Solh Temexw te Siwes: Connecting People and Place in Sts’ailes Traditional Lands, 2024 Session

In 2024, we co-hosted the first field school with Sts'ailes Nation and both student and community responses are overwhelmingly positive.

A number of students described the immersive experience as being "transformative" in terms of their outlook and educational and career trajectory. Most of the students expressed a desire to remain connected with the Sts’ailes Nation in some way, continuing to be involved in community activities, helping to initiate new ones, and contributing to initiatives that they are already familiar with.

Both the field school and the experience talking to people in Sts’ailes about food and land and all the community interactions in between, made a huge and lasting impression. The people of Sts’ailes were not only incredibly generous with their time and knowledge, but also inspiring in how to care for the world (people, animals, plants, etc.) around us.

— Student from the field school

Sts’ailes members who participated in the field school, including a number of Council and Elders, felt honoured to have the opportunity to share with students. Sts’ailes leadership and those involved with the initiatives that the students supported are appreciative of the specialized help, and interested in maintaining ongoing relationships.

The expert paper that [a student in the field school] did was insightful and applicable to our needs in Sts’ailes for the development of our policing service. It suits Chief and Council’s vision of creating our own security and self-administered police force according to our distinct needs.

— Boyd Peters (Xoyet thet), Sts’ailes councillor and director of Sts’ailes Xwilexmet Department

Sample research projects

Building Capacity of Heritage Centre

Working with the community, a student prepared a grant application for the Vancouver Foundation to fund Sts’ailes artists and community events at the newly constructed heritage facility at Sts’ailes’ Main Beach. The three-year grant would support multi-generational activities based around community building linked to history, place-based knowledge, family, and culture. The role of the heritage facility is to protect ancestral plank house remains dating back more than 2,500 years in a way that can be educational to the Sts’ailes community, students, and visitors.

Implementing Restorative Justice

In collaboration with the Sts'ailes Justice Council, a student prepared a report,“Indigenous Self-Determined Justice and Policing Systems”. The report includes sections on principles of self-determination and sovereignty, restorative justice models, comparative analyses with non-indigenous justice systems, Indigenous policing systems, the role of community in justice and policing, effective community engagement strategies, policy recommendations, and case studies of Indigenous policing in British Columbia and Canada.

Supporting Food Sovereignty

A student interviewed Sts'ailes leads about food sovereignty initiatives related to Sts’ailes new health and wellness centre, drug and alcohol treatment, tourism and food sustainability,and research into revitalization and restoration of ancestral plants. The interviews and subsequent report show how these different initiatives are guided by a shared vision and provides a reference point for leadership and food sovereignty leads to avoid duplication in efforts, and identify complimentary areas of overlap between the initiatives.

Advancing Eco-Heritage

A student built trail markers and signage for a recently completed eco-heritage trail along the Chehalis River. The wooden markers show the names of trails and directions to various points to help orient visitors. Some of the markers point to other important Sts’ailes places in the distance, in Sts’ailes’ Halqemeylem language. Additional signage for the trail consists of educational information about Sts’ailes, and trail etiquette. The important aspect of this work is informing the public that the trail is on ancestral Sts’ailes lands, and it was built and maintained by the Sts’ailes Nation.

Augmenting Learning from the Land Curriculum

A student recorded many of the teachings during the field course and transcribed a number of them to prepare a ‘learning from the land’ curriculum for students. This booklet includes six narrative stories followed by a teaching about the main messages and moral. This booklet is a valuable tool for integrating Sts’ailes oral history and teachings into Sts’ailes classrooms.

Teaching Seining

A student worked alongside Sts’ailes fisheries staff and prepared a short instructional video on how to conduct seining. This involved videoing all aspects of the process, including launching the boat, setting up the net, hauling the nets, and documenting details about the captured salmon. This video will help the fisheries department with training of new seasonal employees.