Tag Archives: Squamish First Nation

Indigenous Nations

Ceremony in West Vancouver marks formal arrival of canoe season

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The crowd that congregated on West Vancouver’s Ambleside Beach on Saturday afternoon would have been forgiven for thinking it was peak summertime, if the July-like temperatures hadn’t been outshone by the quintessentially spring activity they were all there for.

Members of both the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and Tsleil-Waututh Nation joined the police forces of both West and North Vancouver to welcome the return of spring, and with it, the Sema7maka and Ch’ich’iyuy canoes.

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Arts, Health, Indigenous Nations

Squamish Nation ethnobotanist touts medicinal benefits of native plants

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

When headaches plague Leigh Joseph, she doesn’t immediately reach for the Tylenol bottle. When winter’s flu strikes, cough medicines and throat soothers are acquired, but not from the pharmacy or the drug store aisle of her local supermarket.

Instead, Joseph, a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) ethnobotanist, looks to the great outdoors for remedy.

The natural world, she attests, can be a great source of healing and nourishment.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Feds and First Nations gearing up to host global ocean conservation summit

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ottawa and First Nations in B.C. are looking to amplify oceans as the best way to turn the tide on the twin spectres of biodiversity collapse and climate change, says federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Joyce Murray. 

Canada and West Coast First Nations — the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh — are hosting the fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) in Vancouver to spur change on the international protection of marine ecosystems, Murray told Canada’s National Observer. 

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Education, Indigenous Nations

Land-based learning: These schools spotlight culturally immersive education

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Pen? Check. Paper? Check. Fishing rod, canoe paddle, and weaving wool? Check, check, check. For the students of land-based learning schools, education facilities that bring culture to the classroom, school supplies extend beyond the classic pencil case, binders and backpack.

Run by educators who believe schools should nurture the innate needs and wants of young people, rather than put them into a cookie cutter student mould, you would be hard pressed to find a youth hunched over their desk, scribbling notes monotonously from a whiteboard.

“Kids need to move. If they move, they are learning,” says Tanya O’Neill, principal of siʔáḿθɘt, a K-12 Tsleil-Waututh Nation school in North Vancouver.

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Indigenous Nations

Truth and Reconciliation Day: Education should be the priority, says Squamish Nation’s Wilson Williams

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby,  North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Just what does the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation mean to those from First Nations communities? For some, it is a solemn day of remembrance and commemoration. For others, it is a small but celebratory step forward in the reconciliation process. For Wilson Williams (Sxwíxwtn), elected councillor and spokesperson for Squamish Nation (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), it is an amalgamation of the two, and then some. 

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