Attendees from Fraser Health, RCMP, Victim services, Fraser Region BC Coroner Services, Ministry of Child Family Development and other health service providers were welcomed with an opening prayer by local Elder, Charon Spinks. Throughout the workshop, both Willie Charlie, Cultural Ceremonies and Traditions spokesperson, and BC Coroner Liana Wright offered insight and historical guidelines around death protocol in each of their respective Communities.
Along with a brief history of the Coast Salish People, and the importance of the cultural knowledge that has been handed down through generations, Willie Charlie talked about the five stages of life: Childhood, Youth, Adulthood, Elder years and Death. Willie also mentioned that when a Fraser Salish family is experiencing the loss of a loved one, they will usually have a speaker or representative work with service providers to alleviate the extra strain this puts on the family. The speaker who represents the family will help throughout the end-of-life process, working with both the family and service providers to ensure that family beliefs are held, such as the importance of having a burial at least 4 days from the time of death as it is customary not to keep the gateway open longer than needed. These small but important traditions are crucial to share with neighboring communities and service providers to ensure that we can bridge the gap between our communities and service providers.
Liana Wright from the Coroners Office shared some history about the roles and responsibilities of a corner over the past thousand years.
We will continue to work with one another to have a better understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities and how we can bridge the service-delivery gap in our communities while respecting each other’s work and finding a good balance between these two belief systems.