It's not easy to promote a West Coast book with an unpronounceable title from an Alberta-based publisher.

But that didn't prevent the authors of Xweliqwiya from having an unforgettable launch in Sardis, at Coqualeetza, near Chilliwack, to celebrate Stó:lo matriarch, artist and craftswoman Rena Point Bolton's lifelong struggle against cultural silencing.

Co-authored with friend and ethnologist Richard Daly, Bolton's autobiographical Xweliqwiya, The Life Story of a Stó:lo Matriarch (Athabasca University Press $34.95) was not printed until the annual Stó:lo Nation winter dance mi'lha season had already begun, so everyone took a break from initiation work-the training of new spirit possession initiates-to honour the mother of ten children for her key role in fostering Stó:lo customs and knowledge on November 7 at the new Stó:lo Research and Culture Centre.

The Point family provided drummers, singers and dancers, served smoked chum and sockeye, bannock, salads and finger foods, tea and coffee, for more than one hundred well-wishers and admirers. After Daly showed a five-minute video interview with Rena made by the BC Achievement Foundation, he explained how he had gradually co-wrote the book with Rena, from 1989 onwards.

Daly also read two pages from her book that described how she was brainwashed at residential school, "coming out ready to march off to India as a missionary."; Then Rena spoke and explained the name she holds, Xweliqwiya, meaning Flesh-eating Wolf Mother.

Much to Daly's surprise, she revealed she no longer retains the name, having recently passed it along to her grandchildren's generation. Instead she has taken the name of Mrs. August Jim, keeper of the sacred sxwoyxwey cult back in the era of the pioneering, UBC-based anthropologist Wilson Duff.

Later in the evening Rena explained Xweliqwiya's right to subject all babies whose mothers claimed the father was from Rena's wolf family to the test of being offered to the wolf mother on Sumas Mountain. If the girl told the truth the baby was licked, if not, it was eaten.

It's that type of knowledge that Rena Point Bolton is renowned for preserving on behalf of the Stó:lo, or Xwélmexw, as they call themselves today.

The book recounts Point Bolton's youth on the banks of the Fraser River during the Depression, a period when the Canadian government persecuted her people and cultural activities were mostly done in secret. Her mother and grandmother educated her in traditional skills as well as the songs of her people. Later Point Bolton made it her duty to revive Stó:lo practices as a teacher and activist.

For decades, Point Bolton has visited many communities and worked with federal, provincial, and First Nations politicians to rekindle knowledge of, and interest in, Aboriginal art. Her life story is a memoir, an oral history and an "insider"; ethnography that Daly and Point Bolton hope will inspire others to use traditional knowledge to foster successful and creative lives.

9781927356562

[Alan Twigg / BCBW 2014]