother, their father, and so on and so on, and to be able to have that knowledge so that when my kids are growing and they know who their relatives are, they know where they come from, they know to make those connections because that to me, what I've been taught is what protocol is, is letting people know who you are, where you come from, who you come from, so that you can make those connections to all those people that you meet in your life. And for me, protocol makes you strong inside. It makes you proud of who you are, but it also helps mostly for identity because again, as a residential school survivor and for our youth today who are going through the same kinds of living and surviving what they're going through today, I've heard some of our youth say they don't know who they are or where they come from. And for me, that's a call to my spirit to help our youth, to help kids, to help adults who are hurting it and to be able to bring that kind of knowledge upfront and to share that with anybody and everybody that asks. I worked here helping kids to identify that and I wouldn't trade it in the world for anything because it helps me to connect. It helps that circle of healing, that circle of connecting, that circle of knowledge so that it may be shared, so that it may be taught, so that it may be learned. So for me, I really can't speak enough about what protocol means to not just me but to all nations. I really truly believe that every nation here on the coast, every nation across this great Turtle Island protocol is important because when you go somewhere to know who you are, to be able to share that with the people you're meeting, it's a great power, it's a great power of bringing all your ancestors with you because you know who you are and for me that's true spiritual power to be able to have that recognition within your own self saying who you are. I really value that and it's something that helps me to help my kids that we know who we are when we're drumming, when we're singing, when we're dancing, when we're speaking and when we go out to do those things. It's really important. My boys are traveling to New Zealand and protocol is a really big part of their journey as they journey to New Zealand to be able to speak their protocol but also to listen to the protocols that are coming to them from the people in New Zealand, from the Māori. It's been a really strong healing experience for us all to grow together, the kids to be able to give them our language. I don't speak fluently but I can understand a lot of it and a lot of it is coming through healing. A lot of it has come back because I can take care of my spirit too, not just take medicines when I'm ill or different things but to feed my spirit. It's really important to me today as an elder and I say that because that's what I'm... Those are my steps in my healing where I'm growing to be a keeper of knowledge and from what my understanding of an elder is as somebody who is forgiving of their knowledge. For me that means a lot because of a lot of those good people in my life. A lot of what I've learned about who I truly am comes from good people. It comes from good people in my life. These people have helped me to see the importance of forgiveness, the importance of connection, the importance of moving forward. I don't have enough fingers or toes to appreciate the amount of elders, the amount of good people in my life that have helped me to be who I know I truly am as coming from residential school. I have those scars, I have those hurts and being able to share those with my family, to be able to tell stories, to be able to tell my story because it's important that I can share my story and not let the shame, not let the energy of it steer me this way or steer me away from a direction that is made for me purpose. That purpose when one finds purpose in their life, their life generally becomes more enjoyable and for me that's what protocol and working with youth does. It gives me satisfaction in my spirit because that purpose is being lived, being breathed and being practiced through song, through eating, you know. Having you here come into my house, we call it haosmus, we put on coffee, we put on food and then we start to talk and share because when we do that teaching and we acknowledge people in our homes, we make them feel comfortable, we make them feel safe and therefore conversation happens the way it's supposed to happen and it's not fabricated or thought about too much because for me teaching through feeding, through eating is gathering when my family sits here at the table to be able to have a conversation about our day and also that feeding is something that was taught to me by my grandmother with gathering that when you feed the bellies and you feed the spirits of people, of your family it shows how much you love, how much you value people, individuals, family you can make your best meal for them, you can pull out your finest sakkai salmon or your food that you save for special purposes, for special occasions and when good people come in you pull it out and so yeah through that as well as storytelling to me is really important when you can sit and tell a story to youth, to children, to each other and then you can relate that story to a time the stories of our dance practices and how many times we can talk, we can share, we can feel free we can ask for support and that all comes through feeding, through eating together through sharing a meal, through blessing, through praying and I know wherever you go when you're involved with Coas, with First Nations people when it's a meal it always starts with a prayer so for me that shows so many other parts of who we are by eating because we get brought into prayer, we get brought into song, we get brought into connection so that is something that my grandmother taught me that is something that in our family I know is a strength and it's something that needs to be spoken about because my grandparents are getting old and we can't lose those teachings when we lose our elders, when we lose our grandparents so to me again that's why storytelling is important so many of my stories of who I am and who my grandparents are to me comes by going to hear stories being told over and over and over and to me that has purpose because we're oral people we talk, we speak from here, we connect our hands to who we are and when we speak that way as opposed to flailing like the different types of people in this world that speak with more about being out there than being in here, the most important journey and so I extend a lot of gratitude to my grandparents for seeing in me what I couldn't see at the time and I guess that's something that can be strengthened and so many of our teachings is that a lot of the times we don't see what other people see in us and when we can feed that, when we can grow that, when we can believe in that and those people in ourselves and how important that is because with elders in our lives we're strong when elders in our lives, when they're gone we're still strong because we've got to keep on practicing that we've got to keep on speaking of it not gossiping, not the lateral violence but telling a story that brings family strength, unity, connection to one another and helping other families come together and speak of similar stories in their family again that brings connection for me connection is always the correction there's no other way to be and then connecting with other people spiritual experiences, cultural experiences, social experiences all of these things that we have that is cultural, that sometimes our young people don't see that just sitting at the table and talking in any circle the dinner circle, drumming circle circles and AA or whatever it might be these circles all have meaning and purpose so those are just some of the things that seem to fall naturally like I don't sit and plan these were teachings that were taught a long time ago and to have those teachings flourish not only in me but my kids when dad's not home or they can