WEBVTT 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,000 The creation of Haida Gwaii (Haida) 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:16,000 This is how the Islands came out, came up and out. 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,000 This is the story I’m going to tell. 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:28,000 This was told to me GwaaGanad Diane Brown by James Young. 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,000 I’ll start in English now. 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:45,000 This is the story of how Haida Gwaii came to be 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:51,000 how it came out of… up and out of the Ocean. 00:00:51,000 --> 00:01:01,000 A long, long time ago, the loon was in the water swimming. 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:12,000 There was no land to be seen. Many, many nights he swam. 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:23,000 No land was to be seen. And then he looked upwards. 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:34,000 When he looked up and saw clouds, only clouds. 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:48,000 So he flew up to the clouds.He flew up 00:01:53,000 --> 00:02:02,000 into the clouds, and in the clouds was a Haida House, sitting there. 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:11,000 He saw this. So just like that, he sat beside… 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:25,000 he sat outside the Haida House and he made himself 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:32,000 into a human and walked into the House. 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Inside the House, he saw two rocks, lying. He saw them burning. 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:59,000 Beside these burning rocks, there was an old man with white hair. 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,000 He was sleeping there on his back. 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:19,000 He walked around the fire and he thought: “Oh, I think I’ll wake him” 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:25,000 But not, but he did not move, even a little. 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:34,000 He did not move, so again, he went outside, he walked outside. 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:50,000 Like the loon… the loon, cries out. 00:03:50,000 --> 00:04:00,000 How this loon cries out, that is still to this day is how they cry. 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000 So outside, he was crying out. 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:14,000 All day, he did this crying, loon cry. 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:21,000 Night time, it became, and he walked into the House; 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:27,000 still the old man never moved, not even a little. 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:42,000 He was sleeping on his back. So he went outside again. 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:50,000 He returned back outside. He was sitting outside, 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:56,000 when again he started to cry. All night he cried. 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Now dawn came. When dawn came, 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:27,000 he went in the House and the old man still had not moved. 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:32,000 He went back outside and he cried. 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:45,000 This went on for three nights. He cried, he cried. 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:52,000 And then the door opened, the old man walked out of the door. 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,000 “What are you crying for? 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:02,000 What are you walking around crying for?” He said to him. 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:09,000 “I can’t sleep, it’s not possible for me to sleep. 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:22,000 I can’t sleep at all. The way you’re crying around all the time.” 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:30,000 So Loon said back to him: “I came from down there, 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:42,000 and there, nowhere is there land, only ocean. 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:50,000 There’s only ocean there. Ocean is the only thing there.” 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,000 He said to the old man. 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,000 “Come in.” 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:00,000 So just like that, he walked in after the old man. 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:08,000 And where the old man was lying is where they sat. 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:20,000 The old man started to rub his tummy in circular motions 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:31,000 and in a while, he pulled out a child… a child, he pulled out. 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:38,000 And he put him on the ground, the earth. 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:42,000 And he stepped on the child’s feet 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:48,000 and he started pulling him up, upwards. 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:59,000 He pulled him upwards and then he got so tall, just so tall or big. 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:05,000 And then he went even more, he pulled him, to be even more tall. 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:13,000 He was taller than the Haida, the humans. He said: 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,000 “I’m going to make you taller than the Haida, 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:25,000 than the people, Chief.” Is what he said to him. 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:35,000 So he turned him around and around and then he really liked, 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:43,000 he liked what he had created a lot. Then he said to him: 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:53,000 “Behind me, there’s boxes.” He told, told him. 00:08:53,000 --> 00:09:00,000 “Could you get the box.” So like that, the young man 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:13,000 that he just created went behind him and got the box. 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:26,000 So he walked out with the box, put it in front of the old man, 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,000 and the old man opened it. 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:43,000 Inside was another box.He took that box out, 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:51,000 and in that box was another box that he opened. 00:09:51,000 --> 00:10:00,000 And he put that box out and opened it. 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:06,000 Inside that box, was another box. 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:15,000 And he pulled this box out. And in that box… 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:22,000 all together, there was 5 boxes inside of each other. 