Arts, Indigenous Nations History

Public Launch in Campbell River of Homalco First Nation’s Graphic Novel

Xwémalhkwh Hero Stories, was publicly launched at a reception at the Museum at Campbell River on February 27, 2025.  Homalco’s Community Launch was held in November, 2024, at the Discovery Inn.  Xwémalhkwh Hero Stories is the latest outcome of a journey of rediscovery and preservation of Xwémalhkwh history, culture, language, and traditions that began in the early 1990’s with recordings of the stories of the elders.  

At the gathering on February 27, the Project Manager and Editor of the Graphic Novel, Tchadas Leo, explained how the novel came into being as an outgrowth of Homalco’s radio station, The Raven, 100.7 FM’s podcast series, that used a portion from the recordings of the Elders to produce 12 episodes entitled, Remember – Recordings of the Elders Explored, available on Spotify. The gathering was treated to segment of one of the recordings with the voices of Elders speaking their language and translation.  This introduction provided the context for the graphic novel which tells three traditional stories.

Front Cover – Chief Blaney and Tchadas Leo

 There were many steps to bringing this project to completion.  The first step began with Ruth and Cecil Hershler, co-founders of Education Without Borders, a Vancouver-based charity that funds educational activities for marginalized communities in both South Africa and Canada. I asked Tchadas how he came to be involved with the project.  “Education Without Borders was on a journey towards reconciliation,  learning what they could do.  And through the grapevine – they knew this person who knew Rachel Blaney, the MP for the region, who is also the wife of Chief Darren Blaney, the chief of my nation – and they thought that maybe I would be interested in doing something with Education Without Borders.  Through that interesting cycle of events I was reached out to by the radio station, 100.7 FM, The Raven,  which is owned by Homalco, and they asked if I would be interested in doing this podcast.  And that’s where this whole journey started”.   The podcast grew to the 12 episodes of Remember with Leo as the host and was launched to mark the 2022 National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.  

I asked Leo what pulled him into the project.  “Podcasting is something that I do, that brought me into journalism, into my career.  This is a little bit different from what I do at CHEK and it involves my nation, my language and culture.  I moved off the Homalco reserve when I was eighteen years old;  I spent a decade away from the community, pursuing my career, building my family,  and not close to home.  So this was an opportunity to do what I love – podcasting and journalism and storytelling – and also have an opportunity to reconnect to my culture, my language, and give back to my community.”  

I was curious about his transition into becoming the editor of a graphic novel.  “I understood the reason for doing a podcast but when it came to turning it into a graphic novel I became a little bit nervous.  I’ve never published anything; I’ve never written anything that’s been published beyond my news stories and my show Our Native Land.  But I started to realize, as an Indigenous person who’s in the business of telling other people’s stories,  I think it lined up great.  As much as it’s my culture and heritage, the stories don’t just belong to me.  They belong to the community and other people.  And that’s what I do:  I tell other people’s stories on the news or on my show.  So it’s just putting it in print form.”

The second step was Education Without Borders reaching out to Dr. Elizabeth Nijdam (Biz), the director of UBC’s Comic Studies Cluster, which became a funding partner in the project through the Partnership Recognition and Exploration Fund.  In an interview with Community Engagement at UBC (https://communityengagement.ubc.ca/news/from-oral-tradition-to-comics/), Nijdam explained: “I think it takes a lot of courage to step into a genre like this, especially when there are so few comic scholars and fewer nonprofit leaders involved in this kind of project facilitation. Cecil [Education Without Borders] has really gone above and beyond by not only embracing comics but also connecting with other First Nations interested in similar work.”  With Biz as guide, Leo was in good hands.  Leo’s wife, Sarah, a self-published poet, helped with formatting and editing.  As Leo says, “I knew I was going to have a network around me to put it together.”

