Julian Brave Noisecat

And you hear her break open.

She cries.

And, you know, she says that she still struggles to talk about it and that it's something that hurts her, you know, to this day.

It's a big mix.

Our way of life really did nearly die out until recent decades it started to finally come back.

But my cat, for example, still goes to church.

I go to Christmas mass with her.

I could...

do the hymns in our indigenous language one of them goes oh you know we we do the whole thing in in our own way and at the same time you know we have our own belief systems our own way of worship of prayer we have our own way of telling stories and accounting for the creation of the world

And those were nearly lost because of schools like St.

Joseph's Mission.

You know, for example, I had never heard anyone other than a single uncle tell a coyote story except for once in my entire life.

And so, you know, we really did almost lose so much of our way, of our culture, and our language is almost gone now.

But it is starting to come back, which is a really beautiful thing.

Well, that's one of the most interesting things about our culture, I would say, is that despite the fact that we've lost so many different parts of what it is to be Sekwepemc, what it is to be a Shuswap person, we still bury our dead in a way that remains true to our customs and practices.

Which I think is because our people want to make sure that when we send our own to the afterlife, that they remain a part of us.

And there are some mixtures in of Catholic rites and things like that.

But ultimately, the way that we do it, which includes playing the gambling game, how late at night, singing a crossover song for the person as they go to the other side, giving away their their goods and materials, abstaining from certain things for an entire year.

Those are practices that go back generations, maybe even thousands of years.

You know, I've thought about that myself.