Tsawout First Nation allocated 2023 Trust funds to assist with the ongoing operating costs associated with their new Bighouse (SMIŁE,ÁUṮW in SENĆOŦEN). The scent of cedar sweetens the air around it and drumsong drifts out of its traditional chimneys. When it was completed in 2022, Tsawout’s new Bighouse finally provided members the opportunity to properly honour and collectively move through the grief they had been carrying since the loss of their previous Bighouse to fire in 2009. Bringing the Bighouse back to the community was a decade-long endeavour, remarkably made possible by caring neighbours, friends of the community, and generous donors who contributed to a GoFundMe campaign.
For millennia, Bighouses have provided Coast Salish Nations a spiritual place to gather in the heart of the community to practice ceremony, strengthen traditional social structures, support struggling individuals and families, and pass teachings between generations. With thousands of years of place-based architectural innovation, Bighouses built today blend traditional Coast Salish engineering and modern materials and building techniques.
The role of the Bighouse in community cannot be downplayed. The hole that was left in the community following the 2009 fire was deepened when several of the Nation’s youth, cut off from the sense of cultural belonging, pride and direction facilitated by practices within SMIŁE,ÁUṮW, were lost to mental health struggles. These losses could not be properly mourned in the Bighouse, and instead, what had been a place of spiritual refuge and cultural revitalization became a reminder of loss.
“When the Bighouse burnt down, many in the community heard the crying that was in the air. It was the spirits of ancestors.” – Mavis Underwood
It was important to Tsawout to lift their youth up as soon as it became possible to bring the Bighouse back to the community. Once enough funds were gathered for the build, young Nation members were intentionally hired on to take part and gain work experience in the trades.
“I think this is built out of the needs and hopes of our young people,” Mavis Underwood said when the project broke ground.
Those who contributed to the South Island Indigenous Reciprocity Trust in 2023 became part of this story of cultural revitalization and community healing, directly supporting ongoing maintenance of SMIŁE,ÁUṮW as neighbours who understand themselves to be dependent on the same lands and waters that inspired the SMIŁE,ÁUṮW and all that it upholds.
“What better purpose than to hold up all of our people in the longhouse. There is no better investment,” said Tsawout Chief Abraham Pelkey.
References
https://seasidemagazine.ca/raising-the-bighouse-revitalization-in-the-tsawout-community/
