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Written as I Remember It: Teachings (Ɂɘms taɁaw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder
Long before vacationers discovered BC's Sunshine Coast, the Sliammon, a Coast Salish people, called the region home. Elsie Paul is one of the last surviving mother-tongue speakers of the Sliammon language. In this remarkable book, she collaborates with a scholar, Paige Raibmon, and her granddaughter, Harmony Johnson, to tell her life story and the history of her people, in her own words and storytelling style. Raised by her grandparents, who took her on their seasonal travels, Paul spent most of her childhood learning Sliammon ways, stories, and legends. Her adult life unfolded against a backdrop of colonialism and racism. As Paul worked to sustain a healthy marriage, raise a large family, cope with tremendous grief and loss, and develop a career and give back to community, she drew strength from Sliammon teachings, which live on in the pages of "Written as I Remember It."
489 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2014
11 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 20, 2020
This is a beautiful book! I read it online at RavenSpace, where you can access lots of photos, video and audio to supplement the text. Really incredible!
February 25, 2021
The book is available online here with Elsie's recordings. It's a very simple beautiful website.
http://publications.ravenspacepublish...
Elsie tells us about her life and the Sliammon culture in five themes. The territory, clonalisim, community, wellness and the sliammon language. The book contains a lot of photos, videos, recordings and maps to help better understand the location of the events or the pronunciation of the Sliammon language and to immerse yourself in Elsie's world.
The Sliammon language is an oral language which makes it an endangered language since it has lost most of it's speakers. The chapter explains the terminology, orthography, pronunciation and structure of the language.
In the first chapter, Elsi talks about the land and the ways of survival, the fishing, hunting and gathering, how to prepare and take care of the food while respecting nature around them. She explains that the Sliammon people have always lived on the coast mainly in Theodosia inlet and Oakeove inlet in the winter because it’s sheltered, and travelling by season to look for work and food, as they travelled all over the coast, all the way up north to River inlet and south to the United States and that the Sliammon existence on this land is backed by archaeological evidence. The sliammon people have alway coexisted with nature around them and it was scared to them. They respected the animals, thanking them for giving away their lives and maximizing the benefits of every little part of the animal and making sure that nothing goes to waste.
Elsie goes to explains passionately and how take care of the salmon, how to dry it and prepare it, and that shows that salmon is a very important part of their lives, that even some first nations have salmon ceremonies. She mentioned that everything existed in abundance in the past, herring spawn by the beach, clams washing up onto the shore, but today there are some kinds of fish that they don't see anymore, and some have declined in numbers, clams are contaminated due to industries existing around the area. The chapter end with traditional legends about the mink and how they have been her lessons in life to learn the teachings and morals from those stories.
The second chapter is titled colonialism, the impact of contact on the Sliammon people, the conflict and racism. First nations have traded between with each other and it’s part of the social fabric, they traded dried fruits, canoes and other things, they also traded with non-native people, meat, chicken, eggs, clothes and baskets. The native people have been segregated and they were not allowed to exist in the white communities unless they were there for business, native people had their designated sarees in restaurants and movie theaters. The residential schools had a devastating impact on natives, as they were robbed of their children, and the kids were in a prison-like school were they had to endure physical, emotional and psychological abuse on daily basis and that still has effects on nearly everyone of them, losing their identity, language and culture, not knowing how raise and love their children, self medicating with alcohol and tranquilizers and some would commit sucide. On the reserves the police is usually patrolling the community, she mentions them killing their dogs and arresting people and sometimes for no reason as the jail would be full of natives on the weekends.
The third chapter is titled community, living together, the lifestyle, the teachings and the justice system. Everyone knew each other in the community, and everyone is your relative. Elsie illustrates the importance of leading by example, the elders didn’t teach her but lived their teachings and they were a living role model, they respected others, they were thankful, grateful and humble. And when you do something wrong or embarrassed or harmed someone else, you were made to apologize and pay them back by offering something or a service.
Growing up, Elsie didn’t have many young friends as she didn’t attend school and they always had to go into hiding to escape the indian agent so she doesn’t get sent to the residential school. After marriage she had to work in order to help her husband and supply for the kids, she would leave the kids alone so she could earn, she worked different jobs and later she accepted a job as a social worker despite not being educated, she worked there for 24 years which she enjoyed despite it being exhausting as she was able to help her community. Then she worked as an elder’s worker and was elected as a councillor in the community.
The fourth chapter is titled wellness, caring for body, mind and spirit. Elsie emphasis on the importance of the teachings as people today are forgetting about them and falling into a dark whole of depression. One of the teachings is the spirit cleansing which happens either during puberty or during grief when you lose someone. The vision quest cleansing for men, to go away from your community and wake up every morning and swim in the river cleansing yourself with cedar boughs and dipping it into the water and brushing yourself. As for the women they don’t go to the river but they do the cleansing at home or a small creek using cedar boughs to bush themselves. The Sliammon people believed in natural medicine whether it’s fish oil for massage or snail slime for oral thrush, and it was important to thank nature for the medicine. It is also important for them to connect and remember and appreciate their ancestors and that to relive the pain of losing them and one way is by offering a feast for the ancestors.
http://publications.ravenspacepublish...
