© the other press © Features

March 10, 2004

 

Tom Mellish
OP Contributor

TM: You're definitely a prominent
figure in the Lower Mainland. I
heard you were at Gung Ho Fat
Haggis, to name just one recent
event. Have you always been so
social, so dynamic?

RE" Yes:

TM: And your reception.... How
have you been received by the local
community?

RL: You mean in New Westminster?
The response has been warm and
when people hear our story, they
root for us! As do all the other
Indian Bands. There have been so
many people who have helped us
along on our journey.

TM: New Westminster is a young
city, yet extremely proud of its past.
Are schoolchildren learning the
Qayqayt’s role in the heritage of
this land?

RL: Yes, I speak at most of the ele-
mentary schools in New West, as
well as at the High School and
Douglas College.

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TM: You're currently looking for a
land base. Has there been any
change with the BC Buildings
Corporation decision not to
include the First Nations in its
Woodlands allocation?

RL: No change. I think their hands
are tied because it’s a Land Claim.

TM: You've mentioned in the past
inviting former patients and fami-
lies whose relatives—I believe over
a thousand—are buried at
Woodlands for a healing ceremony,
to heal that land.

RL: If we were ever given the
Woodlands site, the first thing
would be to have a ceremony to
cleanse the land.

TM: What would be the minimum
amount of land that you would
need for a “land base?”

RL: Well, Woodlands is 45 acres and
we'd be happy with that, but I don't
know what will be available by the
time our claim goes through.

http://www.otherpress.ca

TM: Must the land base be
returned by the government, or
could it, say, be purchased by your-
self or a third party?

RL: Tried that...No go.

TM: This brings me to your tradi-
tional burial site, the Poplar Island
Reserve. Has there been any move,
civic, provincial, or on the federal
level, to make reparations for land
that was taken from you?

RL: No—again, part of the Land
Claim process.

TM: Not to mention the archaeo-
logical value. I believe you were
consulted by Translink regarding
land use in the area. Have there-
been any digs on any of your
ancestral lands?

RL: I believe there have been sever-
al, and I’ve been notified about
most of them.

TM: Then there is the North
Westminster Reserve, currently
inhabited by Scott Paper. Has that

Ron Lee, Rhonda Larabee, Rod

particular ompany shown any
interest or support?

RL: No.

TM: Finally, there’s the South
‘Westminster Reserve in Surrey. Has
Surrey shown any interest in repa-
rations, as that area was the tradi-
tion Qaygqayt seasonal village of the
Sté:16 peoples?

RL: No. The Scott Paper site was
actually the “seasonal” village.
Brownsville—in South New
Westminster, now Surrey—was the-
actual Reserve that was inhabited.
That’s where my family lived, right
on the Fraser River beside the

Railway Bridge.

TM: Last I heard, Eun-hee Cha,
director and co-writer of A Tribe of
One, was working on a larger ver-
sion of her documentary about you.
How is that going?

RL: Yes, she’s busy writing the script
and it’s actually a movie based on
our family—my mom mostly—and
is fictional.

 

TM: Is there anything you'd like to

leave us with?

RL: I find it amazing that this has
happened to me and our family—to
be “the last of the Mohicans” so to
speak—is incredible. I wonder what
my mom would think and I’m just
taking it slow and easy so that we do
things properly and respectfully.

TM: I'd just like to close by saying
as someone born and raised in New
Westminster, I feel that you've
brought a breath of fresh air to the
community. It is a pleasure to have
had this and other dialogues with
you. You are making New West a
better, more holistic, multicultural
community. It gives me hope.

Please, keep up the great work.

RL: Thank you, Tom, for all your
research, I really appreciate the
interest you've shown.