We want to amplify the incredible feature from the Pique this week, showcasing the work of 14 grade 11 students at the Xetolacw Community School.

Each day for the next 2 weeks, we’ll share one of their pieces so you can take it in, in its fullness. It is always good to hear from the future generation, in their own words.

It is always a privilege when we get to hear from the people of this land.

Charlotte Jacklein, their grade 11 teacher, sets the stage for this two week listening adventure:

Writing is hard. Expressing opinions is hard. Exposing ourselves to criticism is hard. We all have an internal critic, telling us we’re not good enough, we’re not choosing the right words, nobody wants to hear us anyway. 

In the face of all these challenges, the Grade 11 students at Xet’ólacw Community School in Mount Currie tackled the task of writing articles for Pique Newsmagazine with determination and inner strength. Just a few months ago, we were perusing the news in our Social Studies class. Several students commented on how Mount Currie and the Lil’wat Nation are rarely in the news, and if they are, it’s usually not positive. I said, well, maybe we can change that.

We reached out to Pique with our idea and quickly received an encouraging response from editor-in-chief Braden Dupuis and features editor Brandon Barrett, who were keen to support the students in making their voices heard. To start the process of writing, students first brainstormed topics important to them and their community. Students then visited the Pique office in Whistler and had the opportunity to talk with the editorial staff about their careers, the journalism industry in general, and guidelines for writing articles. Students worked individually on their chosen topics and edited both their own and their peers’ writing to polish up their articles before submission. 

As a teacher, one of my biggest hopes for students is that they develop the skills and confidence to express themselves. Watching these articles evolve has been an exciting journey, and I look forward to seeing what projects these creative, determined young people tackle next.

Charlotte Jacklein

Artist Levi Nelson, whose work graces the cover of this issue, explains “My great uncle tells me that the Lil’wat Elders seen here are the survivors of the last smallpox epidemic responsible for eradicating a significant portion of the Lil’wat population many decades ago. Every Lil’wat member alive today has descended from someone in this photograph. Lil’wat pictographs for family, the sun, hunting and battlegrounds, and Grizzly Bear and Owl clans are also depicted.”

The Pemberton Museum has this image in its collection where it is identified as an image from 1958, by J. Wuttunee, “After receiving a centennial certificate for being born before 1900’s”.

This annotation is a good reminder, to me, of why who tells the story makes a difference to the story that gets told, to the facts that are deemed salient, to what is brought forth, and what is forgotten, ignored, unknown or erased.

It’s obviously not inaccurate, to file this photograph as one of people who had been born in the 1800s, but the context of being survivors of a smallpox epidemic adds a heft and emotional punch to its significance.

There is an account online from http://sisis.nativeweb.org/lilwat/pam.html of a pamphlet put out by the Lil’wat Peoples Movement in 1991 that speaks of the scale of loss from the smallpox epidemic:

Ancient graves surround Lillooet Lake.

The threatened burial site is on a strip of land between the edge of the lake and the foot of Boulder Mountain one of the towering mountains which encircle the Pemberton Valley. It’s across the lake from the fish camps which line the beach below the Duffy Lake Road and is accessible only by water.

The many victims of the smallpox epidemic in the late 19th century were buried here. It’s believed tens of thousands died. The burial ground mountain and the entire valley are sacred to us. We call the whole area 

The Lil’ Wat Meaning of “Sacred”

To us Lil’ Wats the entire area is A7XA7, our word for “sacred spiritual intelligence.” The spirits of our ancestors are there. The site is so sacred that most Lil’ Wats are forbidden to go to the area. Elders don’t tell all they know, since to talk about A7XA7 might disturb the spirits.

Only Scwenaxem (medicine people) were strong enough to withstand the danger of going there. They trained in Mklwal’ts, fasting and living in isolation for up to eight years. They became A7XA7. They controlled their spirit. They knew their spirit. They were known to even touch their spirit. The Scwenxem, too, are buried in the area of the sacred graves. 

International Forest Products Ltd. is presently building a road into the area of the burial site. They have already blasted some of the many petroglyphs painted on the rock by our ancestors. The company plans to clearcut the last remaining old-growth forest in this area. For this reason we must talk about Mkwal’ts and its desecration. Harold Pascal, traditional Watchman of the grave sites, planted a white cross in the area being destroyed. The cross represented the sacredness of the exact place where a person is buried. The R.C.M.P. twice removed the cross. 

Oral history tells us that any transgression might disturb and release the ancestral spirits and their power. Some of our elders believe the spirits will take vengeance on those who commit this sacrilege and those who allow it. Mkwal’ts is respected by the Lil’ Wat People and should by respected by all people. No one, except our traditional Watchman, may go to its most sacred sites. This law has been passed down to us for generations. It is our duty to raise our children with this respect and awareness.