Re-imagining S’ólh Téméxw: tunnel narratives in a Stó:lo spiritual geography
Date
2010-08-24T22:25:43Z
Authors
Robbins, Margaret Louise
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Abstract
Stories exist throughout S’olh Téméxw, the traditional territory of the Stó:lõ people in
the Lower Fraser Valley of British Columbia, of subterranean tunnels connecting
disparate locations. These stories, recounted in archival records and by contemporary Stó:lõ community members, provide a gateway into Stó:lõ spiritual connections to place.
Through the tunnels, I will explore the complexities of a subterraneous spiritual
geography – what is significant about the tunnel stories and what they can say about the way that Stó:lõ people relate to the place world of the valley. Central to this thesis is ideas of imagining and re-imagining space. Through the exploration of the tunnel stories, and the complex and often cross-cultural research relationships that they are recounted in, I hope to show that the connections the tunnels provide can bring distant places, both physical and mental, together in a social imagination. This thesis focuses on the relationships that the tunnel narratives describe – relationships between people and places, researchers and storytellers, physical and metaphysical landscapes, and cultural ways of imagining the space of the valley.
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Keywords
Stó:lõ First Nation, Spiritual Geography, Tunnels, Narratives