Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Holding the prestigious talking stick in a longhouse in ‘Ksan Village

I have safely returned from Smithers and points beyond. The months of work by the SPARC staff paid off; there were no transportation barriers and all of the accessible washrooms exceeded doable. (Darrell and I have concluded doable washrooms aren’t completely accessible washrooms, but when nature is calling loudly, they are accessible enough to be doable!)

Thursday’s community dialogue focusing on accessible transportation, accessibility for Aboriginal communities, and access to civic engagement in rural areas was well attended and was quite an eye-opener. I won’t bemoan (as loudly) when it takes Darrell and me nearly six hours for our 1.5 hour martial arts class; at least there is a way we can get there, which is more than people in the rural communities have.

Following our Board meeting on Friday afternoon, an accessible bus, which took months to arrange, took us up to the ‘Ksan Historic Village. We toured several of replicated longhouses of the Gitxsan people. In the Wolf House (the feast hall), I was given the honour of holding the beautifully carved talking stick, which I thought was ironic yet symbolic. I view this blog as my talking stick.

We then enjoyed an Aboriginal feast of moose, halibut, smoked salmon, stuffed salmon, turnip, herring roe and oolichan (also known as the “candlefish”). After hearing much about the oolichan in my First Nations courses, I, of course, had to try it. One bite was all I could managed, which later proved to be one bite too much. But I appreciate having the opportunity to experience it.

Thanks to the SPARC staff ‘s effort and persistent calls, I was able to see a corner of the province that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, October 17th, 4-7pm pacific time for Readers’ Café. We may have a special guest in the house, if I can convince/coerce her to join the conversation. See you tomorrow.