Filmmaker Charles Wilkinson gives viewers an immersive look at that potlatch, a jubilant gathering that finds the member | dG1fcnhaWkZZNHZxZDA
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00:00Washlets, as we call it in Haida, has been in practice long before contact, up and down
00:17the coast, from Alaska down to Washington, for many generations.
00:23It is our supreme court.
00:27Washlets is our word for potlatch.
00:44In October of 2018, we went up to Heidelberg, Alaska to participate in a potlatch or a gya'asla
00:53that my father was hosting up there with his wife, Terri Lynn.
00:57My father tells stories about, in the old times, when they traveled directly from Old
01:03Masset to Heidelberg, and they would take the boat, so there is a close connection between
01:07those two communities, geographically.
01:11Potlatches are a place to bring out our history.
01:15They bring us back to certain time periods, certain moments in our history when we acquired
01:20the right to wear a certain crest.
01:22And so potlatches are a place to bring out those privileges.
01:28I like to use the word privilege instead of right, because a privilege can be taken away.
01:33And so I personally may have a privilege to wear a certain crest, and my clan has those
01:38privileges.
01:40And I might be privileged to have responsibilities to certain areas.
01:44If I don't uphold those responsibilities, then I lose that privilege.
01:48It's very different from a right in Canadian society, where you purchase a right to own
01:53a certain property, and that's your property to do whatever you want with it until the
01:57end of time.
01:59But our privileges carry with them responsibilities.
02:02They're not outright rights, but they're a responsibility to take care of the place,
02:06and that's where art becomes really important, because it ties us back to the place, it ties
02:11us back to Haida Gwaii, and it ties us back to our responsibilities to take care of those
02:17islands.