Story sample – Valen Onstine
STory Sample – Gord Hill

The third step was a public call to find and engage three Indigenous graphic artists to each tell one of the three stories chosen for the novel.  The three artists chosen were Valen Onstine, (Dane-Zaa and Cree), who wrote and illustrated, “Canoe and Clam”, about a young child’s first participation in the winter harvesting of clams.  Alina Pete, Nêhiyaw (Cree), wrote and illustrated “River Bathing”, about the coming of age ritual practiced by a young man.  Gord Hill, (Kwakwaka’wakw), wrote and illustrated “Hunting and Food Preservation”, bridging traditional to contemporary food processing.  An important element in these artists’ preparation for the project was the boat trip they took together with Tchadas Leo, Chief Darren Blaney, Elders, the Hershlers, and Biz Nijdam, to Bute Inlet, to see the winter territory that had been abandoned in 1980 when the community relocated to Campbell River.  

Leo explains the importance of this step of the journey towards the writing of Xwémalhkwh Hero Stories.  “They are Indigenous artists but they’re not from our area, from our culture, so the importance of it was to bring them out to the land so they could see with their own eyes what we want to represent as authentically as possible.  To go on that boat trip with Elders,  the Chief, and Knowledge Keepers that are physically pointing out areas where there is clam digging, where we preserve food, go mountain goat hunting,  and then for the community members to see those artists in real time on the boat trying to sketch and represent this landscape, you can’t get more authentic than that. It had to be done;  I felt like there could be no other way.  

I don’t get back to my nation or where we’re from very often.  The biggest impact for me was bringing my Dad on the trip. My Dad grew up there and hadn’t been back in a long time.  To have him explain and give stories to the artists and the Education Without Borders co-founders and watch him be in his element and be proud of where he’s from and focus on the good memories and the positivity of the area – I felt this better sense of belonging to the area too. Reconnecting to where my ancestors are from is a feeling it’s hard to explain.  It’s mostly joy.”

Chief Blaney, himself an artist, was at the Book Launch and spoke of the history of the Homalco people since contact.  The people were at their winter camp when the Colonial Officers came and that is why their reserves were placed in Bute Inlet.  The impact of the small pox epidemics was drastic for the people who were all gathered in one location. The Oblate missionaries forced them to destroy their carvings, masks, and regalia and banned them from celebrating their ceremonies, songs, and dances. They had to speak their language in secret and were forced to adopt Christian rituals.  Children were taken and incarcerated in residential schools and family ties were broken.  Yet despite these overwhelming hardships, the community has come together and their resilience has led to the recovery and celebration of their culture, traditions, and language.  Relocating their community to Campbell River has returned them to their Vancouver Island territories, shared with the Ligwilda’xw and K’omoks Nations.  

Seeing the work develop to the point that a draft publication could be brought to the community was exciting.  The elders collaborated with the writers to include the ʔayʔaǰuθəm language (related to three Northern Coast Salish Nations – Klahoose, Tla’amin, and K’omoks) in the text. These words in the language from the Xwémalhkwh land and waters brought inspiration to the artists allowing new elements to emerge in their artwork and new rhythms to emerge in the text.  The published text includes a comprehensive Xwémalhkwh glossary with the ʔayʔaǰuθəm words, their pronunciation, their translation into English, and photos or illustrations signifying each term.  Leo spoke about the process of publishing the book.  “It’s a self-published book.  That expertise came from my wife – she’s self-published a couple of poetry books – so her knowledge and skill set really helped us.  It’s important because we have total control over how the book is distributed and all the proceeds come directly to Homalco.”

From left to right: Alina Pete, Valen Onstine, Biz Nijdam, RonHackett, Homalco Chief Darren Blaney, Elder Bill Blaney, Clyde Leo, Tchadas Leo, and Cecil and Ruth Hershler.

Xwémalhkwh Hero Stories is available for $25 from [email protected]. This project was managed by national award-winning Podcaster and CHEK Journalist Tchadas Leo from the Homalco Nation along with support from Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam, Director of the UBC Comics Studies Cluster, and Education without Borders co-founders, Cecil and Ruth Hershler. The project would not have been possible without the guidance and collaboration of HFN Elders and Knowledge Keepers.

Links of Interest:

All photos and illustrations courtesy Homalco First Nation

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