On June 8 a regalia ceremony was held at the shíshálh Nation’s longhouse, where traditional regalia, including cedar hats woven by Nation members, were gifted to residential school survivors.
lhe hiwus yalxwemult (Chief Lenora Joe) said the ceremony was both to honour community members who attended residential school and honour all the residential school survivors who have passed on.
She said it was amazing to see families in the blankets and shawls that had been commissioned, standing up for their deceased family members.
“Everybody took their place on the floor, there was a great big circle, and everybody just called out the names of their family members,” she said, recalling how impactful it was hearing the names that she had not heard for years, spanning back to her childhood.
“It was an amazing experience, it was so heartful, and I felt so grateful. But it was also sad too,” yalxwemult said.
She said the syíyaya oranization has been amazing in securing donations and grants to help community members make their regalia.
One of the things yalxwemult said she enjoyed the most leading up to the ceremony was how often entire families would go and work together to make regalia.
“There have been so many community members involved that I would have never thought would have gotten involved … there have been as many as 30 people in the hall all in one family, working together, making shawls making cedar hats, cedar headbands and drums.”
Dale Sankey of syíyaya Reconciliation Movement said hiwus Garry Feschuk, whose ancestral name is ?akista xaxanak, had the idea for families to weave for their survivors and day scholars. Regalia can include cedar hats, headbands, capes or a shawl for women and a sash for men.
The majority of the regalia was created in classes hosted by Jessica Silvey of Red Cedar Woman Studio as well as fellow weaver Shyanne Watters, who held many classes for cedar hat weaving.
Silvey estimated more than 140 pieces of regalia were woven by the community and that everyone who attended their workshops created two.
Sankey said approximately 150 survivors, both living and dead were honoured at the ceremony, either attending themselves or represented through family members.
Silvey said it was stunning seeing how many people came in to weave over the project’s three years and recalled the late Cindy August was one of the first to join, starting a shawl before she and her husband, Ɂantuni Tony Paul died from COVID-19.
Silvey finished the shawl to the family’s specifics, using black and teal, which she described as "stunning," before giving it to one of August’s family members to wear for the ceremony.
Speaking to the number of people who travelled from throughout the province to help weave and meeting people whose names she’d heard for years, Silvey said, “That was that was how far and wide the need for healing went, it just rippled out with them.”
Silvey recalled working with Germaine George, a volunteer weaver who was a part of the Sixties Scoop, who came to the studio every day learning how to weave – to the point that they nicknamed her “the apprentice.”
“She dove so quickly and deeply into it. It was amazing to watch and laugh and joke, we had so much fun and she's still at the studio today,” Silvey said.
Silvey said the last three months of weaving were insane as more and more regalia was needed. With trips back to Vancouver, checking multiple stores for people’s favourite colours of wool and daily trips out into the forest to strip cedar bark when they ran out.
“We were going out and stripping cedar bringing it into the studio, prepping it and weaving for days and days,” she said.
Regalia was also created for the youth dance group, who performed while the four clan songs were played and sung.
Silvey described the ceremony as, “this time of joy and sadness, and watching people discover or rediscover their culture.
“It was, to me, the most amazing and emotional moment. There's such trauma, and shame and loss and grief around the residential schools,” Silvey said. “In that moment, people were so proud to be recovering their regalia and to say the name of the person that they loved. It’s something that I don't think I’ll ever forget.”
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
