Discover Rooted in Place: Indigenous Resilience and W̱SÁNEĆ Resurgence!

All the Latest - with great humility this was created by Ayesha Anderson GNDR 346

IY SCÁĆEL SIAM NE SCÁLEĆE (I scwaycel siam nuschalatcha), ESE, Ayesha. Good day respected one(s), my name is Ayesha. Welcome to Rooted in Place: Going Beyond Land Acknowledgment - Indigenous Resilience and Resistance, my passion project exploring W̱SÁNEĆ place, relationality, resurgence, and Indigenous storytelling on Vancouver Island, BC. Inspired by Indigenous teachings, land-based knowledge systems, and artists such as Tania Willard, this project explores place as living, interconnected, and deeply rooted in memory, language, identity, governance, and community. Through original artwork, reflections, oral teachings, and research, this website moves beyond performative land acknowledgment to explore Indigenous survivance, healing, resistance, and relationships to land across past, present, and future generations. Explore my site and all that it has to offer; perhaps Rooted in Place will ignite your own reflections, connections, and understanding of Indigenous relationships to land and place.

IYES SEN CNES ALE (ee essen cunas etla) - I am happy to be here.

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A Million Chips Falling as “Tears for Our Children”

Figure 2 Robertson, J. (2026). A million chips falling as “Tears for Our Children” [Wood carving]. Created in memory of the Indigenous children who never returned home from residential schools. Photograph shared with permission of Master Carver Grizzlybear Ma'llas Jackson Robertson. Within Indigenous understandings of place, home is not simply geographic location. Home can exist through memory, ceremony, language, family, spirit, and relationships to land carried acr

Ayesha Anderson

7 days ago2 min read

Rooted in Place: The W̱SÁNEĆ Wellness Tree

Figure 1. Rooted in Place: The W̱SÁNEĆ Wellness Tree. Original artwork exploring Indigenous wellness, relationality, land-based pedagogy, resurgence, and W̱SÁNEĆ relationships to place. Created by Ayesha Anderson (2026). This original artwork was created as part of my exploration of place, Indigenous resurgence, relational accountability, and land-based wellness within W̱SÁNEĆ territory. Inspired by Indigenous teachings, land-based knowledge systems, and artists su

Ayesha Anderson

May 263 min read

Forever Loved, Forever Remembered: Place, Memory, and Residential School Sites...

Place carries memory. Across Canada, former residential school sites have become places of mourning, remembrance, truth-telling, and resistance. The announcement by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops, British Columbia regarding the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children forced many Canadians to confront the ongoing realities of colonial violence embedded within both history and landscape. For Indigenous peoples, these residential school

Ayesha Anderson

May 192 min read

Place Beyond Land Acknowledgment...

Place is more than geography. Land carries memory, language, spirituality, governance, and relationships that continue across generations. For Indigenous peoples, place is living, relational, and deeply connected to identity, culture, and community. If we are honest, although the recognition of land is an important acknowledgment of the centuries of attempted genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada, it can become an inadequate gesture without genuine action and reci

Ayesha Anderson

May 192 min read

Place, Colonialism, and Cultural Genocide in Indigenous Communities

The idea of cultural genocide is particularly important to Indigenous people of Canada because there has been and still exists mass cultural genocide, murders, or cases of direct physical destruction of our people. Place carries memory, language, spirituality, governance, and relationships that continue across generations. For Indigenous peoples, colonialism did not simply impose political control; it disrupted relationships to land, community, language, ceremony, an

Ayesha Anderson

May 194 min read

Place, Language, and Memory in W̱SÁNEĆ Territory

“It appals us that the West can desire, extract and claim ownership of our ways of knowing, our imagery, the things we create and produce, and then simultaneously reject the people who created and developed those ideas and seek to deny them further opportunities to be creators of their own culture and own nations” (Tuhiwai-Smith, 2021, p.1). Place is more than geography. Within W̱SÁNEĆ territory, land carries language, memory, spirituality, law, governance, and ances

Ayesha Anderson

May 195 min read

SṈIDȻEȽ: Indigenous Resistance, Memory, and W̱SÁNEĆ Resurgence

Place carries memory, ancestors, governance, and relationships that continue across generations. Within W̱SÁNEĆ territory, sacred places such as SṈIDȻEȽ are not simply locations on a map, but living sites of history, ceremony, resistance, and Indigenous presence. Colonialism has reshaped these lands physically, politically, and spiritually, yet W̱SÁNEĆ peoples continue to resist colonial encroachment and maintain relationships to these sacred places. The encroachment

Ayesha Anderson

May 195 min read

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Discover Rooted in Place: Indigenous Resilience and W̱SÁNEĆ Resurgence!

A Million Chips Falling as “Tears for Our Children”

Rooted in Place: The W̱SÁNEĆ Wellness Tree

Forever Loved, Forever Remembered: Place, Memory, and Residential School Sites...

Place Beyond Land Acknowledgment...

Place, Colonialism, and Cultural Genocide in Indigenous Communities

Place, Language, and Memory in W̱SÁNEĆ Territory

SṈIDȻEȽ: Indigenous Resistance, Memory, and W̱SÁNEĆ Resurgence

Contact

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