The Tsimshian Story of the Net
In this project, artists Henry Green, Edward Bryant, Dorothy Spencer, and Amy Huestis are working with the community toward common goals. Below is Ed Bryant's shortened version of the story of the Origins of Light and how the Net was given to the People:
The Raven brought Light, which started everything to grow -- the animals and plants and stinging nettles. The net didn't develop right away. The people were still using the old ways of raking Oolichans and torchlight, working at night to work the tides. They did twice as much work at that time. A lot of people had a lot of hardships then. The people prayed and asked for help. To these people that had hardships came a spirit which showed them the ways to obtain the fibres and the manufacturing of the web mesh and taught them how to use them to catch an abundance of fishes. When that spirit left too it was in the form of a spider and from that came added benefit. Traditional peoples have forgotten the old ways and have moved on to easier technology and lost their traditional values on the ways of life. Because of more efficient nets, the rivers have been over-exploited, thus causing hardships again for the peoples who live on the Northwest Coast.
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