Sechelt (shíshálh) Nation brought out its chiefs and council, staff, elders and band members of all ages to host a community gathering in Pender Harbour last Saturday, drawing an estimated 200 people.
Their purpose was to share their culture, history and hospitality — in the form of a lunch at the end of the program — and explain their deep connection to the Pender Harbour area, known as kalpilin in shíshálh.
“My ancestry, my name, my heritage — everything pulls me towards kalpilin, as with every other shíshálh here,” Steve Feschuk told the crowd. “Every Sechelt here has a tie to kalpilin.”
Feschuk, son of councillor and hereditary chief Garry Feschuk and a researcher in the band’s rights and title department, delivered the key presentation of the morning, explaining the historic status of kalpilin as “the heartland of the shíshálh.” He also described their displacement from the area after disease almost wiped out the band in the late 19th century.
Based on stories “passed on from my elders, from their elders, from their elders,” Feschuk pointed out the key villages within the territory on a large glossy map showing the area between Roberts Creek and Jervis Inlet.
While each village site had its own importance, the Pender Harbour area had special significance because kalpilin was where the whole nation — four main tribes numbering many thousands of people — congregated during the winter months.
“All our longhouses were in Garden Bay … but there was a surrounding community,” Feschuk said. “They didn’t just live in Garden Bay. That was the heart of it and they built around it. That’s why Pender Harbour is so important to us and it’s always going to be important to us. That’s where we all come together.”
Everything changed after about 1860. First the Oblate missionaries came from New Westminster to convert the shíshálh to Catholicisim, “and our governance stopped them,” Feschuk said. “They said, ‘We have our own spirituality; go away.’ We didn’t want them here.”
Then waves of epidemics — measles, smallpox, tuberculosis — decimated the shíshálh.
“Before that time, we were in the thousands,” he said. “By 1876 we were only at about 160.”
It’s from this period that Deserted Bay got its name.
“There’s accounts of boats coming up, seeing the village, going into the village, and dead people were everywhere.”
The depopulated shíshálh converted and accepted the Oblates’ form of help.
“Yes, they did help us spiritually, they did help us survive, because we were dying,” Feschuk said. “But we paid the price, because they tried to annihilate the culture.”
Under the Oblates, the potlatch was banned, artifacts and regalia were destroyed, and age-old customs were forbidden and replaced. In 1912, the residential school opened in Sechelt.
One of Feschuk’s critical points was the link between the residential school — with its roster of abuses — and the shíshálh’s final displacement from Pender Harbour.
“The big thing is we didn’t have a choice. If you didn’t go to residential school, the parents of the child could be arrested and would be arrested.”
Generation by generation, he said, “our people started to move to Sechelt to just try to be close to their children. We had no choice in the matter at all … We never left Pender Harbour voluntarily. It was under threat and duress that our kids had to come to school.”
In Pender Harbour, as Chief Calvin Craigan has related, shíshálh were taken off prime land and herded onto a small island at the entrance to the harbour.
Coun. Garry Feschuk, addressing Saturday’s gathering prior to his son’s presentation, said his great grandmother came from kalpilin.
“You see that island back there where our people were put?” he asked. “Twenty-eight homes on that rock island. My great grandmother lived on that island.”
During his remarks, Feschuk repeatedly criticized comments in social media and “things written in the paper” and urged people to engage in direct dialogue instead.
“I really believe that we need to get the stories correct, because if we’re only going to deal with controversy then we’ll never get past that … Our door is open. Come and sit with us. Come and sit with us,” he said.
“If you knew the whole story, not just quotes, then we’ll have a better understanding of how we’ll move forward.”
Some people in the audience objected to the format of the meeting, which did not allow questions or comments from the floor. Instead, they were encouraged to take their questions to Chief Craigan and council members, who made themselves available during a break and after the program.
“We’re trying to make it more personal, build a relationship,” Steve Feschuk told one woman in the audience who questioned the format.
A tense exchange followed when members of the audience continued to challenge Feschuk on the issue.
Among those in a group talking to councillors Feschuk and Ben Pierre after the meeting was Shauntelle Nichols, who identified herself at the Jan. 16 official community plan launch as a member of the Pender Harbour Indian Band. Composed of about 30 members at present, she said at the time, the group was in the active band formation process, contesting the Sechelt Nation’s claim to the area.
Contacted last month, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada said it had provided the group with information on the department’s policy and available options, but “as of Feb. 4, the group referring to itself as the Pender Harbour Indian Band has not formally submitted an application under this policy.”
The provincial Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation said it had not heard of the group’s claim and did not expect it to have an impact on negotiations toward a reconciliation agreement with Sechelt Nation.
“Comments and concerns from First Nations and non-First Nations residents during the public consultation process of the draft dock management plan will be taken into consideration like any member of the community,” the province said.
