For two years, Secwépemc Elder Cecilia Dick DeRose worked with an author and retired journalist to chronicle her life stories.
Talking weekly with her collaborator Sage Birchwater, the two created a book filled with first hand accounts of DeRose’s experiences and knowledge of Secwépemc culture and history.
The resulting memoir, titled One Arrow Left, was released this month by DeRose and Birchwater through Caitlin Press.
DeRose hopes that her book will send a message to follow your dreams.
”Whatever your dream is — it doesn’t have to be writing a book, it could be anything — whatever is in your mind just go for it,” she said in an interview.
A personal story woven with historical accounts
Birchwater explained that the book began in 2023, when he heard from a mutual friend that DeRose was ready to . He was excited to help.
”I’ve known Cecilia for 50 years, so (I said) let’s do it,” he told Indigi蜜桃视频app.
The book begins with DeRose’s childhood memories living in Esk’et — where she was born in 1935 — with her siblings and parents. She helped on her family’s property and only spoke Secwepemctsín.
The story moves into her adolescent life where she attended the St. Joseph’s Mission (SJM) residential “school” and worked hard to keep her language.
It eventually brings readers along DeRose’s journey as an adult and through parenthood, and how she went on to teach her culture and language. Through the depth and heart of the storytelling, readers get a glimpse of the hard work and resilience embodied by DeRose throughout her remarkable life.
With Birchwater’s experience in journalism, he is able to add background and context in an engaging way to DeRose’s stories. His input includes the history of the Esk’etemc lands and information about DeRose’s family.
In one instance when DeRose is discussing her father — Matthew Dick — Birchwater includes articles from Dick’s time as a goalkeeper for Esk’etemc’s hockey team that travelled to play in “Vancouver” and is accompanied by a photo of the team.
In the book, along with the background of Matthew’s hockey was a more recent story where DeRose was able to attend a hockey game where the Alkali Braves were honoured. In 2013, the Vancouver Giants wore Alkali Braves hockey jerseys for their first home game of the season, a game which DeRose was able to attend.
Along with her family, DeRose cheered and supported the team for the commemorative game. Her daughter was able to get a few of the jerseys and DeRose still has one hanging in her living room as a reminder of her father.
DeRose credits her father as the driving force behind her passion towards language and education. She has always had a strong connection to her family and that has never wavered.
DeRose’s stories surround her life at home and the people she crossed paths with. The storytelling throughout the book is easy to follow and sure to have readers relating to her journey.
Amplifying Secwepemctsín
DeRose has been a Secwepemctsín teacher for many years, which began as a request from friends to teach the language to their communities. Even though she didn’t go to school to teach, her life and language knowledge served as her qualifications.
“Of course, one of my first jobs was to learn how to read and write Secwepemctsín. That’s one thing they never taught us in the Mission. They didn’t even have a Secwepemctsín alphabet at that time,” she writes in One Arrow Left.
Her work with the language has gained her numerous accolades including an Indspire award and an honourary doctorate, which she explores in her book.
She includes Secwépemc words in the book, which incorporate easily with the stories and showcase the importance of the language and the daily use the words have in DeRose’s life.
Today, she still enjoys hearing the young ones speaking the language and working towards that revitalization.
“I feel good when they try,” she says about the kids’ effort to use the language.
“I encourage them to learn more.”
The book includes input from DeRose’s children who reiterate her teachings about the importance of school, culture and language. With their additions in the later chapters, DeRose’s stories become a well rounded account of their home life.
To enhance the language lessons to any learners, DeRose and her son David underscore the importance of combining language and culture.
“You have to have culture with it,” DeRose said in an interview. “You can’t just have straight language.”
DeRose combined in-class lessons with on the land learning, ensuring the children could see cultural teachings up close. She taught many skills such as birchbark basket-making while on field trips and beading which was a break for the kids.
It’s a process to build up the language and David notes the way forward is through teamwork and using the best available resources which his mother did well.
“You need to develop a scope and sequence that follows the traditional and cultural development of students, so they need to take the best of Secwépemc ways of teaching and integrate it with the best of European knowledge to help develop a sequence of education to move forward,” he said.
‘We told stories’
In the book, DeRose’s daughter Dede discusses how her mother was a safe person for her students and went above and beyond in her work.
DeRose also noted that she heard from her students that they enjoyed her classes and the attention she paid to the students and the lessons.
“They liked the language class because they said it was more relaxed, and they learned more, and I listened to them more, and we told stories,” she said.
One Arrow Left was officially released on May 9 but DeRose and Birchwater held an early signing the week before.
Huddled between tourism books and merchandise at the Williams Lake Visitor Centre on May 3, DeRose and Birchwater attended a table for a signing of their book.
The book sold out on the first day of the signing the day prior, but that didn’t stop the people from coming to support. Conversation and laughter rang out from the booth as people came to celebrate and support their achievement.
The pair are continuing to sign new shipments and get them out to people as quickly as they can.
One Arrow Left is available now at in Williams Lake as well as online.
