Sarah Hunt - Sarah Hunt, Kwaguilth Band, Discussing the displacement of First Nations people as a result of European contact

My name is Sara and my dad is Kwagulth from Fort Rupert, so I live here in Victoria now obviously. It is interesting being here as a contemporary aboriginal person, because you can see a lot of the long term impacts of colonization or contact between First Nations and non First Nations people here, particularly in some of the landmarks in Victoria. My dad and my grandpa, and my great grandpa were all carvers, and my dad is still an artist here, and some of the things you see around Victoria like the big house in front of the museum, the totem pole in Beacon Hill park, a lot of those things are not actually Coast Salish, from this territory; there are things from Kwagulth traditions, or other traditions, from First Nations people who have been displaced, or who left their traditional territories, because of needing to provide for their families, or some of the social conditions on reserves, poverty, lack of employment, those kinds of things, as well as the long term impact of banning the potlatch, which was only lifted about 50 years ago. Those sort of things have led to some of the current cultural practices that you see today