Wilson Williams

Wilson Williams is my English name.

Swelton is my ancestral name.

I carry on behalf of my father's side of my Squamish nation ancestry.

We got to start planning seven generations ahead.

Plan for seven generations.

I had to go ask my mom, honestly.

We got to be prepared for the unborn children that are coming and make sure their survival and that they don't have to deal with what we've had to.

And I was like, okay, this is it.

How is it going to give us generations of wealth?

And that wasn't justified enough to me, even as a young person.

Sanak was the place of beauty.

And that beauty wasn't presented in this proposal.

So according to the government, when you're on reserve, you're not obliged to follow all the same regulations.

So we can do different things, build higher, build differently, not abiding by the same bylaws and stuff.

When I got on council 12 years ago, my late father-in-law, Byron Joseph, intervened.

He said, oh, we need to get you some silver.

And I was like, oh, okay.

Like just thinking that, oh, yeah, that's what I thought he meant.

That's what I thought he meant, but it wasn't.

He's like, no, part of our teachings, when you wear silver, it deflects bad energy away from you.