Elsie tells us about her life and the Sliammon culture in five themes. The territory, clonalisim, community, wellness and the sliammon language. The book contains a lot of photos, videos, recordings and maps to help better understand the location of the events or the pronunciation of the Sliammon language and to immerse yourself in Elsie's world.
The Sliammon language is an oral language which makes it an endangered language since it has lost most of it's speakers. The chapter explains the terminology, orthography, pronunciation and structure of the language.
In the first chapter, Elsi talks about the land and the ways of survival, the fishing, hunting and gathering, how to prepare and take care of the food while respecting nature around them. She explains that the Sliammon people have always lived on the coast mainly in Theodosia inlet and Oakeove inlet in the winter because it’s sheltered, and travelling by season to look for work and food, as they travelled all over the coast, all the way up north to River inlet and south to the United States and that the Sliammon existence on this land is backed by archaeological evidence. The sliammon people have alway coexisted with nature around them and it was scared to them. They respected the animals, thanking them for giving away their lives and maximizing the benefits of every little part of the animal and making sure that nothing goes to waste.
Elsie goes to explains passionately and how take care of the salmon, how to dry it and prepare it, and that shows that salmon is a very important part of their lives, that even some first nations have salmon ceremonies. She mentioned that everything existed in abundance in the past, herring spawn by the beach, clams washing up onto the shore, but today there are some kinds of fish that they don't see anymore, and some have declined in numbers, clams are contaminated due to industries existing around the area. The chapter end with traditional legends about the mink and how they have been her lessons in life to learn the teachings and morals from those stories.
The second chapter is titled colonialism, the impact of contact on the Sliammon people, the conflict and racism. First nations have traded between with each other and it’s part of the social fabric, they traded dried fruits, canoes and other things, they also traded with non-native people, meat, chicken, eggs, clothes and baskets. The native people have been segregated and they were not allowed to exist in the white communities unless they were there for business, native people had their designated sarees in restaurants and movie theaters. The residential schools had a devastating impact on natives, as they were robbed of their children, and the kids were in a prison-like school were they had to endure physical, emotional and psychological abuse on daily basis and that still has effects on nearly everyone of them, losing their identity, language and culture, not knowing how raise and love their children, self medicating with alcohol and tranquilizers and some would commit sucide. On the reserves the police is usually patrolling the community, she mentions them killing their dogs and arresting people and sometimes for no reason as the jail would be full of natives on the weekends.
The third chapter is titled community, living together, the lifestyle, the teachings and the justice system. Everyone knew each other in the community, and everyone is your relative. Elsie illustrates the importance of leading by example, the elders didn’t teach her but lived their teachings and they were a living role model, they respected others, they were thankful, grateful and humble. And when you do something wrong or embarrassed or harmed someone else, you were made to apologize and pay them back by offering something or a service.
Growing up, Elsie didn’t have many young friends as she didn’t attend school and they always had to go into hiding to escape the indian agent so she doesn’t get sent to the residential school. After marriage she had to work in order to help her husband and supply for the kids, she would leave the kids alone so she could earn, she worked different jobs and later she accepted a job as a social worker despite not being educated, she worked there for 24 years which she enjoyed despite it being exhausting as she was able to help her community. Then she worked as an elder’s worker and was elected as a councillor in the community.
The fourth chapter is titled wellness, caring for body, mind and spirit. Elsie emphasis on the importance of the teachings as people today are forgetting about them and falling into a dark whole of depression. One of the teachings is the spirit cleansing which happens either during puberty or during grief when you lose someone. The vision quest cleansing for men, to go away from your community and wake up every morning and swim in the river cleansing yourself with cedar boughs and dipping it into the water and brushing yourself. As for the women they don’t go to the river but they do the cleansing at home or a small creek using cedar boughs to bush themselves. The Sliammon people believed in natural medicine whether it’s fish oil for massage or snail slime for oral thrush, and it was important to thank nature for the medicine. It is also important for them to connect and remember and appreciate their ancestors and that to relive the pain of losing them and one way is by offering a feast for the ancestors.
May 9, 2015
Well, it's been a bit of a long slog but worth it. At first I thought I was in over my head. I couldn't *get* the native language references but then realized I didn't have to. I should just read it and get what I could out of it. Phew! Lots of descriptions of Native life, customs, and legends. I got a real *feel* for the people and their history and also for Elsie Paul herself.
June 29, 2019
This book was a delight in so many ways. I learned much and was enlightened.
September 16, 2020
Fascinating celebration. Narrative. Extensive resource and reading lists.
August 1, 2021
Fascinating account. I loved how Elsie Paul's voice shone through, with wisdom, humour, and humility.
June 9, 2017
A wonderful book packed with some amazing information and stories. Elsie is wonderful to hear in person too and I learned a lot from her talk after hearing her presentation at MOA last year.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews