The public is welcome to celebrate, witness and honour the blessing of two welcome poles as well as an honouring of the ancestral lands and peoples on which Ḵwax̱diz’dzas Cumberland Affordable Housing Project will be built.
Celebrations will take place on June 21 at 10 a.m. at Cumberland Peace Park on National Indigenous Day.
Join DługwayaX̱alis (Karver Everson ) and Aaqwasgem (Junior Henderson), Gi’gigame (chiefs), Ni’noxsola (wise ones) and the Kumugwe Dancers in the blessing of the first totem poles to be raised in the place now known as Cumberland. Everson and Henderson have created works of monumental beauty that speak to the beauty and resilience of a culture and people that have been here and are still very much here for thousands of years.
The welcome poles were commissioned by Dawn to Dawn Action on Homelessness Society for K’waxdzi’dzas. The Cumberland Affordable Family Housing Project a joint project between Dawn 2 Dawn and Comox Valley Transition Society. The Village of Cumberland has provided funding and support for the pole project with initial support from Dawn 2 Dawn and the BC Arts and Community Development Grant.
The housing is currently awaiting funding.
“The biggest thing, the most important thing is truth-telling,” says Hereditary Chief Nagedzi (Rob Everson) of the Gilal’gam ‘Walas Kwagu’l about the significance of the totem poles in Cumberland. “It’s a matter of setting the record straight and stopping the perpetual erasure of our history.”
Chief Nagedzi offers what was once known as Pentlatch Lake as an example.
“If they were to drain the lake, they would find village sites that existed into the 1800s at the mouth of the Cruickshank and Puntledge. It was all submerged with the dam and now it’s known as Comox Lake, which is an erasure.”
While the population of Vancouver Island is 5 per cent Indigenous, 40 per cent of the homeless population identifies as Indigenous.
“Colonialism displaced the Indigenous peoples from their home and homelands, ” notes Everson.
The goal of the K’waxdzi’dsas housing project is to see a minimum of 40 per cent housed Indigenous peoples.
Indigenization is a process of naturalizing Indigenous knowledge systems and making them evident to transform spaces, places and hearts. This can be accomplished through cultural practices, and the presence of Indigenous art, knowledge keepers, programming and native plant systems.
The goal of Kwax’dzi’dzas is to incorporate into the design and landscape of the project this Indigenous presence.
The name Kwax’dzi’dzas was granted to the project by Elder Mary Everson. Everson, nee Frank,“Uma’galis,” is Kwakwaka’wakw, K’omoks and Tlingit, and comes from the K’ómoks First Nation.
photos@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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