serve their auntie, their grandma and people like that when they come in some people call it courtesy but it really is a teaching which brings our family unity and the strength that we have as a family to flourish because we have identity through storytelling, through sharing, through connecting one of the stories and teachings that I want my family and everybody after me, grandchildren, great-grandchildren would be a story that happened in my time that comes with mystique it comes with all kinds of the stuff that our culture is based on and Heshko Territory probably about 20 years ago we had a Mamashni scientist out in our territory counting sea otters and these guys are out there with three local brothers from the territories and they're out there counting sea otters and it was a really calm day and I guess it gets monotonous just sitting in the skiff counting and waiting for sea otters and out of the blue the scientist and they see coming two large killer whales, males steaming full board, swimming full board towards them and it brings a lot of excitement that makes them stand up in their skiff because they believe they're going to witness the killer whales attacking the sea otters so they're watching now but the scientist says that the funny thing was that sea otters weren't scared and they were just sitting there flipping in their kelp, rolling around and they didn't sound no alarms as these two big bull male killer whales got closer and closer and finally they got close enough where they dove down and where all the sea otters where they thought they were going to come up underneath them started wreaking havoc and so they're watching these three koas guys from the territory and this white scientist are watching on each side of the boat for mayhem with the killer whales and the sea otters but nothing happened they're still watching and they're watching for the killer whales to come up now there's still no sight of the killer whales a minute or two went by and they all looked they see at the beach there's two wolves at the water wet they walk out from the water and they're up on the beach and they look back at the same time at the scientist and these three guys on the boat and they start shaking they dried their fur and they walked up the beach and the scientist seen this he's a man of science he's a man of facts this is his story being told at an NTC gathering he said I'm a man of facts but what I've seen I can't explain he was he was privileged by the creator by our ancestors because he works for us and he works for us not just up here but from his heart too as well where he sees the struggles or people are going through on our foreshores in our waters with the resources that are being depleted so now the scientist told this story to his science field and he says you can't mock me unless you live there unless you come to see and what this was what this is is an expression of transformation when you see this happen when you see killer whale turn into wolves or deer turn into Sasquatch these transformations are a blessing but they're also a message because transforming means things are changing and that's what transformation in our story and our legends is that times are changing and that is something that for me because when I walk outside and I see something different I see birds here for the springtime coming now or you see swallows showing up because it's June and the Sakka fish are coming all of these transformations that nature shows us these stories in our paintings these stories in the artwork and the carvings all reflect transformation that things are going to change and it's up to us to recognize that change and be a part of that change but to also keep intact that identity that connection to our waters to our lands to our resources because those stories whether they were 10,000 years ago a thousand years ago or whether they were from 20 years ago when they're told when they're shared it gives that story meaning because it's coming from this family songs, history, legends all come up from when you see transformation take place our people really are spiritual selves those are the eyes, those are the ears that see those things happening and for me I can only acknowledge and breathe life into what I truly feel because that was in my territory that was in my homeland and I live here in Nanaimo but I can tell that story because it gives me power and it gives me insight to being part of change to adapt because being able to adapt to change means we're going to survive and I think that story has been told throughout first contact residential school through kids in care those transformations that are happening and those stories that need to be told so that we ensure that change that we can adapt to that change and how change for us, for me in particular changes is healing because you're looking for a different way a better way a safer way through something so that's what it means for me that story too well this one here is really meaningful to me because it's been told by a few elders and I've seen it shared in different places and that's about where I come from from Heshqut where Mamashna was first seen Mamashna in our language means the big sails on the boat not the people and it talks about Jesus in the time of the Bible and how Jesus fled to keep the story alive to keep again the transformation in time was happening and Jesus knew of his demise he knew what was going to happen to him and he knew that the true teachings of the Creator were going to live through the people that were connected to the land, to the water those were the people that were going to keep those true teachings alive by sharing, by talking by connecting and Jesus knew of his demise and he said to the people on this side what's going to happen to me is going to happen to you so I need you to flee into the morning sunrise and he looked on this side and he said the same thing to these people what's going to happen to me is going to happen to you for they wish to destroy and I need for you to flee into the sunset so these two bodies of people that were there with Jesus in the hill the one he said to go into the sunrise but Creator would have we fall off the edge of the earth and Jesus answers trust in me I will be with you on this journey and so they journey do not stop until you meet again so these people took off on this journey only following the morning sunrise and the evening sunset do not stop until you meet again so they journeyed on this journey around the world and however many years that took maybe 100 years who knows but that is on the 49th parallel and that 49th parallel of healing that comes and circumnavigates the globe comes together teachings comes together people like me and you and it brings the teaching of a circle and how powerful a circle is with the red with the black with the yellow with the white and with our spirit in the middle of it all and bringing those things together having those connections having those virtues in there is what kept us alive today our people have endured so much and for this story this is what it is for me it brings everything full circle Suwa those teachings come back again you know and for that for me is a story that I believe in here you know I believe that I feel emotion every time I tell it because I feel the energy of my ancestors the the presence of my ancestors standing beside me as I tell the story and it is something that I'll always tell because the way it was told to me and being hearing it multiple times in my life by different people so different walks of life and different parts of the earth telling that same story and for me again it's just that bringing the circle of life back together bringing our commonalities back together because when we look what we have in common more than what we don't have in common you know that brings separation whereas we can bring connection with it we do have in common and that story will resonate in my life forever and I will tell that story forever the same way it was told to me