WEBVTT

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The creation of Haida Gwaii (Haida)

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This is how the Islands came out, came up and out.

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This is the story I’m going to tell.

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This was told to me GwaaGanad Diane Brown by James Young.

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I’ll start in English now.

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This is the story of how Haida Gwaii came to be

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how it came out of… up and out of the Ocean. 

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A long, long time ago, the loon was in the water swimming. 

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There was no land to be seen. Many, many nights he swam.

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No land was to be seen. And then he looked upwards.

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When he looked up and saw clouds, only clouds.

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So he flew up to the clouds.He flew up

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into the clouds, and in the clouds was a Haida House, sitting there. 

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He saw this. So just like that, he sat beside… 

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he sat outside the Haida House and he made himself

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into a human and walked into the House.

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Inside the House, he saw two rocks, lying. He saw them burning.

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Beside these burning rocks, there was an old man with white hair.

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He was sleeping there on his back.

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He walked around the fire and he thought: “Oh, I think I’ll wake him”

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But not, but he did not move, even a little. 

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He did not move, so again, he went outside, he walked outside. 

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Like the loon… the loon, cries out.

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How this loon cries out, that is still to this day is how they cry.

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So outside, he was crying out.

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All day, he did this crying, loon cry. 

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Night time, it became, and he walked into the House;

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still the old man never moved, not even a little. 

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He was sleeping on his back. So he went outside again.

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He returned back outside. He was sitting outside,

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when again he started to cry. All night he cried. 

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Now dawn came. When dawn came,

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he went in the House and the old man still had not moved.

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He went back outside and he cried.

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This went on for three nights. He cried, he cried.

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And then the door opened, the old man walked out of the door.

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“What are you crying for?

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What are you walking around crying for?” He said to him.

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“I can’t sleep, it’s not possible for me to sleep.

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I can’t sleep at all. The way you’re crying around all the time.”

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So Loon said back to him: “I came from down there,

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and there, nowhere is there land, only ocean. 

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There’s only ocean there. Ocean is the only thing there.”

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He said to the old man.

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“Come in.”

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So just like that, he walked in after the old man.

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And where the old man was lying is where they sat.

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The old man started to rub his tummy in circular motions

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and in a while, he pulled out a child… a child, he pulled out.

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And he put him on the ground, the earth.

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And he stepped on the child’s feet 

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and he started pulling him up, upwards.

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He pulled him upwards and then he got so tall, just so tall or big.

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And then he went even more, he pulled him, to be even more tall.

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He was taller than the Haida, the humans. He said: 

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“I’m going to make you taller than the Haida,

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than the people, Chief.” Is what he said to him.

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So he turned him around and around and then he really liked,

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he liked what he had created a lot. Then he said to him:

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“Behind me, there’s boxes.” He told, told him.

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“Could you get the box.” So like that, the young man

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that he just created went behind him and got the box.

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So he walked out with the box, put it in front of the old man,

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and the old man opened it. 

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Inside was another box.He took that box out,

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and in that box was another box that he opened.

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And he put that box out and opened it.

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Inside that box, was another box.

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And he pulled this box out. And in that box…

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all together, there was 5 boxes inside of each other.

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And in the last box, inside the last box, there was 2 rocks.

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He took them out. One rock was small and the other rock was bigger.

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So he gave, he gave the young man the rocks. 

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So the Loon returned into the ocean. He said:

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“Loon, you bring these to the ocean. Put them in the ocean.

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The small rock, you take it and you, 

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you breathe on it, but not for long.

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Do not breathe on it for very long, and then put it down, and fly.

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When it is… fly all night with it.”

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And in the night, when it becomes night, again,

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into the ocean, put the bigger rock into the ocean.

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You breathe on this one very long.

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Blow on it and blow on it even more and then put this one down.

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And he, so, just like this he,

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he did what he was told by the old man.

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So he took the rock and returned and he flew to the ocean

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and he put the rock into the ocean, the small rock into the ocean.

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And then, he took the other one and, and the small one

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and he breathed on it a little and then he threw it. It sunk.

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And then he flew away and… it sank…

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and in the evening, when again he went back… 

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he went to the ocean, he went back to the ocean

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and he threw the big rock.

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He threw this big rock into the ocean and he blew on it

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and blew on it, and he blew on it even more.

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Then he put it down.

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So there was the 2 rocks, the small rock,

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the smaller rock is Haida Gwaii, this is how we call it.

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The bigger rock in what the white, is,

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became what the White people called ‘The Land Out There’

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or ‘The Big Island Out There’ – is how we call it.

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But the White people call it North American continent.

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So this person that he pulled out of his tummy,

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the person that he made, the child that he pulled out,

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now is a big person, an adult I suppose.

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Now he made himself into Raven.

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And he flew down, he was going to fly down to Haida Gwaii.

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So he made himself into a Raven and was going to fly down…

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getting ready to fly down, when the old man said:

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“Don’t fly down. Like this, put your arms on your side,

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tightly along on your side, and then throw yourself

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and spiral down and when you…

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then you will get to Haida Gwaii.

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When you spiral down like this, you will get to somewhere

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on Haida Gwaii and you will see some earth.”

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When he got there,

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he landed on some earth and he picked some up with his fingers.

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And from this earth, he made humans, Haida, or people

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he made out of that, the earth that he landed on, the Raven.

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So, what,

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what was made out of these rocks is still where we live.

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And from the earth, he made the people.

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And the islands, on the islands, the Haidas today are living.

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Also, there, there was spauna,

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a spauna that eats supernatural killer whales.

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That’s also where we came from, from the ocean.

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The supernatural killer whales came from the ocean.

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And they’re all different.

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Now we, we, we take their, we copy their likeness

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and we use those, crests that we copied from the killer whales.

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That’s what we use, certain clans use.

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And now, Raven walking, he started…

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After this, Raven started walking and this is how he began,

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this was his first, this was his beginning as well.

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He walks all over Haida Gwaii and this is how he lived.

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This is the end of the beginning of Haida Gwaii

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and the beginning of Raven.

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Thank you for listening.