Bella Coola

And after more than 20 years in Toronto, Marion came back to Victoria, to the University of Victoria as assistant professor of voice.

Born in Bella Coola, raised in Sooke, now here.

This past year, Marion served as senior advisor on Vancouver Opera's report on Indigenous mentorship, a report that I helped write, which means that today the questions get to go both ways.

Marion, welcome.

I've walked from Chetwynd all the way to Fort St. John around.

And here in 20, I did from Bella Coola to Winnipeg.

And it's to promote the stigma with mental health associated with men.

How men, we need to start talking about our mental health and our suffering also.

Where can you find more information about your walk, Stan? I haven't got any.

I took down the website and everything, but I'm going to be starting it up again.

If you want to look me up, I've got a few YouTubes, and it's called Walk and Talk the Peace, and then also Walk and Talk Bella Coola to Winnipeg.

Thank you so much, Stan.

British Columbia.

Campbell River, Prince George, perfect, Bella Coola.

So those airports need a lot of work and need some money, need some investment.

They haven't done it in decades.

I'm really interested in that.

And to see what's happening in that region and Bella Coola and, you know, that little neck of the woods, which is pretty north, I think.

It's just a place I want to go.

It looks gorgeous.

Beliefs, Eastern Eskimo No man can ever go into the sky-land until he is dead, so all the people say, The sky that we see is a hard blue stone, built up over the earth.

just as the igloo is built with snow rounding over the eskimo family but where the land and sea meet are high precipices which slope inward so that no one can climb up in the sky-land this blue dome is very cold and sometimes it is covered with crystals of frost which fall as snow and then the sky becomes clear the clouds are large bags of water owned by two old women who push them across the sky the thunder is their voice and the lightning their torch when water leaks out of the seams of the bags it rains on earth if a spark of lightning falls upon any one he has to go to the ghost land in each corner of the earth world there lives a mighty being with a very large head when one of these breathes the wind blows some breathe violent storms and others summer breezes each wind spirit has many powerful servants at the edge of the earth world and beyond the precipices is a great abyss a narrow pathway leads across it to a land of brightness and plenty and abundance and warmth to this place none but raven and the dead can go when spirits wish to speak to people on earth they make a whistling noise and people answer only in whispers auroras are the torches held in the hands of spirits to guide the newly dead over the abyss beliefs the bella coola believe there are five worlds one above the other the middle one is our own world the earth above it are two upper worlds one the home of afraid of nothing and the one below that is the house of the sun below our earth are two lower worlds the first is the ghost land the second is the home of those who die a second time The upper heaven, which is the name of our woman, or afraid of nothing, as others call her, is a prairie without any trees upon it.

in order to reach it one must pass through the house of the sun though some people say that the sky is rent and one must pass through the great hole to reach the upper world the house of afraid of nothing stands in the far east a strong wind blows always toward it across the open prairie so that everything rolls to her house but immediately around the house it is quite calm in front of the house stands a post in the shape of a large winged monster and its mouth is the entrance afraid of nothing created the whole world a long time ago she also had a great war with the mountains in the beginning of the world the mountains were of great height they were human and they made the world uninhabitable afraid of nothing made war upon them and defeated them she made them much smaller than they used to be during this fight she broke off the nose of one mountain and its face may be recognized even now it is near the bella coola river there were two mountains near the headwaters of the bella coola river and one kept always a fire burning in his house one could see the smoke and this fire warned its master the mountain whenever an enemy appeared when afraid of nothing came down in her canoe the fire gave warning when she approached the mountain broke her canoe and turned it into stone so she returned to heaven the canoe is still there at the foot of the mountain afraid of nothing is a great warrior she visits the earth now and then but when she does her visits cause sickness and death under the world where she lives is the house of the sun our own earth is an island swimming in the ocean creation of the world wyandotte The people were living beyond the sky.

They were Wyandottes.

One day the shaman told the people to dig around the roots of the wild apple tree, standing by the chief's lodge, and Indians at once began to dig.

You shall be Mink, and men shall hunt you.

Now four women had gone out digging clams.

then they saw something floating around among the drifting seaweed they went towards it it was mink when they touched him he rubbed his eyes and said i have been sleeping on the water for a long time then he went up the beach and went home to his mother now the world was hot and the trees were burning so that sun caused the waters to rise until they covered the whole country except for a few mountains on bella coola river which rose above the waters the bellabella and the bella coola tribes fastened their canoes to the tops of these mountains and for this reason they were not lost Other tribes tied their canoes to other mountains, but some of the canoe ropes broke and the people drifted away to different countries.

If one feels more comfortable with a title in hand, it would be much better to purchase or lease a retreat site from a private party and not record the purchase or lease.

However, when I have talked to residents of the Bella Coola area regarding obtaining a cabin site, they recommend following the tradition of the frontier squat.

