Culture – Nyla Carpenter

CULTURE

Nyla Carpentier

Nyla Carpentier of the Tahltan and Kaska First Nations has danced for nearly her entire life. Nyla is from the Cawtoonma family. Her parents are Lynn and Carl Carpentier, and her grandparents are Mona and Claude Carpentier. She currently resides in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Nyla danced all through her childhood and teens. She started doing performances in her schools. She moved to Yukon for the last two years of high school and there, she performed at the Commissioner’s Potlatch in Whitehorse. She really loved fancy shawl dancing. That is her favourite style to this day. The dance is said to represent the opening of a cocoon when the butterfly emerges. The shawl is usually the most extravagant piece worn. The fringed shawls are colourful, often featuring beautiful embroidery or ribbon work. The fringe on the shawl has a movement that coincides with the dancer.

In 2009, Nyla’s teaching kicked into high gear. She began dedicating more energy to her art. Up until then, Nyla taught dance movements at Powwows, but she began teaching in a classroom capacity as well as teaching workshops. She also travelled across Canada and attended as many Powwows as possible so she could to learn and experience.

Nyla is a Powwow dancer and teacher. From the moment of womb awareness, she loved the beat of drums. That’s what her family would tell her. Her parents met at a Powwow in the early 1980’s. There was a big movement at the time to start Powwows again. Her mom was involved supporting her friends and her dad was involved as well. “He had a guitar and knew how to play every song,” she shares.

Nyla started dancing at the Odawa Powwow in Nepean, Ontario when she was two years old. She has been dancing ever since for the last thirty-seven years now. When she was two, she asked, rather demanded, she cheerfully jokes, that her parents get her regalia. Family friends at the Powwow got an outfit and pieces for her to dance in. The next year she had her own outfit made just for her. She shares that growing up so far away from her family’s traditional territory, Powwow is something that she could connect to. It was open to people from all Nations. Powwow gave her an outlet to reflect her culture.

In 2011, Nyla started teaching a series of dance classes through Raven Spirit Dance Society, a contemporary Indigenous Dance company based in Vancouver, British Columbia: ravenspiritdance.com. Nyla began teaching classes called Powwow Bootcamp which combined cardio exercises with Powwow dancing. She has been teaching this series for over a decade now. During the pandemic, classes shifted online and are available by donation. Participants can register in advance or drop into the Zoom classes. Nyla loves the feeling of movement when she dances and loves teaching. She loves seeing students learn a move and create on their own.

In the last years, Nyla has started learning about her family, pursing more cultural knowledge, and learning her language. She is thankful for her family sharing knowledge and family knowledge with her. Nyla shares it has been an interesting journey, and that she is grateful to be dancing. She loves when she can visit relatives in territory, dance for them and teach them. She is also really excited to learn more Tahltan cultural dances, more songs, and embrace her cultural teachings. She shares that her family really embraces her dancing and who she is as an artist. They have been amazingly supportive. She describes her dad and grandma as her biggest supporters. Her grandma is ninety-three now.

Nyla also loves expressing herself through theatre. In one of her theater shows, she talks about her Indigenous side and family stories that were shared with her. She always tries to walk a road between her Indigenous and non-Indigenous side. Powwow, she shares, has been the way she can bridge all aspects of herself. “With everything Indigenous people have gone through and continue to go through, dancing is one way to show we are still here.”

She shares in the last years, the changes in the Tahltan Nation have meant a lot to her. With more knowledge and information coming online, more doors have opened for her. She is a new mother, and she is excited to begin teaching her daughter the language and culture in ways she was not able to connect with growing up. Her goal is to learn as much as she can about her culture and teach as much as she can to her daughter so she can be able to live it versus trying to reclaim it.

INSPIRING YOUNG TAHLTANS Ben Chief

He says he sees the positive impact business can have on people and wants to help other businesses succeed and possibly own a health and wellness business.

Baseball, volleyball, hockey, soccer, you name it, and Ben Chief has probably played it. Health and wellness have always been a huge part of his life that has helped guide his path. From playing volleyball in university to writing business proposals for health initiatives, his love for health and wellness has allowed him to pursue his largest goals.

Ben Chief is a thirty-four-year-old Tahltan man who currently lives in Nanaimo, BC. He is part of the Etzenlee family and the Wolf clan. His grandparents are Thelma (Edzerza) and Vern Norby and his parents are Nancy Norby (Quock) and Charles Chief.

Ben was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon but spent four years in Nanaimo while his mother attained her nursing degree which was a big inspiration to Ben. During high school, he participated in every sport he could and played basketball in the Western Canada games and went to nationals in grade ten. Also, he played volleyball in the Canada Games and Arctic Winter Games. After graduating, he was accepted into the Bachelor of Science program in Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus and played for the university volleyball team. Moving to Kelowna was a big change for Ben where he juggled playing volleyball, studying and university life. He accepted the challenge and completed his first year but decided to make a change and attend the University of Calgary to focus solely on school. The next three years were spent studying, working out and working at hospitals until he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology.

The Sheldon M. Shumir Medical Center is where Ben landed his first job after graduation where he worked in the kidney dialysis clinic creating fitness and nutrition plans for patients. After one year, he decided to move to Telegraph Creek to work with the Tahltan Band in multiple roles helping with people’s nutrition and rehabilitation.

After two years in this role, he decided to try something new and went diamond drilling for a year until going back to the Tahltan Band to write business proposals such as the plan for the mobile mental health support team. Writing these allowed him the freedom to work from home so he decided to move to Victoria, BC.

With a new love for business, Ben decided to re-attend school at Camosun College in Victoria where he spent a year and a half in the Business Administration program before making a change in 2018 to attend the Master of Business Administration program at Victoria Island University. This is an extremely demanding program that tested his abilities with eight course semesters, but he stayed consistent and plans to graduate in April of 2022. Upon graduation, he is going to work with KPMG in a management consultant role.

Achieving an MBA while staying healthy and working part time is no small task that can only be done with the right motivation. He says he sees the positive impact business can have on people and wants to help other businesses succeed and possibly own a health and wellness business. This inspiring young Tahltan knows what it takes to accomplish goals and says that you can accomplish anything you truly put your mind to.