Governance

Traditional Teachings Toolbox

Based on the notion that "we must know where we come from in order to know where we are going" and building on the work of the Kwuth Ta-ow report, the Traditional Teachings Toolbox is the most comprehensive study done to date collating information about traditional Sliammon Governance.

The elements of the Traditional Teachings Toolbox are:

The Governance Model
The Sliammon Timeline
Political History
Guiding Principles

The report covers traditional ceremonies, the bighouse, economy, marriage, birth, death, the potlatch, traditional forms of leadership, and, environmental stewardship.

Excerpt from Traditional Teachings Toolbox:

Our Ta’ow comes to us through our families.  It teaches us how to carry ourselves and how to treat other people and our surroundings.  Our children tend to copy what they see, not what they hear; that is why it is so important to lead by example. Our traditional culture has changed greatly since Captain Vancouver visited our territory in 1792. So many of our ancestral teachers have passed on. Yet we can go forward by drawing upon our traditional values to create the best of both worlds for our children. There will be many challenges and mistakes along the way, as we find how to retain those values in today’s world. Still, we must persevere and rebuild our nation and lift up our people once again.

We are coming full circle. Our strength lies within our acknowledgement of the appropriateness of our traditional beliefs and values within a modern system, a system committed to sustaining our future generations.  Our culture will not magically return to us, we must fight for it through learning and sharing as much as we can with each other, and healing ourselves by believing in the power of our own spirituality.

While the focus of our traditional system was interdependency and the sharing of wealth, values that permitted some to become the highest among equals, our focus, through western influence has now changed to the gathering of wealth and power for our personal survival.  Nobody is suggesting that we should give up the modern conveniences that we have become accustomed to.  Nor should hierarchy; slavery and polygamy have a place in the modern system.  It will be a challenge and a delicate balance.    However, we are still interdependent and still need to survive as Sliammon people; this requires co-operation and respect for one another. We need to remember:

One thing that we can all agree upon is that the system of governance imposed upon us by the Indian Act does not work for us. We need to Qoo-nah-xen-um (‘look back’), before we can move forward in a meaningful way. We can, and must - find a way to rebuild our traditional system of governance and meet the demands and new responsibilities of a modern governance structure, one that will satisfy the needs and expectations of the Sliammon people.  We must challenge ourselves to think outside of the box, to look beyond the Indian Act and the Reserve structure in which we have been trapped for so long.

Separating culture from politics and business is important, but we must always remember that fine line where they need to be intertwined in a way that is respectful to our Ancestors.

There is so much more to learn and do.  Everyday, every surrounding and every person brings a new lesson.  We have a responsibility to make things better, while respecting that may mean something different to each of us.