Musqueam

siyeýe co-founders Nolan Charles, Terry Sparrow and Kwes’ Kwestin are descended from an ancient Musqueam lineage.  Each Musqueam lineage inherits family teaching which is law for that lineage.

This practice stems from our belief in reincarnation.  Our Oral Histories are the memories of our past lives, and they become the life lesson, or law, for each lineage.  The immense body of shared laws creates laws of general application comparable to the laws developed by industrial cultures.  The unique laws of each family thread reflect ancestral or spiritual obligations carried by that lineage.

The most ancient of Musqueam memories come from before the Wisconsin Glaciation.  In Musqueam teritory the Wisconsin Glaciation ocuerred over 87,000 years ago.  Musqueam Oral Hstories are amongst the oldest in the world; consequently, Musqueam law is amongst the oldest in the world.

Important Musqueam laws of general application that come from antiquity are; all things are living things that have a spirit, all people are related – from one family, and the world is in a continuous state of transition.  These particular laws have been taught in an unbroken chain for more than one hundred thousand years.  Some of these laws were once shared by the ancestors of industrial people; but were lost when our lineages diverged.  The Musqueam language is hən̓q̓əmin̓əm.

With the advent of colonization Musqueam law, language and culture were brutally suppressed.  Canada ceased to recognise Musqueam as a nation, and created puppet governments under the Indian Act called “Band Councils”.  Within Musqueam Nation our traditional government is superior to the Band Council imposed by the Indian Act.  With the adoption by Canada of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples traditional Musqueam people  seek to redress this imbalance.

Teaching Modules

12 Modules were developed by Kwes’ Kwestin to help educate siyeýe employees on the history of Aboriginal peoples and Indigenous laws.