The Kitchen Table

The building we work in is a late 1960s, early 1970s, mobile classroom. Single pane windows and wood panel interior walls. It is obvious the room was made for little children. Everything is lower and smaller. The windows on the West side of the building are covered most of the time. At first, it seemed crazy to have them covered, but as time went on into spring and summer, we discovered that the heat and the strong sun made it unbearable to work in the building. There is a built-in fan on the North side of the building. Our hope was to have it circulate air, but there has been a family of birds living there. We didn’t have the heart to remove them, and it's kind of nice to hear the baby birds anyway... ...for the first hour. The floor has a bit of a hump in it; we are good as long as you keep the chairs on castors at the workstations and not in the middle of the room. Fluorescent light, a couple that need more than bulbs changed, and a leak that mostly hits the bucket when it’s raining hard. Some of these things, or a combination of these things, had the potential to make your heart sink. Where do you start? Here we are working with Elders on such important work. The least we could do is make them comfortable and feel valued. But what seemed like a huge deficiency, the Elders never made mention of or complained about. I am sure they have seen better and worse…

The table and chairs did not work; they were too low to work at for hours at a time, especially for Elders. We set out to locate comfortable chairs. We received a donation from a medical office that was closing its doors due to retirement. The only thing we needed now was a table that would suit our needs. I am a firm believer that we do our best work at the kitchen table. It is also a strong belief that we learn our language at home and at the kitchen table with our family. I somehow talked my wife into allowing me to use a very rustic kitchen table she had built years before. I thought it had character and many important things took place around the table, including raising her son and, more recently, my son...

On the West side above the windows are many photos of Saanich Elders that have been carefully mounted. Many of the Elders in the pictures have since passed... It is tradition to cover photos of the ones that have passed recently. When I look to the pictures I am sometimes saddened. All the good people, the burdens they must have carried trying to ensure the next generation had the knowledge and culture passed on through them to all our families in our community. One thing I can be certain of is that, as we work, they are not too far away. The Elders ask that we light a candle to start our day and put it out at the end of our day. ... And our Saanich Elders, who sacrificed for us, watch over our kitchen table.