the title for my blog – breathing fire into who we are… comes from an article called “White Raven Law and the Title Case”by Kwiaahwah Jones in Haida Laas , News of the Haida Nation July 2010. the article is about collecting ancestors’ stories, in this case, for claim to the title of Haida Gwaii by its original inhabitants and by return to their descendants.
i do not need to (re)claim my land, we are a hybrid of many settlers here. but i do need to hear the land’s stories, the tales from my ancestors, to dip my hand into the long river of memory and seek their songs, memories and poems. i listen to the land and try to listen what i am hearing. to make sense of it. then to tell my own versions of these. to honour them. they are the things that breath fire into who i am. how we ground ourselves in where we are from is important. how we live in balance with others, all beings, is important. the tales we tell are important…
