“Did you know that trees eat salmon? There is salmon DNA in trees. And I have salmon DNA in me. I am part of this ecosystem. My blood is deep in this land.”

Lhpatq Maxine Bruce

I have so much appreciation for Maxine Bruce. Her sense of humour and bridge-building ability and tireless work for the Lil’wat Nation in many capacities has meant that she can walk through Pemberton village, Nkwúkwma, (which means “upstream”), and greet many familiar faces – people she has sat on committees with, and had meetings with, and lunched with and greeted. Maybe the easiest way to explain how much appreciation there is for her is to share that, when 2023 Canada Day preparations were underway and logistics about who would go in which order in the first parade after the pandemic and the realizations about the brutality of residential school had begun to shake Canadians, one of Pemberton’s senior firefighters said, “Maxine can walk anywhere she wants.”

It is a lot of emotional and cultural heavy lifting, to be a Lil’wat person, moving among us settler types. Yesterday, we shared Georgina Dan’s beautiful TEDx talk, and she mentioned the idea of safety – how different people she had encountered in her work at the SLCC or in her language class, couldn’t really tell their stories, or remember their language, until they felt safe.

I think there is a need for a kind of emotional safety, too, for settlers – a kind of space held for us to ask dumb questions or fumble around, working out what identity we hold if we start to acknowledge the “truth” pieces of the truth and reconciliation journey, without worrying about being cancelled or yelled out, and perhaps this is why there is so much appreciation for Maxine, because she can provide that kind of collegial energy, and she can also call things out.

In her TEDx talk from May 2023, she speaks to what it means to be a person of the land, now, in an era of climate crisis. She uses the word “Nukwantwal”, which means “to help each other”, because the thing that connect us, and the people she works with, is how much people care.

What if we lose the salmon and the eagles, and all we have left are the stories? The salmon count is falling terribly – 40% losses year over year. “What can we do together to address those issues?”

Land means responsibility. As a Territorial Stewardship Manager and an elected leader for the Lil’wat Nation, Maxine Bruce challenges us to connect with the land like her people have been doing for millennia. By combining Lil’wat traditional wisdom gathered over the past 5,500 years and today’s modern technologies, she envisions a world where we can work together to fight against climate change, and take responsibility, not just profits and resources.

“I challenge you to connect with the land and resources like the Lil’wat. Be one with the land. Be the ucwalmicwts tmiwc. Take what you need and use all that you take. Find a way.”

Lhpatq Maxine Bruce