fenced-off river.

The area was quite overgrown with
blackberries, which made it impossible to
get near Sxwoymelh, if we had in fact
found him. I found a spot that was clear,
and scrambled up and over a rise. The
Doctor waited, snapping photos. Before
me spread the Sto:lo moving ever west.

I considered sloshing along the shore
towards the mouth of the exiting water,
when The Doctor alerted me that a guy in
an .erange vest was heading towards us.
Steeling myself, I turned away from the
prize. As I clambered over, a bit too eager-
ly, I received a couple of nasty Himalayan
blackberry scratches—but I was in the
zone. I was nearer to the Transformer
than I had thought.

It was at this point that a mousta-
chioed guy in an orange and yellow vest
caught up with us. He explained it was too
dangerous for us to remain.

The Doctor went into action, chatting
him up about forest fires and such. I read-
ied my karate chop in case he was an
enemy agent—it was more likely that I
would blow our cover. Luckily, The
Doctor has trained years in the Orient and
has the ability to cloud men’s minds.

The next day, I received a map and
photo from the BC Ministry of

Archaeology. Sxwoymelh had been under
our noses the whole time. But how?
On the map there was a large arrow,

and the aforementioned description of
the stone. I lumbered down to the shore
of the Std:lo again, this time to the
Western mouth of the Brunette. There
was a bridge, ramping off Columbia
Street, and there was the new Sapperton
Landing park, with the old red building
that used to receive inmates for the
Provincial Penitentiary.

The park is part of the Greenway
forming an alternative, ecologically mind-
ed route to Vancouver. Native plants and
environmental concerns pepper the site.
In a sense, the people’s connection to the
land is returning, as if acknowledging our
own lineage to this stone, that we cannot
be divided from the land, but are in fact a
part of it.

There was a rock. It was on its side,
and perhaps this slipped by my European
programming, the idea that stones should
be standing, like those at Stonehenge.

This stone was slightly person-sized
and tiling proclaiming “Fish In The City”
surrounded it. I mused, and then I pon-
dered. I checked the map. This had to be
it. | had found Sxwoymelh.

If only for myself, and the deepening

of my own understanding of the Qayqayt
and the Stolo peoples, to put to rest the
shallowness of New Westminster for the
land beneath. I had found the
Transformer.

We stood at Sapperton Landing, with
the flow of the Sto:lo river beside us, near
the mouth of the Brunette River, and
Statelew (or Skaiametl) just a hop-skip-
and-a-jump away. We stood near a
person-sized greyish-blue stone that was
lying on its side.

It turned out that the tiles surrounding
the stone were designed by local school
children.

Yes, it was in the shape of a person.
Why, when renovating the park, attaching
it to the “greenway” that stretches into
Vancouver, would such a peculiar stone
have been transported from some quarry?

While documenting, I stood on the
stone and froze. What is the value of my
own culture if I cannot respect another,
and one so ancient? Shall I mock my own
ancestors? Respect demands respect. I did
not stand upon Sxwoymelh, and at that
moment New Westminster washed away.
The “Shxweli” or spirit of Sxwoymelh,
one of the ancestors of Rhonda Larrabee,
the Chief of New Westminster, is there.

My own picture of New Westminster

 

has become more valuable through inter-
action with its First Nations’ heritage and
traditions. What has been a cultural waste-
land is now a complex backdrop. I was
finally there, a guest, within the Sto:lo cap-
ital that existed before the Royal City.

With all the redevelopment in this
area, it is as though it were innately known
that this was and is an important part of
Qayqyat heritage and tradition. Though,
what are plans for community awareness
of Sxwoymelh? Is there anything planned
like the Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive
Centre just up the valley? The site is rec-
ognized by the Ministry of Archaeology,
and as such is protected by the Heritage
Act. I suppose to some people, it is just a
rock. But in the context of the personal,
spiritual, and First Nation culture, it is so
much mote. It’s interesting that there are
no markers to announce the cultural/his-
toric importance of this site.

In watching A Tribe Of One, and
researching about the Qayqayt, one is
continually struck by the seemingly com-
plete denial of Qaygqayt culture in New
Westminster. One was told in the schools
there, and at home, that the Qayqayt were
gone.

 

 

 

NIGHTCLUB
The original “ T’

 

irsty

Thursdays”
$2 cover & $2 Drinks!

Foreplay Fridays $3 Hiballs

Cheer Factor Saturdays
Check out our Giant Twister

board and much much more
Student special no line no cover
before 10:30 with your student I.D.

54 - CHURCH ST. NEW WEST. 604-525-1932

  
 

 

 

16 | OUREFPPESS

Heuhoer = ah/20o