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- Title: slheni’ yu kwun’et tthu shkapi’elu | Woman with Coffee Pot
- Title spoken by: Pul-hwuletse’ | Wayne Charlie
- Description: Nicely dressed woman holding a coffee (or tea) pot, walking toward a building.
hwuhwilmuhw knowledge
- Speaker/Story Teller: Sti’tuma’t | Ruby Peter (Kwa’mutsun Elder)
- Date of recording:
- Listen to the recording in Hul’q’umi’num’:
slheni’ yukwun’et tthu shtihelu | Woman carrying a coffeepot
- tu’i shxaatth’ustun, ni’ ts’u ni’ ’u kwthu ’apun ’i’ kw’ toohw lhuhwulhshe’.
This picture is from around 1930. - ’i’ yu ’i’mush thu slheni’, wuw’a’ wulh lhuhwulhshe’ ’i’ kw’ lhq’etsus ’uw’ niis xuthunlhshe’.
And there’s woman walking who is about 30 or 40 years old. - yu kwun’etus thu shtihelu, shkafi’elu.
She’s holding a teapot, coffeepot. - yu ts’i’tth’um’ … stl’iitl’uptun’.
She’s dressed in a skirt. - tl’eqt thu tl’itl’uptun’s ’i’ na’ut thulh ’uw’ yu swi’wul’ thu qwlhuy’shun’s, ’uy’uy’mut qwlhuy’shun’s.
Her skirt is long and her shoes are showing, pretty shoes. - ’e’uth tuw’ …tuw’ hwtsulhnuts.
They are high-heel shoes. - hay thu shtl’pi’wun’s tuw’ ’uy’uy’mut, tl’ulqtul’exun’.
The shirt she is wearing is pretty with long sleeves. - sts’qw’un’e’ ’i’ ’e’uth tl’eqt thu she’ituns st’um’e’shun’u.
She has on earrings and has long, braided hair. - ’i’ hwu saay’st-hwus tthu kafi ’uw’ tiis nem’ yu ’i’mushst-hwus.
And she may have been preparing tea or coffee, and that’s what she is carrying. - ’e’ut ’uw’ swi’wul’ tthu lutem.
A table is visible. - ’i’ nilh tthu ni’ yu shnu’asth st’e ’uw’ tl’e’ suw’ lelum’ ’uw’ yalhew’t-hwus.
She’s walking toward a building, maybe a woodshed. - s’a’kw’us tthu t’um’uw’luch ni’ ’u tthu t’amun.
There’s a tub hanging on the wall. - ’e’ut ’uw’ tuw’ulh s’eluhw thu lelum’, ’i’ st’e ’uw’ q’uxq’uxus tthu ni’ ’u tthu shtslhe’ult-hws.
The building, which looks very old, has a tin roof. - ’e’ut ’uw’ ni’ tthu thqet.
There’s also a tree close to it. - ’e’uth ’uw’ yu hiina’nuts’a’ ’ul’ kwus yu ’i’mush, ’uwu te’ lhwet swi’wul’.
The woman is walking by herself, there are no other people showing. - nilh ’uw’ sht’esulh ’u kw’un’a wulh hith kws ya.a.aths ’uw’ tl’e’luqt thu tl’iitl’uptun’ ha’kwushus tthu slhunlheni’.
This is how it used to be a long time ago— all the women would wear long skirts. - ’uwu stsekwul’us kws ha’kwushs kw’ swuy’qey’alh suqiws.
They never wore men’s pants. - ’uwu kws hakwushs tthu xut’ustum’ slacks ’uw’ hay thu tl’itl’uptun’.
They never wore “slacks”, only skirts. - ’i’ tun’a kweyul ni’ wulh hwu ha’kwashus tthu stl’uliqulh tthu xut’ustum’ slacks.
But today the young people wear slacks all the time. - ha’ ch thulh nem’ ’u thu thi lelum’ ’u kwun’s ’u thu thi lelum’ ’i’ skw’ey kwun’s. ’uw’ yu ha’kwush thu suqiws ’uw’ hay thu tl’itl’uptun yu ha’kwushuhw kwun’s nem’ ’u thu thi lelum’.
Except when you go to the longhouse, you can’t where pants there, you only wear skirts in the longhouse. - ’uw’ hay ni’ tuw’ yu’eeye’q ’u tun’a qe’is ’u tthu stl’ul’iqulh.
But it is changing today, some of the young people how they dress when they dress today. - ’uwu te’ nu shtatul’stuxw ’uw’ niis ’untsu tun’a, hwi’ sxuxil’stum’ kwthu kwsus ni’ ’ukw’ Siwash Reserve ’i’ ’uwu te’.
I don’t know where this picture is located, as it was labelled that this is the Siwash Reserve, but there’s no such thing.
But that’s not a proper label for us. Only Hul’q’umi’num’ people lived here. - hwunitum’ niilh hun’ut tthu hwulmuhw ’u kwthey’.
The white people called the native people that (Siwash). - ’i’ ’uwu te’ st’e ’u tthey’ hwulmuhw, ’uw’ hay tthu Hul’q’umi’num’ ’i’ ’u tun’a.
But there is no such native place–it’s only Hul’q’umi’num’ people here. - ’i’ yathulh ’uw’ tsi’ts’uw’atul’, ts’ets’uw’utus kwthu hwunitum’ kwus ’uw’ hwun’a’ tetsul ’u tthu s’ulhtuns.
The people used to help one another. We helped the white people who first arrived, providing them with food. - hay ch q’a.
Thank you.
Key information
- Time period or Date: 1930s
- Theme(s): People, Villages, Buildings
- Location: Cowichan Village
- Source info (type – name): Museum — Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives
- Photographer credit: Unknown
- Individuals identified: Not Specified
Learn more
About the Photograph
The original museum description for this image identified the person in the photograph as an “elderly siwash woman” and the location as “siwash reserve.” In the description of this photograph by the late Elder Ruby Peter, see above, she notes that there was no such place as Siwash Reserve in the Hul’q’umi’num’ homeland. The term “siwash” comes from a time when trade in the Pacific Northwest between Indigenous peoples and settlers was conducted using the Chinook Jargon.
About Chinook Jargon
Chinook Jargon was a trade language used in the 1800s and early 1900s. Based on a pre-contact trade language of Indigenous groups around the Columbia River region, the language used simplified grammar (there were no verb tenses) and simple vocabulary. When Europeans arrived, French, English, Nuu-chah-nulth, and various Salishan words were added. Chinook Jargon became widely used by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest. In 1875, for example, approximately 100,000 people could speak the language. It was used in trade, in court testimony, newspaper advertising, missionary activity, and even treaty negotiations.
In Chinook Jargon, “siwash” means Indigenous. The word comes from the French word sauvage, meaning wild. When used in the nineteenth century, the word siwash did not always have a negative meaning. By the time this photograph was taken, siwash had come to be an offensive word meaning worthless or bad.
Sources:
- Perkins, Martha, “Siwash honours Chinook language’s role in our history: author,” 2017. https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/courier-archive/news/siwash-honours-chinook-languages-role-in-our-history-author-3059677
- Powell, J.V. and Sam Sullivan, “Chinook Jargon,” 2025. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinook-jargon
Related images
Related images to come.
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