By learning how to swim against the current like salmon do, a woman finds her way back to the source of her language and identity. Daniela Boccassini   As our times’ bewildered becoming keeps unfolding, two simple words from a French medieval poem have accompanied me every step of the way: contreval l’iaue. They sank

WORDS AND IMAGES Severn Cullis-Suzuki The Haida people know the cost of disease. They have lived on Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the west coast of Canada, for the past 14,000 years. In their recent history, after the first encounter with Europeans in 1774, waves of smallpox, measles, and other contact diseases ravaged the Haida

Severn Cullis-Suzuki The Haida people know the cost of disease. They have lived in Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the west coast of Canada, for the past 14,000 years. In their recent history, after the first encounter with Europeans in 1774, waves of smallpox, measles, and other contact diseases ravaged the Haida population. From 30,000-strong,

Story by SX̱EDŦELISIYE (Renee Sampson, W̱SÁNEĆ, age 37), with an introduction by Luisa Maffi, Editor of Langscape Magazine, Co-founder and Director, Terralingua . Luisa Maffi, 2019 It was one of those stubbornly-not-yet-summer early June days on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada, eight years ago. The sky was overcast and

Interview by Luisa Maffi, Editor of Langscape Magazine, Co-founder and Director, Terralingua In June of 2019, I was very fortunate to attend a unique event: the HELISET TŦE SḰÁL “Let the Languages Live” conference in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (June 24–26, 2019). Organized by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation,

Interview by Luisa Maffi, Editor of Langscape Magazine, Co-founder and Director, Terralingua In June of 2019, I was very fortunate to attend a unique event: the HELISET TŦE SḰÁL “Let the Languages Live” conference in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (June 24–26, 2019). Organized by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation,

by Daniel Kirkpatrick Florence James smiled and said the word again, a little more slowly: “Shle’muxun.” The fifty or so people in the audience quietly rolled the sound across their tongues, trying it out. A helper took a marker and wrote out the word on butcher paper, checked the spelling with Florence, and posted the

by Andrea Lyall Tsa̱g̱a̱ł (thimbleberry). Photo: Andrea Lyall, 2016. Kwak̓wala is the Indigenous language of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw on the mid-coast of present-day British Columbia. It expresses a connection to the land through words, stories, and ceremonies, which describe the patterns of the seasons, traditional use, important places, and cultural and spiritual values. When I was young,

by Alice Meyers in conversation with Earl Claxton Jr. (Thuh-thay-tun Kapilano) This is the story of my friendship with Earl Claxton Jr., a SȾÁ,UTW̱ (Tsawout) Elder and respected botanical knowledge holder from the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) Coast Salish First Nation on the territory known as Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Anglicized from his SENĆOŦEN language, his

by Kelly Bannister and George Nicholas It is Fall 2014. At the Musqueam Cultural Centre near Vancouver in coastal British Columbia (BC), a meeting is taking place of an international team of cultural heritage scholars, professionals, and Indigenous community experts. The group is holding its final gathering to conclude a seven-year, multimillion-dollar university-based research initiative