Saanich-Salish CURA 2004-2009

This journal is dedicated to the Saanich People, for whom I have the deepest respect. My family and my relatives. I have been lucky enough to travel to a few places in the world in my life. Nowhere have I found the richness of our land and culture, the birth place of our precious language. It is true; I do not speak our language. Sometimes, this makes me very sad… Our ancestors did not intend for us to speak English nor, for many of us, to have English as our first language. I will continue to build positive awareness for the SENĆOŦEN language and continue to direct attention to the good things in our community that keep us a great people.

This web log outlines the experiences and observations that I received from my time with the Saanich-CURA Project (February 1, 2005 - March 31, 2008). One of the criteria of the Salish-CURA Project was that it would have to encompass a multi-media approach. A blog seemed to be a good place to download thoughts and moments I was fortunate to witness throughout the process and share them with as many people as possible. During the 36 months or so, I kept notes and issued reports to the Salish-CURA Steering Committee of our daily, weekly and monthly activities. I will issue blog reports starting from the beginning of my time with the project up until the group wrapped up their work at the end of March 2008.

The written entries you will read over the coming months are fully from my perspective. As the face of the blog, I will record project outlines and achievements. My official role in the project was SENĆOŦEN-CURA coordinator. I spent the majority of my time on administrative duties, trouble shooting and helping to flesh out individual projects. Over the 3 complete years, discoveries and findings occurred that are unique to this special group of people. I will introduce you to each one of them through written reports, photos and audio recordings. During this same period of time, many setbacks and challenges plagued our work; I will share as many as I am able.

-Enjoy-

P.S. I look forward to your feedback, thoughts and comments. More importantly, I hope reading about our experiences and achievements, will help promote and inspire the urgent need for committed Indigenous Language Revitalization supporters worldwide by assisting in your own region...

-We all need to do our part to save our Mother the Earth. Each and every Indigenous language worldwide holds the keys to a distinct bio-region. With the loss of even one language, we all lose the infinite knowledge of our natural world forever...

Sincerely
Andy Paul