The WLC is pleased to welcome ŚW̱,XELOSELWET Tiffany Joseph to the team!

Learn more about Tiffany and how her expertise and training will help fulfill the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council’s mandate. Click play to view the short interview, or read the transcript below.

Interviewer:
All right. Can you please tell us your name and your background, please?

Tiffany Joseph:

ÍY, SȻÁĆEL

ŚW̱,XELOSELWET ŦE NE SNÁ. ĆSE LÁ,E SEN EṮ W̱SÁNEĆ I EṮ Sḵx̱wu7mesh

Good day, my name is Tiffany Joseph I am W̱SÁNEĆ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and I’m also Quw’utsun.

I have some background in environmental-related work, as well as SENĆOŦEN language, which I started learning in 2015.

Interviewer:
Thank you so much. Can you please tell us what is your role at the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council and what are you going to be doing there?

Tiffany Joseph:
My title is GIS Planning Coordinator, so I’ll be working under Shauna Johnson who’s the Marine Planner and we’ll be doing work making some maps among other things.

Interviewer:
So when you talk about making some maps, what projects are these maps for or what kind of projects are the maps? What’s the intention of the maps? What are they supposed to be doing?

Tiffany Joseph:
So I’ve been in one meeting so far and I’ll be in one after our call about the different maps we’ll be making. But we were asked about different things we were interested in mapping in a meeting working with Firelight and those are the people who will be mentoring me to learn how to use QGIS to be able to make principle maps that would be used for reports to the community. It’s just identifying things like agricultural locations and old-growth within our territories and basically being able to see the W̱SÁNEĆ territory without the imposed borders of the Canada-US lines and without perhaps any other boundaries, but we’ll also include identifying different municipalities, different provincial jurisdictions so that we know the different people in government that the leadership will need to consult with. I’m sure many community members know the experience of something happening. Could be on our reserve or adjacent to our reserve. And we talked to somebody in the band and it’s not within their jurisdiction. So there’s a multitude of spaces just besides the reserve where needing to know which form of colonial government considers that space, their jurisdiction, that information is really needed to effectively
steward the W̱SÁNEĆ territory.

Interviewer:
And how long are you going to be working on this project?

Tiffany Joseph:
My contract is for one year and it’s currently part-time. But if I do a good job I’m sure they’ll be doing everything they can to keep me employed. They’re already discussing those opportunities and the ways they can find the funding for it. So I’m grateful that the leadership council, once they are finding good candidates to work for different obs that are W̱SÁNEĆ people that they’re really prioritizing, build up people’s capacity to be able to serve the territory in a good way.

Interviewer:
Definitely. So what would be your ideal outcome at the end of the year?

Tiffany Joseph:
I’m really looking forward to making the maps, being able to see the multitude of layers that we could consider when we’re out on our territories. When we’re out and recognizing who are the people responsible when something goes wrong – drastic things like an oil spill, but if people are putting up docs and are helping empower people to know how to care for the land and the water, the sea, and being able to get engaged with the community, support Shauna in that engagement with the community and really build our community’s capacity to understand perhaps not understand but be able to assert our belonging to the W̱SÁNEĆ territories, including all the beaches, including the waterways. Because I know a lot of our relatives have expressed that they haven’t felt that sense that we are treated as if we belong in our territory. So that’s a tragedy and it’s something that no W̱SÁNEĆ person should feel. So I’m looking forward to that being something that we have a greater sense of belonging, a greater sense of knowing. We can care for our territories in ways that really resonate with us as W̱SÁNEĆ people.

Interviewer:
All right. Thank you for that. So when you’re not at work and working, what do you do for fun or during your spare time?

Tiffany Joseph:
Well, we are in mandatory self-isolation times. But I do like watching Netflix with my kids. I usually try to get them to spend time together by sitting around watching shows that we like. So all three of my kids enjoy Avatar, The Last Airbender. It’s something I watched before I had kids. And currently, me and my daughter are watching a show called One Day At A Time. And it’s really good. It’s a good opportunity for quality time with family.

Interviewer:
Fantastic. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Tiffany Joseph:
Thank you.

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