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:33,000 And in the last box, inside the last box, there was 2 rocks. 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:47,000 He took them out. One rock was small and the other rock was bigger. 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:12,000 So he gave, he gave the young man the rocks. 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:26,000 So the Loon returned into the ocean. He said: 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:32,000 “Loon, you bring these to the ocean. Put them in the ocean. 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:37,000 The small rock, you take it and you, 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:44,000 you breathe on it, but not for long. 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:54,000 Do not breathe on it for very long, and then put it down, and fly. 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:00,000 When it is… fly all night with it.” 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:14,000 And in the night, when it becomes night, again, 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:22,000 into the ocean, put the bigger rock into the ocean. 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:29,000 You breathe on this one very long. 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:38,000 Blow on it and blow on it even more and then put this one down. 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:43,000 And he, so, just like this he, 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:47,000 he did what he was told by the old man. 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:59,000 So he took the rock and returned and he flew to the ocean 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:07,000 and he put the rock into the ocean, the small rock into the ocean. 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:21,000 And then, he took the other one and, and the small one 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:31,000 and he breathed on it a little and then he threw it. It sunk. 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:37,000 And then he flew away and… it sank… 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:46,000 and in the evening, when again he went back… 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:53,000 he went to the ocean, he went back to the ocean 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,000 and he threw the big rock. 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:03,000 He threw this big rock into the ocean and he blew on it 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:07,000 and blew on it, and he blew on it even more. 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,000 Then he put it down. 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:24,000 So there was the 2 rocks, the small rock, 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:34,000 the smaller rock is Haida Gwaii, this is how we call it. 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:45,000 The bigger rock in what the white, is, 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:54,000 became what the White people called ‘The Land Out There’ 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:59,000 or ‘The Big Island Out There’ – is how we call it. 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:07,000 But the White people call it North American continent. 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:20,000 So this person that he pulled out of his tummy, 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:26,000 the person that he made, the child that he pulled out, 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:38,000 now is a big person, an adult I suppose. 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:49,000 Now he made himself into Raven. 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:59,000 And he flew down, he was going to fly down to Haida Gwaii. 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:09,000 So he made himself into a Raven and was going to fly down… 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:13,000 getting ready to fly down, when the old man said: 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:21,000 “Don’t fly down. Like this, put your arms on your side, 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:29,000 tightly along on your side, and then throw yourself 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:34,000 and spiral down and when you… 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,000 then you will get to Haida Gwaii. 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:48,000 When you spiral down like this, you will get to somewhere 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:55,000 on Haida Gwaii and you will see some earth.” 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,000 When he got there, 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:05,000 he landed on some earth and he picked some up with his fingers. 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:28,000 And from this earth, he made humans, Haida, or people 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:36,000 he made out of that, the earth that he landed on, the Raven. 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,000 So, what, 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:53,000 what was made out of these rocks is still where we live. 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:14,000 And from the earth, he made the people. 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:32,000 And the islands, on the islands, the Haidas today are living. 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:39,000 Also, there, there was spauna, 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:45,000 a spauna that eats supernatural killer whales. 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:52,000 That’s also where we came from, from the ocean. 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:59,000 The supernatural killer whales came from the ocean. 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,000 And they’re all different. 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:13,000 Now we, we, we take their, we copy their likeness 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:24,000 and we use those, crests that we copied from the killer whales. 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:28,000 That’s what we use, certain clans use. 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:40,000 And now, Raven walking, he started… 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:48,000 After this, Raven started walking and this is how he began, 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:55,000 this was his first, this was his beginning as well. 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:07,000 He walks all over Haida Gwaii and this is how he lived. 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:17,000 This is the end of the beginning of Haida Gwaii 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:21,000 and the beginning of Raven. 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:29,000 Thank you for listening.