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As I Remember It: Teachings (Ɂəms tɑɁɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder The Sliammon-language term for this label means “it is mine.” This book contains the teachings and history of the ɬaʔamɩn people as remembered and narrated by Elder Elsie Paul. The effort and care she takes in this work is important. She offers a counter-narrative to incorrect and inappropriate interpretations previously drawn by settlers. Please respect Elsie Paul’s right and responsibility to relate the history and teachings in her own words. She does so from her own perspective and does not attempt to speak for all ɬaʔamɩn people. Please attribute the stories shared in this book to Elsie Paul.

Some sections of this book are authored by other individuals and should be attributed to the appropriate person(s) as indicated. This label refers to a teaching that emerges throughout this book: “you learn from someone by example.” (The literal translation of tiʔiwš is “fast learner.”) The goal of this book is to share ɬaʔamɩn teachings and history widely with ɬaʔamɩn community members, students, and teachers at all levels, and with any other interested readers. This is Elsie’s goal in sharing ʔəms tɑʔɑw, and all of the authors hope the book serves an educational purpose. The authors ask readers to take care to use this information respectfully and in context.

Makeshift Church

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Contents of this tag:
6. After the Fire
7. First Home
8. Health Centre
9. Makeshift Church
10. Remains of the Fire
11. Sliammon Sacred Heart Church
12. Delivery Truck
13. Sliammon Village Waterfront
14. Resource Depletion: The Last Year of Herring
17. Fish Traps (1)
18. Fish Traps (2)
19. Dugouts
20. Sliammon Day School In addition to attending the Sechelt Indian Residential School, Elsie Paul occasionally attended a day school in the Sliammon community in the winter months. The Sliammon day school teachers were Pat McGuinness and Mr. Gallagher. Back row: Unknown boy with hat, Katherine Blaney, Teacher Pat McGuinness, Rosaline Wilson, unknown girl, Marilyn Louie (tall in the very back behind unknown girl). Middle row: Ernie Galligos (shorter boy), Joe Paul, Agnes Paul, unknown girl. Front row (small children): Sarah Tom, Maggie Wilson, and Joe Francis (Elsie Paul’s half brother)
21. Fishing Boat
22. At the Beach
23. tiyskʷɑt (1)
24. Going to Church (1)
25. Mom at Sacred Heart
26. tʼɩšosəm The ɬaʔamɩn village of tiyskʷɑt. Buildings, from left: Frank Williams house; Bob George’s house; Sliammon Sacred Heart Church, Sam August’s house; Sam August married Teresa (tɑlɛsɑt), mother to Albert August. Keh Kay Keh (Molly Williams’s house); Molly was from Sechelt. This eventually became Johnny George and Mary George’s house. Sam Adams house; Stanley Peters and Nellies house. Joe (Chilena) and Molly Galligos house: Far right is Gilbert Francis’s house, Chi-chia’s dad. He eventually tore this down and built a new house on the site. This is shown in a later picture from the same perspective. Dance hall is behind the church. Smokehouses in foreground. Smokehouses were typically located on the beach.
27. tiyskʷɑt (2)
28. Sliammon Waterfront
29. Wedding
30. Dam Construction
31. On the Road
32. Territory
33. Give It to Them
34. Horizontal Fly over Water Point to Beach
35. Old Single Lane Bridge
36. Preparing Fish and Community Drive-Through
37. Kla Ah Men | Tla’amin | Sliammon
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Childhood Fun
“I remember my grandmother making little tiny dolls about the size of your little finger out of old rags and whatever she had. And they looked like little dolls, and oh! I treasured those!”
I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to get into mischief when I was growing up. Sometimes I think I was always old. [laughs] ’Cause I grew up with old people, right? And you always had to behave. And you listen up when you’re told something. And you didn’t really have a chance to get into any mischief. I was always around with the older generation, and doing what they did. I wouldn’t say there was no fun, because to me, it was just a way of life – what we did, what my grandparents did. I just went along with that. There were not an awful lot of girls my age when I was growing up. And I think because just being with my grandparents – and quite often we travelled in isolation from other families – just to be with my grandfather, for him to do what he had to do, like, he’s logging – “handlogging,” they called it. Or just when he needs to be near the fishing ground that he’s fishing in.
“And you didn’t really have a chance to get into any mischief. I was always around with the older generation, and doing what they did.”
So it wasn’t like a daily interaction with other young people. But from time to time we would get together, like my being around Sue Pielle and Liz, and our families were situated together. Then we had all the fun time of playing on the beach and going in the little canoe fishing, and that was at Harwood Island that I spent time with that family. But other than that a lot of it was spent almost like in isolation from other young people. So there was not a lot of that.
But a lot of our fun and recreation was from the grandparents and grandfather making little toys, dugout canoes for the little boys to play with. And he made little ones – so that was a real treasure for the boys. They would go and play with the little canoes down the beach. Little handmade canoes.
And for myself, as a young girl, a little girl, I remember my grandmother making little tiny dolls about the size of your little finger out of old rags and whatever she had. And they looked like little dolls, and oh! I treasured those! I had a bunch of them. I only had one doll that I remembered that was, like, a porcelain doll – like, had this porcelain head. And I thought that was really something. And later on I acquired more dolls. And my grandmother used to talk about how I always favoured the one that was the saddest-looking doll. [laughs]
“I remember my grandmother making little tiny dolls about the size of your little finger out of old rags and whatever she had.”
I don’t know where she got these dolls from, but she picked it up. Maybe through trading. But I remember having a whole line of dolls all lined up, sitting propped against the wall. They’re all sitting together. But I always favoured the saddest-looking one. [laughs] I don’t know why! I would just play like they’re a family. Put them in groups of families.
And I guess we had the church then, and I laid it out like how we all sit when we go to church, all in rows and rows, and all facin’ one way, and one side are the men over there. They’re all facing the front, the altar area. And then have one up at the front that is the priest, right? Facing the people. My grandmother thought that was pretty funny that I created that. And I don’t know how old I would have been then. I was probably around six years old. But that was because my grandmother would go to church and take me to church. So that was my little church group. All with little kerchiefs on their head. [laughs] You didn’t go to church without your kerchief, in my grandmother’s day. You had to have your head covered. Because if you didn’t have a kerchief on your head, you were sent out of church.
But that is the extent of the toys that I had. I didn’t have a lot of toys. I didn’t have any books, like, to read. Like, storybooks for children? We never had that.
All I had was just storytelling. I was told in the language. And I guess that’s pretty much the same as reading out of a book. But these were stories or legends and things like that, that was readily available for me. Yeah.
So that was my kind of recreation. That was my kind of fun time.