Transcript
Speaker: I'm Jane Williams. This is the Red Eye Podcast. You can hear our live broadcast on Saturday mornings from 10 till noon at 100.5 FM in the Lower Mainland.
Speaker: On the podcast today, Lauren Chisholm speaks with Evan Adams, co-director of the documentary film Namesake, which had its West Coast premiere this month.
Speaker: Tlamin Territory stretches along the northern part of BC's Sunshine Coast on both sides of the Strait of Georgia. Across the region, indigenous place names once described places of harvest, physical descriptions or geographical markers, and stories. Over time, they were replaced by the names of distant officials who never lived there.
Speaker: The film, Tamquathnam Namesake, will have its West Coast premiere at the Doxa Festival, and the film documents an ongoing conversation between the Tlaman Nation and the city commonly known as Powell River over a proposal to reclaim the city's name, which is derived from a recent colonial official.
Speaker: Dr. Evan Adams is co-director of the film. Evan is an actor and a physician. He currently serves with the First Nation Health Authority and the National Circle for Indigenous Medical. And he joins me now. Hello, Evan. It's so good to talk to you.
Speaker: Hi, Lorraine. Thanks for um having this conversation with me. Now, before we start to talk about the film and the stories it tells, could you say a few place names from the territory in the common language?
Speaker: Sure. The island closest to us now called Savory is called Ayas. And Kafet is the proposed name for the kind of the whole territory that includes what's now called the city of Powell River.
Speaker: There's some beautiful places. I hear that you've been to my territory. It's really quite paradisiacal. And we really wanted to kind of capture that and the First Nation sense of this beautiful territory that sustains us.
Speaker: it It is an absolutely gorgeous territory. Now in the film we see and hear the archaeological record showing the Tlaaman peoples living continuously on the territory for over 10,000 years, but the population was decimated through colonizer activities. What are some of these historical events that led to the times where much of the Tlaaman culture was erased or destroyed?
Speaker: Well, I think the arrival of infectious diseases really decimated our population. So for instance, in 1862, a smallpox epidemic, pandemic really, i'm started in San Francisco, whipped south, whipped north, and killed a third of our population within a period of several weeks.
Speaker: My great-grandfather, Autumn, was born in 1860. He survived that smallpox epidemic, but he was blinded by it as a baby, you know as toddler.
Speaker: as a toddler Yeah, so you can imagine losing a large proportion of the population, um how decimating that was to to culture. And and that for people to live with the sequelae, not just the physical scars, like my great-grandfather's, but the emotional scars of that kind of loss. So that's part of the story, right, of territory from our perspective. Very different than, say, a settler who came after the building of the mill, and the establishment of the little town once our village was moved away from the river Tisquat.
Speaker: We called it Tisquat, this beautiful river that our village was on. And then that river was taken from us. And the city of Powell River was put there over top of our village site. Now, Powell River was a name assigned by colonizer to that area where the river comes out called Tisquat. Who was Israel Powell after which the town was renamed?
Speaker: Yes, to to us as First Nations people, Israel Powell is a very egregious character. He was the first superintendent of Indian Affairs in the province of BC.
Speaker: He was a government official who never visited our territory. He helped he was one of the architects of the residential school system. He blocked ah the recording of our village sites because even at the time, the law was that you know if Indigenous people lived in a territory, that was their territory.
Speaker: And he blocked the recording of us living there so that the land could be expropriated from under us. So to us, he's you know not a nice character. It seems to me, though, to the townspeople in Powell River, he's kind of a fairly neutral character. They don't really assign him anything positive or negative. It's just, oh, Powell River, it's you know the name of our basketball team in high school. and It has meaning to us. And and we've said, yeah it has meaning to us, too.
Speaker: And by the way, why do you name? places the way that you do. Yeah. So it's ah that was the beginning of the conversation. and And you hear in the film from lots of different characters about, you know, what they're what they're thinking about this proposition.
Speaker: Well, one thing I found so interesting was the way the film talks about this pretty stark contrast in what naming is and what it means in the Tlaamen worldview versus settler colonial practices.
Speaker: Yes, it was so puzzling to me once we asked and we said, you know, why do you name places the way that you do after this, you know, dead white guy from long ago has never been here and who has no meaning to you? He hasn't done anything really relevant for the townspeople.
