RavenSpace

Like many Indigenous elders of her generation, Tla’amin (Sliammon) elder Elsie Paul feels an urgency to share the Ɂəms tɑɁɑw she learned from her grandparents. She chose RavenSpace to publish these comprehensive teachings in As I Remember It.

Created in English, with Tla’amin, As I Remember It reflects a resilient, traditional approach to life on the BC coast from the 1940s to now. It conveys honestly the grit many older Indigenous people show, passing on teachings and real-life examples, with sparkling wit and inspiring wisdom. Recognized as an expert by her own Tla’amin community, now as a peer-reviewed author, Elsie Paul’s Ɂəms tɑɁɑw is reshaping scholarly research and contributing to legal conversations. Most importantly, it is reaching new generations of Tla’amin (and non-Tla’amin) children, students and teachers, in ways not possible before. Elsie has given them a living, interactive guide on important matters relating to the happiness, health and well-being.

There is a whole generation of knowledgeable Indigenous experts born in the 1920s, 30s and 40s ready to share teachings from Indigenous language groups across the country. Their children, grandchildren and communities are searching online for those teachings. To help, younger Indigenous creators are stepping forward. They are keen to interview, record, film, research and learn, to renew relations that strengthen their cultural ties and visions for the future. RavenSpace’s award-winning staff walks beside these experts and creators through the entire process, turning digital content into a fully realized, multi-media publication.

Together, this respectful and imaginative work recognizes elders as living treasures and empowers youth to participate in the cultural health of their peoples. Together, publishing builds community, expands our view of the world, and connects people across places, backgrounds, and generations.  Now, other Indigenous elders and younger creators from Canada and the U.S. are reaching out to RavenSpace for help with publishing their community projects. The drive toward inter-generational co-operation is truly inspiring to see, and the demand has been nothing short of overwhelming.

We need your help to meet this urgent need. Help RavenSpace publish, sustain, and promote the teachings of Indigenous elders, in their own voices, in their own languages, for their grandchildren, community, and the wider world.

Your gift will support:

• RavenSpace capacity-building workshops for other Indigenous authors and creators
• Platform, hosting, creative work, design, and editorial
• Digital permanence, and support Open Access discovery through scholarly meta-data, #scholcomm, and documentation
• Ethically preserving Indigenous guardianship of stories and knowledge, and in compliance with protocol