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Restoring Place: Tla'amin Nation

Kespahl – Drew Blaney

Tla’amin Nation Culture & Heritage Manager

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Land Acknowledgement

I raise my hands to the Musqueam people, whose land we stand on today. As a part of our ancient Coast Salish culture, we always ask permission to come ashore in someone else’s territory.

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Tla’amin Nation – Who are we?

  • The Tla’amin Nation is located on the upper-Sunshine Coast in the qathet Regional District.
  • Tla’amin is a self-governing nation as of April 5th 2016
  • Tla’amin shares a special connection with our sister nations of Homalco and Klahoose who share the same language and family ties. We were once one people with no borders or separations. The K’omoks are an extension of this as well.

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On-Going Mapping

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  • Traditional Use Studies
  • Archaeological Sites
  • Place Names
  • Village Sites
  • Faunal Identification
  • Forestry
  • Marine Use Planning
  • Grave Identification

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Traditional Use Studies

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Using Elders Knowledge

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  • In the 1960s, 70’s and 80’s Anthropologists worked with Tla’amin elders to map traditional village sites.
  • In 1994 the Tla’amin Nation conducted Traditional Use Studies with over 65 Elders from the community.
  • This work identified where our people lived, hunted, gathered, fished, travelled, camped, buried our dead.
  • This work was integral to the work being done today.

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Archaeology

  • Through partnerships with Universities across the country, our archaeology projects have uncovered settlements in our territory dating back over 11 thousand years. Older sites are being discovered every year.
  • Archaeology brings people together – to learn and discover what our people were doing thousands of years in the past.

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Archaeology

  • The coast of British Columbia has some of the largest archeological sites in the country. The Tla’amin GIS department with the support of the Tla’amin lands and cultural departments have worked to map and protect archeological sites in the territory.

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Archaeology

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Place Names Project

  • In 2017 a collaborative project between the Tla’amin Nation and qathet Regional Museum identified and mapped over 470 place names in Tla’amin territory. Many of the earlier work done in the 1990’s contributed to the success of this project
  • Over 30 Elders were interviewed for this project, and youth were brought on to help with intergenerational learning.
  • https://powellriver.ca/pages/photo-history-of-powell-river

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čɛčɛhatanapɛč sqʷoləp

  • Kespahl - Drew Blaney
  • Tla’amin Nation Culture & Heritage Manager
  • drew.blaney@tn-bc.ca

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