Yes, I’ve been hanging around Commercial/Broadway with my greeting cards for approximately 10 years and in the beginning I wasn’t trying to be a millionaire. All I wanted to do was meet people and people would say why don’t you go on the internet and make a lot of money. I don’t’ the money, I want to see people smiling and give a gift to somebody. Along the way I didn’t know the city bylaws on merchandise on city sidewalks as they call it. In the last 10 years they did their best extract from that corner from Broadway/Commercial in East Vancouver. I almost listened because I think the institutional side of my mind where the Indian residential school character, I call clone # 46 because that was my number and every night they called my number to pick up my stuff.
All I’m trying to do is meet people not there to get drunk or get stoned, but now I’m going to court for having no vendors lisence for promoting Living Heritage, which I am very proud of. This seems to be unscathed, more stronger than all the nations fighting over money. I learned a lot too, just... in finding myself – I don’t know that I’m doing half the time and I only know this language so the same words goes in circles in my head because I cannot think of anything else. I said a rhyming thing to a lady from Mexico and she couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. It was just a metaphor that I cannot remember it was. And now its wow all these different cultures – such small words and they still cannot understand it. East Vancouver - even though it rains a lot, there is a lot of sunshine too, you just have to look for it.
Even though I’m going to court for something I’m proud of, I’m still more proud proud of it, that I survived it again. Cuz that’s all we are doing everyday is just surviving everyday. I tell people who ask where I’m living, I tell them I am just existing, you know cuz that’s how I am feeling because I am so strung out on words and do not know how to express the Nuxalk feelings, other than my artwork and I don’t my language because in that school we were not allowed to practice any of our heritage or any of our artwork and again that is how powerful the earth is, because that’s how powerful the earth is, everything comes from the earth, nothing has fallen from the sky other than words. We are always seem to be trying to reach for the unknown and never, ever satisfied and I know words can cause ill feelings but again how can we make that ill felling happy – where do we start, it has words.
I always tell people that if you have a problem in this language it’s easy to solve because it’s in this language. I just wanted to add this for legalities of native artists who are trying to be themselves and co-exist with the world. Live together. Thank you.
