Beyond Being Silenced: Gyaa Isdlaa | movie | 2022 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

Filmmaker Charles Wilkinson gives viewers an immersive look at that potlatch, a jubilant gathering that finds the member | dG1fcnhaWkZZNHZxZDA

Transcript

00:00Washlets, as we call it in Haida, has been in practice long before contact, up and down

00:17the coast, from Alaska down to Washington, for many generations.

00:23It is our supreme court.

00:27Washlets is our word for potlatch.

00:44In October of 2018, we went up to Heidelberg, Alaska to participate in a potlatch or a gya'asla

00:53that my father was hosting up there with his wife, Terri Lynn.

00:57My father tells stories about, in the old times, when they traveled directly from Old

01:03Masset to Heidelberg, and they would take the boat, so there is a close connection between

01:07those two communities, geographically.

01:11Potlatches are a place to bring out our history.

01:15They bring us back to certain time periods, certain moments in our history when we acquired

01:20the right to wear a certain crest.

01:22And so potlatches are a place to bring out those privileges.

01:28I like to use the word privilege instead of right, because a privilege can be taken away.

01:33And so I personally may have a privilege to wear a certain crest, and my clan has those

01:38privileges.

01:40And I might be privileged to have responsibilities to certain areas.

01:44If I don't uphold those responsibilities, then I lose that privilege.

01:48It's very different from a right in Canadian society, where you purchase a right to own

01:53a certain property, and that's your property to do whatever you want with it until the

01:57end of time.

01:59But our privileges carry with them responsibilities.

02:02They're not outright rights, but they're a responsibility to take care of the place,

02:06and that's where art becomes really important, because it ties us back to the place, it ties

02:11us back to Haida Gwaii, and it ties us back to our responsibilities to take care of those

02:17islands.