New photo exhibition at Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre captures Indigenous peoples' enduring presence
UNCEDED: S7ULH TEMÍXW / TI TMICWKÁLHA / OUR LAND—A Photographic Journey into Belonging reflects the Squamish Nation and Lil’wat Nation’s connection to the land
UNCEDED: S7ULH TEMÍXW / TI TMICWKÁLHA / OUR LAND–A Photographic Journey into Belonging. Photo by Logan Swayze Photography
Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre presents UNCEDED: S7ULH TEMÍXW / TI TMICWKÁLHA / OUR LAND– A Photographic Journey into Belonging from December 21 to May 21, 2023. The official opening, open to the public, takes place December 21 from 2 to 5 pm; the Spo7ez Winter Feast follows, from 5:30 to 9 pm
CAPTURED IN A large-scale environmental portrait, Líl̓wat7úl (Lil’wat Nation) member Ntsinemquen William (Bill) Ritchie is standing on the 17th green at Nicklaus North Golf Course just north of Whistler, facing the sun and wearing a traditional woven-cedar hat. With a slight tilt of his head, he gazes well above the pin toward mountains carpeted with emerald green forest, his back to glacier-fed Green Lake.
These days, this very spot is best known as the golf course’s signature hole, with undulating sand traps around much of the green. For the Líl̓wat, who have called the region home for millennia, the area was once abundant in huckleberries. The Líl̓wat are Ucwalmícw, meaning “the people of the land”, one of 11 communities that form the Státimc Nation. Prior to colonization, Líl̓wat Nation members would travel to this spot from present-day Mount Currie to gather the fruit, a vital source of sustenance and valuable currency for trade.
The image by Logan Swayze Photography is one of 18 that make up UNCEDED: S7ULH TEMÍXW / TI TMICWKÁLHA / OUR LAND–A Photographic Journey into Belonging at Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre.
“What's important about this photo is it shows in Ntsinemquen’s connection to the land,” Líl̓wat Nation member Mix̲alhítsa7 Alison Pascal said at a media preview of UNCEDED. Mix̲alhítsa7 is co-curator of the exhibition along with Tsawaysia Dominique Nahanee of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation). “Huckleberries are one of our favorite berries and were also one of our favourite trade items,” Mix̲alhítsa7 said. “We really specialized in travelling and trading, and these would get you quite a lot when you’re going northwards, where it starts to be too dry. And a lot of the wealth system was in trading for items that you didn't have in your own territory. So sometimes when you're looking at our regalia, and you see that we're a mountain community and we're wearing a lot of shells and furs, that's because our family had enough leisure time to travel and trade. So that's why we chose this particular photo.”
Taken in spectacular settings throughout the Sea to Sky region, from K’emk’emeláy (Vancouver) to Ts’zil (Mount Currie), the UNCEDED exhibition incorporates regalia, elders, youth, and chieftainship with the modern world, asking viewers to look at the world through a different lens on the shared territories of the Squamish Nation and Lil’wat Nation, which meet in Whistler.
Mixalhítsa7 wanted the exhibit to underscore two points: a reminder of the presence of the Lil’wat Nation and Squamish Nation since time immemorial; and a journey toward understanding that according to Indigenous people, the land doesn’t belong to us; we belong to the land. With that comes a responsibility to care for it, and all the living beings we share it with, to ensure a future for generations to come.
“For people that have lived here only for one or two generations…sometimes it's hard to see the value in the natural resources, like the huckleberries or the cedar tree, or the value of leaving a forest intact as it is to support all of the plants and animals and the medicines that people need,” Mix̲alhítsa7 said. “I think more and more, society is understanding that going out into these natural areas is a medicine in itself and that there is value in that ability to connect to nature and to connect to the Earth. And in these really busy, modern times when we've got so much going on at home and so much going on at work, there is real value in just being really peaceful, connecting and allowing yourself to enjoy and appreciate the world around you.
“Recently within Lil’wat Nation history, we were known as sort of a radical community that liked to roadblock and protest, but really what that meant was that we're really passionate about our land and we're really passionate about our connection to it, especially for our future generations,” she said. “Like in other Indigenous communities, we really believe in the generations that are coming behind us and that a lot of the work that we do is for the children and the children's children. It’s work that we do for the continuance of our culture and of our people.”
Working on UNCEDED, Mix̲alhítsa7 said, has been an opportunity to connect and collaborate with different families in the two Nations’ communities and the many businesses, organizations, and families who allowed the exhibition’s team onto private property to take the photos and who supported them in other ways.
By its very title, the exhibition may challenge some viewers; there is a common perception or even fear that terms like “unceded” or “our land” refer strictly to rights and title. In fact, the use of “our land” in this case, Mixalhítsa7 noted, is to bring forward the Lil’wat and Squamish Nations’ stewardship of the land, their belonging to it, their economic opportunities and cultural connection to it, and their history living and thriving on it.”
Subtitled A Photographic Journey into Belonging, the exhibition explores the juxtaposition that development and colonization have created with the ancient traditions and modern life of Indigenous peoples.
“While pop culture, fashion trends and global connection are influencing how people move through society, Indigenous peoples residing on and off reserve are living deeply in their culture, engaged socially and politically with the world around them, reviving ancient traditions, re-enforcing a stewardship that guided their climate and lands safely through the first fifty-thousand years before contact,” SLCC executive director Heather Paul said in a release.
In working on UNCEDED, Mixalhítsa7 learned more about her own family. When she first started working at SLCC, she was a tour guide; she discovered that her grandfather also used to work as a tour guide on their territory, leading people on horseback to Black Tusk. She learned, too, that some Nation members lived—and still live—at Green Lake. There used to be camps nearby for Lil’wat Nation members who were travelling through the valley.
Related Articles