Speaker: And for us, you know, these place names have existed for a very long time, many, many generations, and we think they're very beautiful. and they're very descriptive and they're very um honorable You know, we name places after characteristics of those places.
Speaker: We know that the land sustains us and our view of our paradisiacal territory is different than, say, someone who said, you know, we came to this town in 1910. My great grandfather helped, you know, cut down all the trees and we sold them for money.
Speaker: And we built all of these homes, they all look exactly the same, because they literally did, you know, the the town of Power River has these homes that are all identical to each other all in a row, that were built for the leadership within the town.
Speaker: But you know, the the viewpoints on land were just different. And that was so interesting to us because we knew that in other parts of the country, people's view of history and people's view of naming and very different realities exist ah side by side. So how do we and do we have that conversation of landing on the same page about like, what does this place mean and what should we call it?
Speaker: Well, much of the film is about, or I guess the film is about that process of discussing the name of the town and potentially reclaiming it. What did you want to show about this this upwelling of interest in a new name that reflected, you know, tens of thousands of years of Tlaman nation history?
Speaker: Yeah, my my first thought, my my first drive was to try and capture an Indigenous perspective because we just we just don't hear enough. ah from First Nations people about, you know, their their love of their territory or, you know, what what is your history here? What are your stories? And I definitely heard that as a little boy, my father would say, you know, look at this this beautiful island that we're passing by on our boat.
Speaker: ah You know, so-and-so used to live there. Their house is gone now, but I remember them. And now by telling you, you remember them. And this is a beautiful place to get see a certain type of clam that's right on this point. you know, I grew up hearing these incredible stories about the lands and waters. So I wanted to share that with people. But then we were also hearing other people's memories and ideas of this place. And of course, we share the territory. So
Speaker: Yeah, I just wanted to hear reflections, knowing that there was going to be some collision and there were going to be some differences. And I liked hearing some of the sentimentality from the townspeople. I liked hearing their, in what I call an intersectionality. they could They could understand that they have a history here, but also we have a history here and they were good with that.
Speaker: But um probably the most dramatic part early on when we started filming was the darkness, like some of the anti-Indigenous racism. We thought we were talking about changing the name of a place, but we heard some really racist tropes. that We heard you know things like residential school survivors are liars. They're just doing it for money. And and you know my parents are residential school survivors. So that felt really, yeah, really awful.
Speaker: What we discovered, of course, was that you know we really don't want to make a film with a bunch of racist characters. we We wanted to hear from a wide range of people and I feel like we really captured that, including some of the extraordinary allies who said, you know, we're listening, you know, we want to be good neighbors in a, in relationship with you and we love this place too.
Speaker: Well, I really took what you're talking about from the film when I was watching it. It sort of started as this exploratory and positive effort to create these conversations, but it's not surprising it it met up with this conservative opposition from you know from a group of settlers. But it also shows steadfast community support. Was it hard to find the right shape for the story given these stark contrasts?
Speaker: Yes, it felt it felt like almost daily we were asking the question, you know, what is the story of this town? What is the story of this interaction? And early on, it early on it looked quite bleak.
Speaker: And then we would go on these tears of like, well, what do um First Nations people think lands and territories? And then we went on this other jag of like, what is the actual real history of what happened here in this town?
Speaker: Like, what did Israel Powell do in his time in office? How responsible was he for the residential school architecture? You know, was he a founder? Was he just ah you know barely complicit? Like, whoa what was that? And then as well, like what actually happened in the mill?
Speaker: Because mills, you know, they cut down trees for profit and they clear cut. And, you know, the practices at the time really poisoned and destroyed, you know, a very beautiful place. So how do you tell the truth of that?
Speaker: So there were lots of places to go. And I think the struggle for us was to try and capture those stories and make them into tiny, tiny, brief little pearls and string a necklace ah to make to make the film.
Speaker: Could you talk a little bit more as well about the process in creating Namesake, which was a collaboration between Tlam filmmakers and allies? how How did you start out and how did the storytelling evolve? How did you work with people?
Speaker: Sure. Well, I had made a film about Klammenation around, yeah, between 1990 and 2000. It was called Klammen, as far back as the story goes. So I was used to trying to capture First Nations perspectives.
