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INTRODUCTIONS
Indigenous people begin with introductions that locate them in a web of kinship. Haa'yuups has been kind enough to do this here for George Clutesi, one of his paternal uncles:
Uncle Georgie's mother was Huupkwista-aks, "moon on the beach woman/' a Huupa'chesaksup and my great-great-grandmother Chiiilthimikamoko-a's youngest sister. Chii-ilthimikamoko-a translates as "Princess Who Attracts Whales to Herself." Uncle Georgie's father was Tsaawulthanulth, the lead singer, man of knowledge, and man of noble birth among the Maaktlayat-h. His paternal grandfather was Naaytaam, whose mother was a Niitiinaa-aksup. Naaytaam was also known as Thluutasii-i. Uncle Georgie spent a great part of his life in the Huupa'chesat-h community and he raised his family among us.1
My own family name, Fee, is Irish. All my grandparents were born in Ontario, of Irish and English descent and all were Protestant. I grew up in Guelph and Toronto, oblivious that my life there was spent in a region covered by the Dish with One Spoon peace agreement between the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, and allied nations. In the Indigenous studies context, I am a white settler academic, someone whose privilege comes from colonization. It was my good fortune to meet Indigenous activists in the 1960s and, later, to be able to learn from my Indigenous students and Indigenous studies colleagues in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. My feminist upbringing and literary education help explain my standpoint.2
I am grateful for the unfailing hospitality of the Musqueam people on whose unceded territory I have lived and worked as an uninvited guest for over thirty years. Hospitality is central for Indigenous Peoples. Many, including George Clutesi s Tseshaht people,3 share stories about welcoming even the greediest strangers. Accepting hospitality puts us into a relationship that means that we will, in turn, be expected to be hospitable. And, I suspect, in all societies, there are good and notso-good ways to perform the roles of host or guest. However, for the Nuu-chah-nulth, hosting a Potlatch is a chiefly prerogative, and so the English word carries little of what hosting entails for them. Further, to be a guest at a Potlatch entails the responsibility of witnessing, paying close attention to proceedings that arc both formal and legal.4 The deep knowledge of what these words mean to...