The government booklet put out by the province of British Columbia says that squatters' rights are not recognized, but local people say that if someone wished to purchase or lease crown land on which a squatter had settled and made improvements, the squatter is given first chance to purchase or lease the land.

If the retreat location is sufficiently remote, chances are, this problem will never come up.

Beliefs, Eastern Eskimo No man can ever go into the sky land until he is dead.

So all the people say, the sky that we see is a hard blue stone built up over the earth just as the igloo is built with snow rounding over the eskimo family but where the land and sea meet are high precipices which slope inward so that no one can climb up in the sky-land this blue dome is very cold and sometimes it is covered with crystals of frost which fall as snow and then the sky becomes clear the clouds are large bags of water owned by two old women who push them across the sky the thunder is their voice and the lightning their torch when water leaks out of the seams of the bags it rains on earth if a spark of lightning falls upon any one he has to go to the ghost land in each corner of the earth world there lives a mighty being with a very large head when one of these breathes the wind blows some breathe violent storms and others summer breezes each wind spirit has many powerful servants at the edge of the earth world and beyond the precipices is a great abyss a narrow pathway leads across it to a land of brightness and plenty and abundance and warmth to this place none but raven and the dead can go when spirits wish to speak to people on earth they make a whistling noise and people answer only in whispers auroras are the torches held in the hands of spirits to guide the newly dead over the abyss beliefs the bella coola believe there are five worlds one above the other the middle one is our own world the earth above it are two upper worlds one the home of afraid of nothing and the one below that is the house of the sun below our earth are two lower worlds the first is the ghost land the second is the home of those who die a second time The upper heaven, which is the name of our woman, or afraid of nothing, as others call her, is a prairie without any trees upon it, in order to reach it one must pass through the house of the sun though some people say that the sky is rent and one must pass through the great hole to reach the upper world the house of afraid of nothing stands in the far east a strong wind blows always toward it across the open prairie so that everything rolls to her house but immediately around the house it is quite calm in front of the house stands a post in the shape of a large winged monster and its mouth is the entrance afraid of nothing created the whole world a long time ago she also had a great war with the mountains in the beginning of the world the mountains were of great height they were human and they made the world uninhabitable afraid of nothing made war upon them and defeated them she made them much smaller than they used to be during this fight she broke off the nose of one mountain and its face may be recognized even now it is near the bella coola river there were two mountains near the headwaters of the bella coola river and one kept always a fire burning in his house one could see the smoke and this fire warned its master the mountain whenever an enemy appeared when afraid of nothing came down in her canoe the fire gave warning when she approached the mountain broke her canoe and turned it into stone so she returned to heaven the canoe is still there at the foot of the mountain Afraid of nothing is a great warrior.

She visits the earth now and then, but when she does, her visits cause sickness and death.

Under the world where she lives is the house of the sun.

You shall be Mink, and men shall hunt you.

Now four women had gone out digging clams.

then they saw something floating around among the drifting seaweed they went towards it it was mink when they touched him he rubbed his eyes and said i have been sleeping on the water for a long time then he went up the beach and went home to his mother now the world was hot and the trees were burning so that sun caused the waters to rise until they covered the whole country except for a few mountains on bella coola river which rose above the waters the bella bella and the bella coola tribes fastened their canoes to the tops of these mountains and for this reason they were not lost other tribes tied their canoes to other mountains but some of the canoe ropes broke and the people drifted away to different countries the flood went as far north as the skeena river and people drifted even from up there one canoe drifted over in the lands of the white people then at last sun made the waters to sink crow was sitting on the top of a tree when mink made the earth world to burn The smoke was so black that it made Crow black all over.

Before that, Crow had been white, so the Indians say.

What does it take to get up to the Dean? What does that look like? If you're doing a Dean trip? Where are you flying into?

You fly into Vancouver and then I think the way they run it now, we used to fly clients into Bella Coola and then they would take another, like a helicopter charter from there or something.

But I think some of them fly through Smithers now and there's a company that flies down from Smithers as well.

So it's, it's not easy to get to, but I mean, as a, as the man, like as the staff getting in there, we would, you know, every spring we kind of get our lists together.

I'd get a truck and a trailer and, and, convoy down through Prince George Williams Lake and across the plateau and like just load up with all the all the dry goods that we need and we'd get into Bella Coola and then ship everything out on a barge like it's just there's a lot of logistics that go into that of sending you know sending vehicles out at the end of the season sending fuel drums out just making sure you have everything that you need because it all you know you have to fly it all in through the season if it can't fit in a plane it's not going to come in so it's um yeah it's complicated for sure

You got to fly it in.

Yeah, because the Dean, describe that where the Dean is when you think of just somebody who's never looked at where it is.

So central coast of Columbia.