… and know
That Haida Culture is not simply song and dance
graven images, language or even blood
It’s all of these things
and then…
awakening on Haida Gwaii,
waiting for the herring to spawn
It’s a feeling you get
when you bring a feed of cockles to the old people
or walking on barnacles
…or moss
It has something to do with bearing witness
when a falcon takes a seabird
and being there when salmon are finishing their course…
along the way we eat some huckleberries
watch the kids grow up
and attend the funeral feasts
It’s a matter of dealing with the squabbles within
and the greater troubles that come to us from the outside
It’s about being confronted by the great storms of winter
and trying to look after this precious place