Qayqayt First Nation

The Qayqayt ( pron. ki- kait ) or New Westminster Band is a First Nations in the Metro Vancouver region in the southwest of the western Canadian province of British Columbia. They lived in what is now New Westminster, but was the tribe around 1923 so small that the reserve dissolved, dispersed the inhabitants to other tribes and the area was sold. To the family were only 9 people in August 2009.

History

A single person, it is thanks to them that this strain is again among the still existing First Nations. Rhonda Larrabee grew up in Vancouver's Chinatown. Her father was a kind Lee, her mother Marie Charlie. You always gave himself as a Frenchwoman from, but she came from a nearly extinct First Nation. She had, like all Indian children, go to a residential school, a kind of boarding school in Kamloops, while her reserve was disbanded in 1923.

Rhonda discovered at 24 that her mother had disowned their origin out of fear of racism. After her mother's death she tried this strain to have the Qayqayt First Nation revive. When she applied for the Indian state, they claimed Department of Indian Affairs in which Qayqayt would no longer exist. They had long since sold their reserve. However, after 13 months, she had her status as an Indian. In a cemetery, she discovered her mother's father's grave, in a part of the cemetery that was reserved for Indians. 1998 organized the tribe his first powwow, participates today in cultural activities and tried to get a reservation.

Only 6 men and 3 women were registered as members of the Westminster Indian Band in August 2009. The tribe has no reservation, but considers Westminster in Vancouver as his home. Chief Rhonda Larrabee is.

The Qayqayt support the establishment of the Westminster Pier Park, Larrabee is true of the Chinese community as a symbol of belonging to Canada.

Film

A Tribe of One. Rhonda Larrabee mother was not, as she had been shown us long, French and Chinese descent, but members of a First Nation, a " tribe of one". Larrabee succeeded to obtain an Indian status card. She is now a member of the Qayqayt First Nation, who wanted to escape her mother, and her chief. Documentary 2003, 38 min 49 sec

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