Contact No Contact

"You know the stereotypical story about the hair going up at the back of your head? Thats the one and only time in my life that actually happened to me and Im sure my mouth dropped." #contactstories #storytelling #legacy

"He talked about totem poles not just as totem poles, but as story totem poles. I totally enjoyed hearing that. He was one man who was connected with our people in the Valley here and with the needs of keeping our culture alive." #contactstories

"But its the true meaning that Ive always held close to my heart and it is the wisdom that Ive learned from Nuu-chah-nulth. It is all things are connected, everything is one." http://ow.ly/xpcY30gEIcM #contactstories #language

"Its my aboriginal heritage that Im just discovering about five years ago my sister did our family tree and Im a descendant from the hereditary chiefs of Iroquois people." #contactstories #familytree #ancestors

"So I wouldnt listen, I taught my girls. He comes home and my girls are saying some Hulquminum words and he looks at me." #contactstories #language

"I always felt it was always our land and I guess it was always our land but it also belonged to everyone else as well and the people that surrounded us." #contactstories #canada150 #reconciliation

"Every time I heard somebody talk I learned more; I kept moving down that path" #contactstories #reconciliation

"I went over nine months without seeing my girls or talking to them once they started living with their father. It was probably the roughest time of my life not having contact with my children." #contactstories #family #reconnecting #canada150

"That man had a team of horses, and he got my dads car going and dad got home." #contactstories

"Someone described it to me the other day that Im swimming in the waters of whiteness. Thats all Ive known and all Ive ever learned." #contactstories

"Its about connecting with ancestors from generations and generations ago, learning who they were and what their qualities were." #contactstories #canada150

"I went on a 30 to 45 minute boat ride to Ahousaht, in Tofino, with my brother, my auntie and a whole bunch of other people to meet my family for the first time." #contactstories #canada150

"And looking back and reading a bit of history now, I realized that Debbie was one of those Aboriginal children who were part of the horrible sixties scoop, that she was taken from her own family wherever they were."

"Later they found out it was so cold, that we owe our survival to the First Nations coming out and making that contact with them, letting them know how to survive. And so our family is eternally thankfully for that."

"John Galler was the first white man to build orchards and you name it. He had some of the biggest orchards in the States and he also lived on reserve because they got him well. There was a shipwreck and they took care of him, the chief took him in and took care of him."

"Now I look back now, the first 19 years of my life has been 58 months with my parents. And it was really hard getting to know my mom and dad after I was finished. And getting back into looking after them and that, and being scared to ask questions because of the cultural changes in my life."

"It was my first introduction to the longhouse and my sister, one of my biological sisters, if I recall, what they call witnesses, what they do is witness the work that is going on and take it back to their family or their tribe and tell the people what they witness."

"They were just kids on the playground with me. And we just played and we were in that space."

"Im not a religious person but when I went there, I felt the spirits." #contactstories #canada150

"Ive been really intrigued by the effort at Vancouver Island University to bring indigenous study into the heart of the university."

"However with the generation that we offer service to, its the older generation, so throughout the years Ive noticed that returning to these communities, some of our past clients have since passed on and stuff like that."

"I think a lot of the barriers, a lot of the problems, a lot of the issues would fall apart if people just sat down and got to know each other in a more meaningful way."

Well are you stupid? This iswere Indian and youre not. And Im going, Yeah but whats that got to do with it?

"I was told always to remember these stories because I had been brought up as a storyteller in our traditional ways and theres not many people brought up like that anymore." #contactstories #storyteller

We would like to call you mom, is that okay? And I was like, Sure thats fine, you can call me mom. http://contact-nocontact.ca/stories/mom/

Jimmy, Jimmy, why are you rowing backwards? Youre rowing backwards, and why do you sit up at the end of the canoe like that? #contactstories #introductions

"So Ive always had a dream to go to Nootka Sound and go to Friendly Cove where Captain Cook first contacted North American, first nations people here on the British Columbia coast. So I did that a few years ago." Find out about his journey to Friendly Cove: http://contact-nocontact.ca/stories/friendly-cove/.

"I remember, I took a group of women from Port Simpson, and we built a sweat lodge from scratch. Went in the bush, got the logs and we covered it all with blankets, and that was my first experience in the sweat lodge." Listen and read more about their first experience of a sweat lodge at http://contact-nocontact.ca/stories/sweat-lodge/.

"I came home one day from school and told my mother that we had show and tell and I told them I was aboriginal and that my uncle was a hereditary chief and she said, What? You cant share that. People arent going to like you if they know youre Aboriginal. And I said, "Well, they thought it was great."" Read and watch the rest of this personal narrative at http://contact-nocontact.ca/stories/prejudice-reversed/.

"They didnt look like First Nations people, or Indians as they were called, because my image of First Nations and Indian people were movies and drawings and comic books and things."

The Contact No Contact website is now live! Explore a collection of personal contact stories at contact-nocontact.ca