The last three months have been busy! I’ve published 2 books, The Great Darkening project has made the news and I’ve created some exciting treats to share with everyone on ShawnSwanky.com. Let me bring everyone up to speed.
The ongoing legacy of the unconstitutional seizure of British Columbia from its indigenous peoples can be found everywhere around us today. Today I visited the Musqueam camp at the Marpole Midden on SW Marine Drive near the Arthur Laing Bridge in Vancouver. Indigenous people have occupied this strategic site at the mouth of the Fraser River for at least 4000 years. It has been long recognized as a Canadian Heritage site containing a priceless cultural record along with some undisturbed intact burials of the Musqueam people.
Shawn Swanky joins Twitter and “Ambition Takes Wing” is accepted into the 2012 Dawson City International Short Film Festival.
I was grateful for the chance to attend the 2010 Lhatsassin Memorial Day ceremony at New Westminster on Tuesday Oct. 26. And for the warmth of the many Tsilhqot’in I met there. As it happened, we parked our vehicle at the same time as tribal chairman Joe Alphonse. Contrary to the fantasies of some trolls in the Prosperity mine debate, Chief Joe does not drive a fancy late model sports car.
This year marks the 146th anniversary of the hanging of the Tsilhqot’in Chiefs. A day of remembrance for the Tsilhqot’in. Yet the public actions of Tsilhqot’in leaders of that time contain examples of greatness and nobility worthy of honor and remembrance by everyone. In keeping with this spirit, I will break from composing the documentary and attend the formal ceremony.
Two nations. Occupying the same land. Separated by an invisible wall. A wall nevertheless as certain as bricks and mortar. So a Xatsull elder once described it to me. The Tsilhqot’in Chiefs’ Memorial recognizes this bi-jurisdictional reality in a small way. I discovered the reality for myself at a Tsilhqot’in function this spring.