Snuneymuxw woman making baskets
Courtesy of Snuneymuxw First Nation
Courtesy of Snuneymuxw First Nation
Baskets : Berry and Clam
In the story "The Boys Who Became a Killer Whale" from the book Legends and Teachings of Xeel's, the Creator, Snuneymuxw Elder and Malaspina College instructor Ellen White writes of the important relationship between children, who must listen and learn from their Elders, and adults, who must pass on traditions and skills. A young girl explains her frustrations, and some of the dangers of incomplete or unheeded teachings, as she learns to make baskets:
"While we were helping to make baskets one day the adults told us to wash and separate the inner cedar bark and to make long strands from the roots of the stinging nettles. We didn't know we should make both long pieces and shorter pieces, so the longer and shorter pieces can be twisted together into one. The long pieces kept breaking and separating and we just let them break. When we gave our older cousins the rope to finish the basket, they said, 'This is too short. Why is it so short?' They didn't tell us how to make the long and the short strings so it would be strong. When they used the basket to haul rocks up to the roof of the bighouse, the rocks came tumbling down on us because the fibres were weak. They blamed us and told us to go away. … When we went home we could hear them teaching our older sisters and brothers." Mothers and grandmothers taught basket weaving to their daughters and granddaughters. As part of the puberty ceremony, young women were kept busy weaving throughout their confinement as a means of ensuring their productive adult life.