Kiyoshi Hayter Kosky
The video is Royston Estuary in Comox Valley which is where I live and work. I intentionally coloured the title red and white. The first half of my title, “Indigenous Ally”, is colored red to symbolize Indigenous red space. The other half of the title, “Witness”, symbolizes me as white space. The red and white space in my spoken letter title is inspired by Armand Garnet Ruffo’s poems Red Space and White Space.
The reason I chose witness as a title and theme stems from my career working with Indigenous partners in the Sea to Sky School District. I was elected to my C.U.P.E union executive. The C.U.P.E union executive was a signature on an enhancement agreement between Lil’wat Nation, Squamish Nation, and the school district. During the enhancement agreement ceremony, I was taught by the Lil’wat Nation and Squamish Nation to be a witness in this process. It was my job to carry the story forward to people. I was to act in an Indigenous way of knowing.
The Indigenous person dying from health care racism recently occurred. It articulates the tremendous amount of work in health care required to stop systemic racism. The health care system must incorporate Indigenous physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental ways of knowing which will reduce racism.
I chose to educate myself on medicine from plants in Royston Estuary, so I could honour Indigenous culture in health. As a settler, I must demonstrate my gratitude to Indigenous ways of knowing; by knowing the medicine plants where I live and work. I must speak out against racism in health care. I must advocate for Indigenous solutions and their power to decide their own models of health care.
The quote at the end of the spoken letter reflects how the Earth loves you by how it can heal humans and how humans can protect the medicine it holds. The bond between human and Mother Earth is interconnected and is worth more than destroying its healing medicine.
The last title in the spoken letter is, “I am a Witness” and it has become red. This symbolises my white space at the beginning of the spoken letter in the title, “Witness”, being filled with red space at the end of the spoken letter, so I can truly be a strong ally to Indigenous people in the health care system. All my relations.
