Words from Cowichan Elders

For the purpose of this website, Cowichan Elders were asked three broad question to help guide people in navigating their relationship with ancestral spaces. These questions are important to think about as you begin to learn about and visit Ye’yumnuts. The questions were asked by university students participating in the Commemorating Ye’yumnuts project. The answers worth thinking about by all visitors of Ye’yumnuts.

What should students know before starting work at Ye’yumnuts?

• Always look after yourself and be mindful that you are working in a place that Cowichan ancestors continue to inhabit.
• You have to go slow, this kind of requires time and patience to build an appropriate relationship with our community, the living and the spiritual.
• You need to know about where you are going to work and who the Cowichan Tribes are as a nation but also as people.
• It’s hard to know how much you can share with people you do not know and are only working with Cowichan for a short time. How do you prepare someone for being at a place that we have specific people, who have trained for decades?

How do you feel about having young people at Ye’yumnuts?

• No, young people shouldn’t be there [where the ancestors are buried]. They lack the knowledge and training. There are lots of traditional and cultural reasons that young people should not be around the ancestors. This is based on millennia of Cowichan experience.
• As Cowichan people, we know we are responsible for the safety and spiritual well-being of visitors in our territory, whether they know it or not, and so we need to remember that if someone gets hurt, spiritually we bear the responsibility and must correct it immediately

Do you have any recommendations for future work at Ye’yumnuts?

• Students should meet with an Elder(s) at the beginning of the work and spending time listening and learning before starting any kind of work.
• An Elder(s) or guide(s) should be working with students from the beginning and throughout the course of the work. This should not be an afterthought or for seeking knowledge rather it should be something that is built into the work from the beginning.
• You should have a way of closing the work. For example [referring to archaeology students], a bath or brushing off ceremony.
• You always need to open and close work in a good way to ensure the safety of people.

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