The Sechelt Indian Band (SIB) came together to officially release their new dictionary Oct. 6 during a week of celebrations that focused on Band achievements and attaining 25 years of self-government.
The dictionary is the result of more than 40 years of effort by various elders and linguist Ron Beaumont to save the nearly extinct SIB language of She Shashishalhem.
Since 1970 Beaumont has travelled from the Lower Mainland to the Coast faithfully each week to meet with elders and catalogue their language for posterity.
Now the work has been published in a new dictionary so everyone can benefit.
"The foundation of our people comes from the language, and if we don't know our language then we'll lose our culture and our history and our traditions," said SIB director of education, culture and recreation Lenora Joe at the event. "So it is very important, and over the years we have had a very strong group of elders work very hard to put this book together to ensure that our future generations would have something to hold on to."
Approximately 10,000 words have been catalogued in the new dictionary.
"It is my understanding that our dictionary is the largest First Nations dictionary in Canada. So we're very proud of that," Joe said.
Along with the launch of the dictionary was a reprinting of the SIB's former language lesson books, which are available with audio recording for She Shashishalhem students.
"These lesson books were put together in a time when our elders were concerned about how we could learn our language and our culture in our school system," Joe said, noting School District No. 46 embraced the lesson books.
SIB Chief Garry Feschuk thanked the elders for all their work over the years to save the language of their people.
"Today we come here in celebration and we honour our elders, honour all our staff, because I believe we have such a motivated organization that really wants to move things forward, and I really want to thank them and thank all our elders," Feschuk said.
"I said a few prayers this morning because some of our elders can't be with us here today. We have some who are in the hospital, some who aren't well enough to come here, but also their work has not gone unnoticed and we have to recognize that.
"Today is a milestone in our community's movement of moving forward."
Feschuk also thanked Beau-mont and the linguist was honoured with a carved mask, ceremonial blanket, honour song and a gift.
"I really wanted to acknowledge you for the person that you are, your dedication and sacrifice that you've done for our community. Now we see the fruition of all those years of hard work. We get to unveil the dictionary today, our language book, so that it will be there for many generations to come," Feschuk said.
Beaumont was grateful for the praise, but noted the 40-plus year effort is not over yet.
"I'm happy that it's done, but I also know that that's not the end of our work. We've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go," he said.
Some of that future work includes uploading the new dictionary to the Internet, setting up a new iPhone application for the dictionary and translating some of Robert Munsch's work into She Shashishalhem.
There may be more to do in the future, but last week was a time to reflect and celebrate the SIB's accomplishments so far.
"This week I think it's been such a beautiful week of us just being able to come together and celebrate," Feschuk said Oct. 6. "On Saturday (Oct. 1), we celebrated the fifth anniversary of our mall development, Tsain Ko Village, all the work that our previous leaders and our current leaders and all our staff have put in to make it a reality. And then we had a cross-cultural workshop in our Longhouse so that the outside community can have a better understanding of who we are as a people. It's so important that we do this work."
The 25 years of self-government celebration concluded last Saturday (Oct. 8) with a huge community feast. Feschuk called the day a milestone.
"It's a milestone in our life. It's a milestone in accomplishment in our community that we can all be proud of," he said.
The SIB signed their self-government agreement in 1986 in an effort to gain control over their lands and their community's future apart from the Indian Act.
Feschuk said the move has allowed for more thorough local planning and more opportunities for SIB members.
He credits his council's "holistic" approach to decision making that takes into account social, health, housing, economic, employment and educational factors.
