Living Lab - Wellness and Resurgence

Living Knowledge Network June 2022

Living Lab

Network

Who is the Living Lab?

• Community-Campus - Schools Partnership
• Co-Governed
• Takes direction from Nations and works to support with funding, expertise and ties to University of Victoria, Camosun College, schools, NGOs, and other bioregional educational bodies
• Living Lab works with the Straits Salish peoples primarily
• Songhees
• Esquimalt
• W̱SÁNEĆ First Nation (Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tseycum, and Tsawout)
• Lummi Nation

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Today will be talking about

• Living Lab Context - Wheret? Why?
• WSANEC Values/Cultural Revitalization
• PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ (and restoration)
• Tl’ches - Community-based Archaeology-Ethnobotany
• Future? EU-Global Collaboration
• Thank You’s

Map credit: Aquila Flower

Where are we?

Map credit: Aquila Flower

Photo credit: NASA

Where does the Living Lab work primarily?

Map credit: Stefan Freelan

Living Lab Goals

ŚḰÁLEȻEN

Land/Sea-based pedagogies

The environment and all living things were important to and inseparable from Indigenous worldviews. Indigenous peoples related to the land and were a part of a dynamic living system. The land was not something to be controlled, and transformed for monetary capital gain, it was something to be respected, as all living beings are. The environment, the land, and all living things are important, and more than that, integral to an Indigenous worldview.

(N.X. Claxton, 2020 from Indigenous Land-based Healing Pedagogies)

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PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ Foundation

PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱ Projects:

Relational Restoration

Saltwater People’s Atlas, Dave Elliott Sr

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Relational Restoration

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Relationships to the Land

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Relationships among People

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Power Relations

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how are we healing these relationships?

Following Natural Processes

in Ecosystem Restoration

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We take our cues from the land, and the stories that are told. We believe that as we heal the land, we heal ourselves. The connection to indigenous land sovereignty and W̱SÁNEĆ culture is inherent to our work.

PEPÁḴEṈ HÁUTW̱: the blossoming place 

W̱SÁNEĆ Youth: Restoration of Sacred Places

Emerging W̱SÁNEĆ

Land Stewards

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n7LFm3ePMyC14H7RUR2-kPdIw4gITSQM

Institutions serving Community

pepakenhautw.com

HÍSW̱ḴE SII,ÁM!

LEAP: The lək̓ʷəŋən ethnoecology and archaeology project

• Three inter-related strands of the project we weave together. This includes:
• Songhees Nation community engagement at Tl’ches, with an emphasis on opportunities for youth;
• Small-scale but novel archaeological excavation at an ancient village;
• Two studies to learn more about the histories of traditional foods and soil management.
• Upholding all these efforts is work that centres Songhees voices, values, and priorities, while creating opportunities for youth on the islands.

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L-R: Tom James, Joan Morris, Alice James.

LEAP: The lək̓ʷəŋən ethnoecology and archaeology project

• Site selected by Songhees members
• An older village, with 5 + traditional longhouse depressions/platforms
• Also, mosaic of culturally important plants: willow (for reef nets), Pacific crabapple, blue camas, chocolate lily, bracken fern, stinging nettle, KUXMIN (medicine)
• A lək̓ʷəŋən cultural landscape!
• Likely the last, best remaining one

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Be mindful of the teachings

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Listen to the ancestors

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Teaching through art

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Getting the youth back �to the land, Summer 2021

Why Living Knowledge matters in lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territory�

• Living in the middle space
• Building trust
• Deep hanging out
• Quiet work
• SIOMEȾ: be quiet, settle, and listen
• Supporting community needs and priorities: capacity building (Songhees marine Use Plan)
• The power of artifacts

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Jess Joseph

Lyndsey Joseph

Robbie Louis

Esther Morris

Sarah Jim�Judith Lyn Arney�Maeve Lydon�Darcy Mathews

www.livinglabproject.ca

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www.livinglabproject.ca

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