Speaker: on film part of that is just capturing the raw beauty of it and then also how do you show an esteemed and beautiful um elder like how do you capture their life their voice in a single image like you know in a head and shoulders shot so yeah there were there was um for me a real exploration on how do you capture those extraordinary voices. And I like to think that we did hear from lots of different people about their experiences of the land. I knew, for instance, that a woman elder was experiencing land and territory different than, say, how my father was. My father is in the film. He's long gone now, but we had footage of him being on the land. So, you know, he was a hunter. And so his experience of the land was different than an elder, let alone, you know, how different it would be from a logger of old or from a government leader who's talking about the city and what the city does.
Speaker: ah to ah you know We hear from a lot of young people and young people, yeah I knew from our culture that young people need to be part of the conversation. Our elders say to us, you have to include young people who we're going to talk to. You don't want old people just talking to each other. You want young people there with their energy their inquisitiveness and their love and just their physical strength, right? Like they you need young people to go on the land.
Speaker: It can be quite grueling to be out there. So anyway, we heard we heard from lots of different folks and it made, I think, this this beautiful portrait of these two solitudes and how are they going to get where they need to go.
Speaker: So, Evan, the conversation about the name of the town hasn't come to a conclusion. How do you hope audiences for the film can become an active part of the reconciliation, the repair, that the healing that this project is trying to create?
Speaker: Yeah, maybe I was naive at the beginning, thinking that this conversation would happen in ah in a few months or a few years. Maybe it's going to take us quite a lot longer to to land on the same page about how to move forward together in a respectful way.
Speaker: How do we name places in this territory? I think what I found was that this is a pretty common question. You know, the the government of Canada has asked organizations, you know Bank of Montreal or universities, how to deal with reconciliation.
Speaker: But we haven't really heard from everyday Canadians. You know, what's your role in relationships between townspeople and First Nations? Do you know how to say hello in the local First Nations language? Do you know Indigenous people and have you heard their stories?
Speaker: Like um the concept of two eyed seeing, seeing from an indigenous eye and a Western eye at once is common to us as indigenous people, right? We live in two worlds. But, you know, can non-native people have eyed seeing? Can they see from our point of view?
Speaker: And of course they can. but they need to spend time on it. So I think this film is partly about you us saying our truths and asking audiences to hear us. And hopefully we've done it in a good way so that you know you you can hear a lot of stuff in a very short period of time. And just because we're talking about serious things doesn't mean we can't have fun. like I hope the film is joyful and beautiful too while you hear from all of these different players.
Speaker: Well, ah I can attest for me that it was a very joyful film and also heart-wrenching film at at the same time. And i I guess that's something that you do want to reach for.
Speaker: Yes, I was surprised how often I was moved to tears, even just thinking about, you know, one of the people we hear from is a young dad from the town who said, you know, indigenous kids deserve better.
Speaker: It was so moving to hear. You know, for me, I hadn't heard that sentiment a lot from settlers. I've heard lots of anti-indigenous sentiment. Like I've heard from racist people saying, you know, residential sort of school of survivors are exaggerating.
Speaker: But i to hear someone say, you know, those kids to deserve better. But I thought, oh, why why don't we hear this more? Why aren't we having this conversation? What happened to those children um not so long ago it's really a black eye for all of us. And we all have to wear it.
Speaker: And, you know, so when you have these very negative voices speaking over what should be just a very simple sentiment, it is troubling. So I'm glad you were moved because I had hoped that people would be touched.
Speaker: by the kind of the nakedness and the authenticity of the the many voices in the film. Well, thank you so much, Evan. It is a very beautiful film and I really recommend it to people.
Speaker: Oh, thank you. I really honestly want people to see it. I'm hoping that there's something in there that they can take and keep for themselves. I've been speaking with Dr. Evan Adams. Evan is an actor and a physician. He currently serves with the First Nations Health Authority and the National Circle for Indigenous Medical. He is co-director of the film, Tamkosnam Namesake.
Speaker: And the film shows at Doxa this afternoon at 2.45 p.m. at the Javid Mugafian Cinema at SFU Downtown and tomorrow, Sunday, at 8.50 p.m. at the VIF Theater. And to find out more, you can go to namesake.film or doxafestival.ca.
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Speaker: I'm Jane Williams. Thanks for listening.
