Friends, colleagues, dignitaries and the public are invited to attend a special event to honour and celebrate award-winning Tla’amin Nation elder Elsie Paul.
An Evening for Elsie is being organized to thank Paul, whose traditional name is qaʔaχstales, for decades of service to the community.
With her teachings and examples, Paul has helped build bridges between the indigenous people of Tla’amin and later settlers of the land.
Believing it was time the community reached out to thank Paul for her work, a committee including Donna Vance, Ronnie Uhlmann and Paul’s daughters Marlane Christensen and Ann Paul began organizing the celebration.
“Elsie is an important part of the living heart of the community,” said Vance. “She gives and gives with her great heart and I feel so strongly it is time we give back to her.”
Over the years, Paul has offered her time to the community, opening cultural events with traditional prayer and speaking at schools about the traditional ways of the Tla’amin people.
“She is quite an amazing person; we want to thank her,” said Vance.
Holder of an honorary doctorate from Vancouver Island University, where she worked as an elder-in-residence, Paul has also earned awards for her book, Written as I Remember It: Teachings (ʔəms taʔaw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder. In 2015 she won a Canadian Aboriginal History Book Prize as well as a Clio Lifetime Achievement Award, both awarded from the Canadian Historical Association.
Paul was also awarded the 2015 Armitage-Jameson Prize by Coalition for Western Women’s History for most outstanding monograph or edited volume published in western women’s, gender and sexuality history.
Paul earned an honourable mention for the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing in 2014.
Sponsored by City of Powell River, Powell River Regional District and Tla’amin, the free event will feature speakers Tla’amin chief Clint Williams, Tla’amin councillor and former chief Eugene Louie, former and current Powell River mayors Stewart Alsgard and Dave Formosa and Electoral Area C director Colin Palmer, who will be speaking on behalf of the regional district.
“We’ve asked them to address their comments directly to Elsie,” said Vance, “because this is for her; the community’s thank you to Elsie.”
According to Vance, the event will feature performances from Tla’amin dancers, singer Drew Blaney, Academy Chamber Choir and Powell River Chorus.
Paul, who recently found out about the evening event, is taking the news with the grace for which she is known.
“I didn’t do this for fame or fortune,” said Paul. “When you do something for people you do it out of the goodness of your own heart.”
Although the event is free, space is limited. Organizers are asking those wishing to attend to pick up tickets in advance from River City Coffee, Base Camp or Tla’amin Convenience Store.
An Evening for Elsie will be held at 7 pm, Friday, March 4, at Dwight Hall in Townsite.
