We AreThe Land

We AreThe Land

This picture consists of a background photo with an overlay. The background picture is a view of the area of the northern Douglas Channel, directly south of Kitamaat Village, looking in a westerly direction. The overlay is a photo of the late Haisla Elder, Esther Gray.
Esther was a member of the multi-generational Indigenous grouping that presently inhabits the social landscape spanning the 'pre-contact' era and the future era where Indigenous Peoples will stand and be recognized as equals with all Peoples of the world, including Canadians, and in particular, British Columbians.
As Indigenous Peoples, we have historically, and continue to have, a connection to the land that conflicts with the mind-set of so-called 'Western Rationale'. Rather, the mind-set of 'Western Thinking' conflicts with ' norms' of West Coast Indigenous Peoples; 'Norms' that have been developed through an ongoing social, political, and spiritual process over a period of more than ten thousand years.
In one sense, our connection to this land is of a highly practical nature. The laws of genetics connect us directly to this land. Throughout the thousands of years that our people have inhabited this land, we have 'lived off the land'. We have consumed the foodstuffs provided to us by our efforts at hunting and gathering across the width and the breadth of this land. As such, we have assumed the genetic 'mass', provided to us through our diet, from this land. The lifestyle of our forbearers included the heavy physical effort necessary for survival on this land. That effort determined the nature of the development of the physical bodies of our ancestors. After living out their lives on this land, the bodies of our ancestors went back to the land through their burial process. This process ultimately involved the body 'Going back to' nature and the land.
You might say that, essentially, we are the land.