Elder teaches skills

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Coast Salish carver Jane Marston calls Simon Charlie "The Father of Coast Salish Art."

His carvings and totem poles are exhibited in museums and displayed in private collections all over the world. His welcome figures greet visitors to the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria and his totems are well known in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. He has received the Order of British Columbia and the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal.

But Charlie has received these honors not just for his impressive skills as a carver, but also for the work he has been doing with the young people in his community. Charlie has a vision of healing the First Nations people who come to learn from him and of teaching them their old skills and culture. It is his passion.

"When the young people do good, that excites me," Charlie said.

"A lot of the ones I teach don't carry on with it, but the ones who do, that makes me happy."

In 1984 Charlie bought several acres of land adjoining the highway just south of Duncan on Vancouver Island where he plans to build a school and a village.

Marston, who is the cultural manager of the non-profit Simon Charlie Society, says, "He's held on to this dream for years and years-even when his old building burned down."

The village will be a replica of a Cowichan settlement before the First Nations had any contact with Europeans. It will include the collective efforts of many people, both Native and non-Native. In the village, people will learn the old crafts. They will learn to weave baskets and blankets and they will learn to carve and to paint. Near the village will be an Aboriginal university, an Aboriginal museum, a new workshop, gallery, cultural centre, and publishing company all under the name Snuw'uy ulh Cultural Awareness Centre.

Marston, who has been with Charlie since 1984, teaches the theory of carving in two portable classrooms on his land and helps Charlie teach the skills.

"Our teaching is different," Marston said.

"It's a holistic way of teaching and there's a lot of healing done in our classrooms. Through carving and becoming quiet and going within yourself you gain that knowledge so that you can heal those hurts that happened. I think that's really important for our people. That's one of the amazing things that happens here-the inner healing. When these people leave they may not be able to carve 100 per cent, but they leave healed in their inner heart and they can walk their road a lot easier."

In 1997, Marston and her son-in-law Miles Phillips, who is the executive director of the Simon Charlie Society, began to have extensive discussions with Charlie about his vision of a Native village.

In 1999 they started working as full-time volunteers on Charlie's project and began to apply to various government groups for core funding. Phillips and Marston put in countless hours, most of them unpaid.

"It's not just the paperwork," Marston said.

"It's going to the mills and getting pieces of wood so that you can have wood to carve with. It's going to the woods to get cedar bark for our courses. It's having meetings with logging companies to beg, borrow, or trade off wood for our students."

In September 2000, the Simon Charlie Society became official, and six months later it achieved federal charity status. Unlike the Duncan Native Friendship Centre, which focuses on the work of the Cowichan band, the Snuw'uy ulh Cultural Awareness Centre is Coast Salish in scope and encompasses all the Coast Salish bands from Campbell River, the Mainland, and down the coast into Oregon State.

The biggest struggle in proceeding is always money, Phillips said.

"It's always the struggle in the First Nations community, and what is unfortunate is even the money that's dangled out there is fought over by the First Nations community-because there's just not enough."

But slowly the work is proceeding. Land is being cleared and building plans are being drawn up. What the society does not want is a permanent hadout, Phillips said. Many cultural centres have been proposed across Canada over the years; some have been built and many have failed. The Snuw'uy ulh model allows for a learning component and a revenue component.

"I think there's a beautiful partnership in that. You can still have a revenue component without losing the culture."

Charlie is 83 years old. Marston wants him to see his vision become reality in his lifetime. Charlie sees the village and the school as a way of keeping the Coast Salish tradition alive.

"Our young people are losing their heritage," he said.

"They're just making up designs that don't go with the Coast Salish design. Our people are using the Haida designs or they're making it up, but they're not our designs. Somebody has to straighten them out."

Marston recalls Simon Charlie's reaction on receiving the Order of Canada. "Oh Jane, the boots are getting pretty big for me to fill," he said.

"Just be yourself," she replied. "You'll be OK."

Anyone interested in the Simon Charlie Society can contact them at (250)-701-9088.