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Category Archives: Qqs in New York City

NY Part 7: Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge all our friends and colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History for their incredible contributions, both financial and in-kind, that made our journey a success. In particular, we’d like to thank: Eleanor Stirling, Christopher Filardi and Brian Weeks at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. Chris is one of [...]

NY Part 6: Closing

Five days ago, we arrived in New York City. It’s a long way from Bella Bella, but for the brief space of time we were there, we taught ourselves to own it. To make it home. We did that with the help of truly wonderful friends and colleagues, with the support we gave each other, [...]

NY Part 5: Wednesday

This morning we headed to a different part of the Museum: the photo archives. There, we were met by Barbara, who guided us through boxes, drawers and albums of old photos, many of them from the Jesup Expedition in the late 1800s. The Expedition is well-documented elsewhere, and I recommend reading up on it; we [...]

NY Part 4: Tuesday

This morning, before we buried ourselves deep in the marrow of the Museum’s sprawling halls, we took a detour to visit some new friends: the Grade 9 students at New York’s High School for Environmental Studies (HSES). HSES is a theme high school whose curriculum is infused with a more detailed and intensive focus on [...]

NY Part 3: Monday

There are moments in time when your mind is filled with such a sudden torrent of thoughts and emotions that it seems there can’t be words enough to express the magnificence of the experience. Later, in moments of quietude, when you reflect on these momentous occasions, you’re shocked to find the words have swept themselves [...]

NY Part 2: The Boys

N. B. If you would like a history of Qqs (Eyes) Projects Society or the Heiltsuk people, we recommend that you visit our website,read any of the number of books written about Heiltsuk culture, or visit us in our territory to learn about our living traditions in person. We would first like to introduce you [...]

NY Part 1: Introduction

Every culture has a creation story. Every important object and artifact across the span of human existence has an origin story. Even if we have forgotten the words, even if it’s no longer held in living memory, even if the dusty relic of narrative has been obscured and fragmented beyond recognition – there is a [...]